A Study On The Application Of Narrative Approach In Junior High School English Vocabulary Teaching

Having a good command of vocabulary is the foundation of learning English well.The Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standards(2011)require students to master at least 1500-1600 words by the time they graduate from junior high school.However,the current situation of English vocabulary teaching in junior high school is not optimistic.Narrative approach,which advocates teaching language with the help of narrative in the process of teaching,has been highlighted in recent years.Based on the current situation of vocabulary teaching,this study attempts to explore the effect of narrative approach in English vocabulary teaching through experiment in a junior high school.The influence of this method on students' English vocabulary learning is studied from four aspects: their vocabulary dictation achievements,English comprehensive achievements,and the changes on their vocabulary learning attitude and the use of vocabulary learning strategies.This study aims to answer the following research questions:(1)What is the effect of narrative approach on junior high school students' English vocabulary dictation achievements?(2)What is the effect of narrative approach on junior high school students' English comprehensive performance?(3)What is the effect of narrative approach on junior high school students' English vocabulary learning attitude and the use of the vocabulary learning strategies?In this study,the participants are from Grade Eight,Class 1701 and Class 1702 of Wutai Longquan Middle School in Xinzhou City,Shanxi Province,the two classes are randomly assigned as an experimental class and a control class for a semester of English vocabulary teaching experiment.Before the experiment,the author conducted a questionnaire survey,an English vocabulary dictation test and an integrated English test in both of the experimental class(EC)and the control class(CC)to investigate students' vocabulary learning attitude and strategies,and the vocabulary dictation achievements as well as their comprehensive achievements.In the experiment,the author used narrative approach in EC,and traditional teaching method in CC.At the end of the experiment,the vocabulary learning situation questionnaire and the English vocabulary dictation test and the integrated English test were issued to the two classes,so as to investigate the changes of the students' vocabulary learning attitude and the use of vocabulary learning strategies,and the vocabulary dictation achievements,as well as the changes of comprehensive English achievements after a semester of study.At the same time,the author interviewed six students in EC in order to have a deeper understanding of their attitudes and views on the narrative approach.The data analysis of this study consists of three parts.First of all,the students' English vocabulary dictation scores and comprehensive English scores before and after the experiment are analyzed to understand the changes of their ability to recognize and write vocabulary and English learning.Secondly,the questionnaires on students' English vocabulary learning situation before and after the experiment are analyzed to understand their changes on vocabulary learning attitudes and the use of the vocabulary learning strategies.Finally,the interview data in EC is analyzed in order to understand the students' attitude to narrative approach.The results show that: 1.Narrative approach plays a significant role in improving students' English vocabulary dictation achievements.2.Narrative approach plays a significant role in improving the comprehensive English scores of students.3.Narrative approach can bring changes on students' vocabulary learning attitude and the use of the vocabulary learning strategies by stimulating students' interest and enhancing their confidence in English vocabulary learning.The results show that compared with traditional vocabulary teaching method,narrative approach is an efficient vocabulary learning method.By applying this method to English vocabulary teaching,it can not only improve students' vocabulary dictation achievements and English comprehensive achievements,but also improve students' awareness of using vocabulary learning strategies and their attitude to vocabulary learning.