An Application Study Of English Paraphrase-based Method In Senior High School English Synonym Teaching

Vocabulary learning is an important part of language learning,which plays a critical role in the input and output of language and culture.There are a large number of synonyms in English vocabulary and students are often confused when learning these words with similar meaning.According to the requirements of The English curriculum standard for senior high school(2017 Edition),students should master the ability of paraphrasing.English paraphrase in this paper refers to using simple,familiar and frequently used words to explain complex,unknown and obscure words so as to achieve better understanding.In this case,students can understand the meaning of new words according to their existed knowledge,which ensures students acquire comprehensible input.At the same time,by comparing the usage of different synonymous vocabulary,students can have a clearer schema about one specific word.Therefore,Based on the schema theory and input hypothesis,this study applied English paraphrase-based method in senior high school English synonym teaching,mainly aims to examine the effect of English paraphrase-based method on students' vocabulary acquisition.Nation(1990)divided the vocabulary knowledge into receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary.Reception and production refer to learners' ability to understand and produce language in the process ofsecond language acquisition.That is,receptive vocabulary is the vocabulary used in receptive language activities,i.e.listening and reading.It can also be interpreted as learners' ability to understand specific meaning of vocabulary accurately in certain context.Productive vocabulary is the vocabulary used in productive language activities,i.e.speaking and writing.In other words,productive vocabulary refers to learners' ability to use words freely to express intended meaning.Based on this,the specific research questions in this study are as follows:1)What is the effect of English paraphrase-based method on students' acquisition of receptive vocabulary in senior high school English synonym teaching?2)What is the effect of English paraphrase-based method on students' acquisition of productive vocabulary in senior high school English synonym teaching?In this study,two parallel classes of Senior Grade Two in a senior high school in Changsha,Hunan Province were chosen as the research subjects in a 16-week teaching experiment.The experimental class adopted English paraphrase-based method in English synonym teaching and the control class used traditional vocabulary teaching method.The author conducted two vocabulary tests in two classes at the beginning and end of the semester.The pretest and posttest papers were adapted from the National Matriculation English Test and Practical English Test forColleges Level A.SPSS 20.0 software was used to analyze the experimental data.The major findings are as follows: 1)English paraphrase-based method has positive effect on students' acquisition of receptive vocabulary in senior high school English synonym teaching.2)English paraphrase-based method has positive effect on students' acquisition of productive vocabulary in senior high school English synonym teaching.These findings indicate that students in both the experimental class and control class have improved their vocabulary ability.However,the improvement of students in the experimental class is significantly greater than that in the control class.Therefore,compared with traditional vocabulary teaching method,English paraphrase-based method is more conductive to students' vocabulary acquisition.