A Study On The Influence Of Vocabulary Knowledge Over Senior High School Students' English Writing

The cultivation of students' writing skill enjoys top priority in English teaching,and it is an essential indicator for assessing learners' English proficiency.English writing is influenced by many factors,and vocabulary knowledge is cited as one of the most crucial ones.Although the essential role of vocabulary knowledge has been widely acknowledged,how dimensions of vocabulary knowledge interactively influence learners' writing performance has not been thoroughly explored.Vocabulary knowledge is multidimensional,while previous researches largely focused on the effects of vocabulary breadth on writing.Therefore,in order to reach a more comprehensive picture of the contributory role of vocabulary knowledge in writing,the present research,based on Qian's(2002)and Ma Guanghui's(2007)vocabulary knowledge frameworks,is to explore the effects of three dimensions of vocabulary knowledge,namely vocabulary breadth,vocabulary depth and meta-vocabulary knowledge,on English writing of Chinese senior high school students.This paper seeks to address the following questions:(1)Are vocabulary breadth,vocabulary depth and meta-vocabulary knowledge all significantly related to English writing?(2)To what degree can vocabulary breadth,vocabulary depth and meta-vocabulary knowledge predict the variance of the score of English writing?(3)Are there any differences between high-level and low-level English writing groups in the three dimensions of vocabulary knowledge?The study consists of three tests and one questionnaire.SPSS 13.0 was employed for data analysis.Pearson correlation analysis,stepwise regression analysis and independent samples t-test were made.The major findings were as follows:(1)All the three dimensions of vocabulary knowledge have a close relationship with English writing,and vocabulary depth has the closest relationship with English writing.Additionally,the three dimensions of vocabulary knowledge are inter-connected.(2)Vocabulary breadth,vocabulary depth and meta-vocabulary knowledge all play a significant role in predicting English writing.Vocabulary depth has the highest predicting power,followed by vocabulary breadth,and meta-vocabulary knowledge is the weakestpredictor.Vocabulary depth,vocabulary breadth and meta-vocabulary knowledge as a whole can predict 48.4% of the variance of English writing.(3)Significant differences do exist in vocabulary breadth,vocabulary depth and meta-vocabulary knowledge between high-level and low-level English writing groups.Theoretically,this research enriches vocabulary knowledge theories and figures out the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and English writing.Practically,it recommends that all the three dimensions of vocabulary knowledge be taken into consideration when assessing students' vocabulary knowledge.Vocabulary instruction ought to be subtly combined with the teaching of English writing.