The Application Of Frame Semantics Theory To English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School

Being regarded as the building material of language,vocabulary is deserved to be concentrated on by language researchers and learners.As Wilkins,a famous British linguist,says “Without grammar,very little can be conveyed;without vocabulary,nothing can be conveyed”(1972:111).Therefore,many linguists suggest that we should give priority to vocabulary teaching in the second language acquisition.While,the real condition is that most senior high school students cannot learn vocabulary well influenced by the traditional vocabulary teaching method.Although,they have spent enough time memorizing and exercising vocabularies,they cannot understand them deeply.Besides,they are easily to forget these vocabularies and cannot output them well.In this thesis,the researcher wishes to explore a new vocabulary teaching model to solve this problem,that is,applying the Frame Semantics Theory to English vocabulary teaching in China.While teaching English vocabulary,teachers can help students define the frame types involved in sentences,analyze the involved frame elements,and carry out a frame description through using some basic notions of Frame Semantics Theory,such as “frame”,“prototype” and profile.Thus students can deepen their understanding and memory of vocabulary,and produce vocabulary more actively in different contexts.As most research on Frame Semantics Theory stays at the theoretical research level at present,this study benefits a lot to supplement more empirical evidence on this theory.In order to know whether this vocabulary teaching model is applicable or not,the researcher conducted an experiment in a senior high school in Nanjing and aimed to answer the following three questions:1.What effects does the English vocabulary teaching model based on Frame Semantics Theory have on understanding vocabularies for senior high students?2.What effects does the English vocabulary teaching model based on Frame Semantics Theory have on memorizing vocabularies for senior high school students?3.What effects does the English vocabulary teaching model based on Frame Semantics Theory have on outputting vocabularies for senior high school students?In the experiment,the researcher selected two classes in Grade one with the same language level and vocabulary level,and invited the same English teacher to teach them the same target words.However,one class adapted the traditional vocabulary teaching method,and the other adapted the vocabulary teaching model based on Frame Semantics Theory.After the experiment,the researcher used software SPSS21.0 to analyze the experimental statistics.After the three-month experiment,three major findings can be concluded as below.1)The vocabulary teaching model based on Frame Semantics Theory promotes students' understanding of vocabulary to a greet degree.Under its guidance,students can dig out the extended meaning beyond the vocabulary,guess words' meaning according to the involved frames,and differentiate synonyms in different frames.2)The vocabulary teaching model based on Frame Semantics Theory nearly has no effect on memorizing vocabulary.Compared with students in the control class,students in the experimental class didn't behave better.Although the result of the experiment doesn't correspond with our previous hypothesis,we still cannot ignore the positive effects this teaching model brings into memorizing vocabulary.3)The vocabulary teaching model based on Frame Semantics Theory has improved students the ability to output vocabulary creatively.Under its guidance,students can enlarge their vocabulary size,expand their vocabulary depth,and gradually have the sense to composite writings based on their prior experience.In this thesis,the researcher also concluded several pedagogical implications for teachers and students: Teachers should take more effects to study the Frame Semantics Theory to design better teaching plans;Teachers should choose active words while selecting the target words as much as possible.Teachers should explain the frames that words belong to more simply and vividly;Teachers should improve this vocabulary teaching model on the basis of their teaching experiences;Students should increase their motivation in learning English vocabulary,and be active to learn vocabulary under the guidance of Frame Semantics Theory;Students should cultivate their sense of self-teaching with the help of Berkeley Frame Net project.