An Action Research On English Vocabulary Teaching Of Primary School Based On Cultural Schema Theory

Since the schema theory was put forward,many scholars at home and abroad have discussed learners’ problems in English vocabulary learning based on the theory,and have demonstrated that vocabulary is a reflection of culture,and cultural knowledge plays an unignorable role in vocabulary teaching.Unfortunately,there is a lack of relevant research regarding primary school students as research subjects.Therefore,the paper combines cultural schema theory with primary school English vocabulary teaching,aiming to explore an effective teaching mode for applying cultural schema theory to English vocabulary teaching,and to probe the effects of cultural schema theory applied to primary English vocabulary teaching,thus further promoting the primary school students’ interest in English learning and enhancing intercultural communicative awareness.The author takes the students from Grade Five of a primary school in Zunyi as the research subjects,and an action research is conducted on English vocabulary teaching of primary school based on cultural schema theory.At the beginning of the research,the author investigates English vocabulary learning situation of the research subjects with regard to word spelling,vocabulary comprehension and application through the pre-test,and discovers that the research subjects are short of interest and effective learning strategies in terms of vocabulary learning through the questionnaire.During the first round of the action research,based on cultural schema theory,the author utilizes cultural background introduction,cultural schema activation,assortments of vocabulary presentation,and word-sentence exercises to carry out English vocabulary teaching,and finds the research subjects’ learning problems of less classroom practice time,difficulty in word spelling,and insufficient vocabulary use proficiency etc.After the while-test and the interview,the author learns that the occurrence of these problems is closely pertinent to the compact classroom teaching arrangement,the excessive presentation of words,few and single-form output activities.Consequently,during the second round of the action research,the author integrates cultural schema activation with word presentation,only presents the pronunciation rules of corresponding letters instead of various vocabulary presentation,adds word-sentence exercises with the form of dialogue and gap-filling exercise,and makes full use of multiple communicative activities.After two rounds of the action research,the author conducts post-test and the second questionnaire.Through data collection and analysis,the author ascertains that vocabulary learning effect of research subjects has improved compared with before.According to the research,it is manifested that the proceeding of primary school English vocabulary teaching based on cultural schema theory regards cultural background as orientation,cultural schema activation and vocabulary presentation as the main part of teaching,and a variety of word-sentence practice activities and diversified communicative output activities as coordination.The mode helps the research subjects to enhance interest in vocabulary learning,deepen understanding of vocabulary and memory of word meanings,and seek out efficient vocabulary learning methods.Simultaneously,through participating in various output activities,the research subjects notice the differences in Chinese and English languages,thus increasing proficiency in English vocabulary use.