Examining Vocabulary Meaning Construction In Reading Courses

Vocabulary concept,with vocabulary meaning at its core,is an indispensable indicator of language ability development,and a key but difficult point in class.Reading courses afford contexts and interaction opportunities,contributing to vocabulary development.This study adopted a qualitative approach to investigate a middle school English teacher and her two classes.It attempted to depict the status quo of student vocabulary meaning construction in reading courses(i.e.,workbook reading practice,complementary reading practice,extensive reading program)under teacher’s mediation through SCT perspective.Classroom observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted.Data analysis revealed that—first,the teacher elaborated lexical,grammatical and figurative meanings in reading courses.Second,students’ vocabulary meaning construction under the teacher’s perspective tended to follow Genetic Laws.The teacher’s mediation was manifested in interactions in contexts.Teacher-led interactions showed features of ConceptBased Instruction(CBI).Students verbalized their understandings after provision,elicitation,differentiation and preliminary materialization,making internalization indirectly observable.Teachers still need to determine students’ levels from multiple dimensions by supplementing assessment procedures to reinforce their vocabulary meaning construction.This study offers pedagogical and research implications.First,teachers can identify how to further scaffold meaning construction depending on contexts,interaction modes and knowledge about students.Next,teachers should reflect on problems in class and view them as foundations for teaching.Finally,researchers can further examine the multiple effects of LI use on foreign vocabulary meaning construction.Finally,student perspective and whether adopting CBI in natural reading classes and its effects are worth inspection to outline dynamic construction more completely.