谈英语词汇教学法—On_Teaching_English_Vocabulary

The English vocabulary teaching in the middle school is an indispensable part of English curriculum. Just as a famous linguist Wilkins said, “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.”

1. Introduction

V ocabulary is basic to language learning. It would be impossible to learn a language without learning vocabulary. English words are the most important elements in linguistic study, just like bricks in building a house. “If you have no bricks, how can you set up a house? For example, when a Chinese goes to England for the first time, if he knows words as “bus”, “food”, “money”, he can convey messages. However, even with a good knowledge of the grammar of the language, but no knowledge of the vocabulary, he or she wo uld not be able to do this.”[1]p30As a result, vocabulary teaching turns to be one of the most important parts of teaching to foreign language teachers. If an English teacher is able to teach vocabulary in an interesting and efficient manner by using various methods, his students will receive benefit from him. Various efficient ways will help students remember new words and phrases more quickly and much easier, and therefore, students can save a lot of time which they can spend learning more. On the other hand, different and useful methods can arouse the students’ interests in learning and help them grasp the text better.

But how can we teach English vocabulary efficiently? This is a question faced by all English teachers.

2. Teaching vocabulary in elementary classes

2.1 Possibly effective methods

2.1.1 Object teaching

This method is generally applied to the explanation of those words that define objects, explain actions and express feelings or emotions.

(1) For example, when teaching such words as “classroom”, “boy”, “girl”, “book”, “pencil”, “window”, “door”, the result will be much better if the teachers explain these words by showing the students pictures, models and objects. One reason is that the meanings of these words can easily be made clear. Windows, walls, desks and doors are things that the students can see while they are hearing the English words for them. Furthermore, things in the classroom can also be touched. This is important, because success in learning often depends on the number of senses which are used in the learning process.[3]p7 When students can touch something in addition to hearing and seeing the word that names it, it may be easier for them to learn the words. Even if there are practical reasons why each learner cannot touch the object, just seeing it while hearing its name is helpful. At least those two senses (sight and hearing) are working together to gain the learners' attention. Through this method, even those words or expressions that can hardly be explained clearly can be made easily understandable to the students.

2.1.2 Teaching vocabulary by way of comparison

This method is likewise frequently employed in teaching words and phrases. As we known, English is rich in vocabulary and well-known for its synonyms and antonyms. So, by comparison, since students have learned the word “good”, it may easy for them to learn its synonym “perfect” and its antonym “bad”. Thus, students may know more words than they did before.

e.g. (2) Compa rison of synonyms: “couch/sofa, boy/lad, lawyer/attorney, toilet/lavatory, large/big”,[4]p115 buy/purchase, world/universe, hide/conceal, etc .

Comparison of antonyms: long-short, young-old, big-small, high-low, far-near, alive/dead, present/absent, awake/asleep, hot/cold, fast/slow, happy/sad, etc.[5]p73

1

But comparison of words should not be considered alone but be placed in sentences. In different context, the meaning of “nice” may be “pleasant” “kind” “fine” and so many different words.

e.g. (3) She is so nice that whenever I was in trouble, she would help me. (“nice” means “kind” here.)

(4) What a nice day today! Birds are singing outside.

(“nice” means “fine” here.)

Therefore, when teaching synonyms or antonyms, teachers would better place the new words in sentences. It is proved by practice that students can be more efficient in learning English and more exact in speaking and writing if the method of comparison is properly employed.

2.1.3 Teaching vocabulary by explanation

Many English words can be taught by means of explanation.

e.g.(5) author--an author is a man who writes a book for reading.

“barbarian—someone from a different tribe or land, who people believe to be wild and not civilized”[6]p31

Sometimes the teachers can evoke the students' thought by pointing out all kinds of connection among different things. Thus, the students may understand the new words' meaning.

e.g. (6) “It is warm in spring. It is hot in summer. It is cool in autumn. It is cold in winter”. [7] p44 Considering connections among these four seasons, the students will easily get to know the meaning of new words “warm” “hot” “cool” “cold".

2.1.4 Teaching vocabulary by combining words' pronunciation，form and meaning Pronunciation is helpful to English vocabulary learning. When teaching words, the teachers should pay much more attention to lead students to discover the regularity of pronunciation of vowel and consonant, make clear the relation between phonemes and units of letters, so as to know the words' right form of spelling. Therefore, the students can combine the new words' pronunciation, form and meaning efficiently.

e.g.(7) same pronunciation but different meaning: [mi:t]-meet, meat; [greit]-grate, great, [wi:k]-week, weak, etc.

similar pronunciation: [prais]-prise, [praiz]-prize,

[risent]-recent, [ri’zent]-resent [8] p64

In addition, there are some words that do not conform to regularity of reading pronunciation, they should be treated specially.

2.1.5 Teaching vocabulary by creating communication situations

In the process of vocabulary teaching, it is wise for teachers to create a communication situation in the classroom. There are many ways, of course. Such as, showing pictures and objects, having dialogues, broadcasting music, and making programs, etc. Suppose we have used a picture that shows head with its various parts: hair, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Those parts have been named in English; the students have printed the names in their notebooks with their copies of the picture. Now the stage is set for an experience in which students use those English words to communicate. The activity may go like this:

(8) “First the teacher introduces the topic of life on other planets, using a few pictures and (if necessary) a few sentences in the students’ language. The students are then told that they are going to read about a visitor from another planet. Their job is to draw a picture of the visitor, according to the sentences which they are going to read. For example, if they read that the imaginary visitor

2

has tw o heads, they must draw two heads. No one should look at a classmate’s drawing. They will have five minutes for reading the description and drawing the picture. (If students cannot read English, the description should be read for them by the teacher.)”[9]p27

Each student takes a pencil and a blank sheet of paper on which to make his drawing. The description of the visitor (which the teacher had previously printed on a large sheet) is taped to the wall, and the students begin the task.

The sentences that describe the visitor may be these:

(9) I have a friend from Mars. My friend has a big head. He has three eyes. He does not have hair. In place of hair, he has five ears. His five ears are on top of head. His neck is very long. His mouth and his two noses are in his long neck. Please draw a picture of this visitor from Mars.

During the time allowed for this activity, the teacher walks around the room, observing the work of the students. One student is asked to copy his drawing on the blackboard, while the teacher reads the description aloud. The drawing is discussed. Does it fit the description? Then the teacher’s own drawing (made before class, on a large sheet) is displayed. There is a discussion (in English) of differences between the students’ drawings and the teacher’s model.

For homework, each student may make a different drawing, which represents an imagined visitor from another planet—his own idea of such a visitor. He is then to write a description of his visitor (in English) and bring it to class with his drawing. After the descriptions have been corrected by the teacher, each student tries to make a drawing which fits a classmate’s description. His classmate judges the accuracy of the drawing compared with the sentences that describe the visitor.

2.1.6 Teaching vocabulary by supplying the main collocations

The words’ collocations are usually neglected in vocabulary expansion. Students always hold an view that as long as they know a word’s Chinese meaning, they may know the word’s usage. However, without knowing the syntactic relation between words, students are less likely to produce acceptable utterances. So, it is very important to perform collocation practices. When the meaning of a given word has been explained, its common or main collocations should usually be given.

e.g. (10) join an organization/the party/the Trade Union/a club;

go in for sports (swimming, singing, reading…);

“open the door, open fire, open a box;

war against, war with, war between”;[10]p68

This method is most often employed. Its purpose is to raise the students’ ability to use words correctly.

3. Teaching vocabulary in intermediate classes

3.1 Possibly effective methods

3.1.1 Using simple English or words learned before to show meanings of new words

Using simple English or words learned before to show meanings of words, teachers can not only help students easily grasp new words but simultaneously review old words. It is a good approach for vocabulary expansion.

(11) For example, let’s take the word “parent”. The meaning of “parent” can be made clear to students who already know the words “person”, “mother”, and “father”. We can put “parent” into a defining sentence like this, “A parent is a person’s mother or father.”

In this example, when learning the new word “parent”, students are also reviewing old words

3

“mother” and “father”.

Sometimes, teachers or students can use short phrase to show the new words’ meanings.

e.g.(12) different—not same, reach—arrive in/get to,

envoy—diplomatic agent/messenger,

synthetic—(literally, “put together”)

artificially made/man-made,[11]p103

3.1.2 Teaching vocabulary by category

Like the elementary student, the intermediate student needs to learn words for common areas of living: words related to food, clothing, shelter, and so on. In classes for beginners, however, only a few words from each of these categories are taught. There is no attempt to teach all the English words for furniture (for instance)—or even all the most important words in the category of furniture. In intermediate classes, on the other hand, there is a more systematic attempt to include the most commonly used words in various categories: categories like buildings, parts of a house, furniture, occupations, transportation, weather, health, and many more.

In the intermediate textbook, words from several different categories are usually introduced together in each lesson. Perhaps they are presented in connection with a simple story; perhaps they are taught because the grammar part of the lesson requires them. However, to make vocabulary leaning more systematic, it is better for the intermediate student to keep a notebook. In the notebook there should be different sections for different categories of words—several pages reserved for weather words, other pages reserved for health words, and so on.

e.g. (13) “meal: breakfast (早餐), brunch（早午餐）, lunch（午饭）, luncheon（午餐）, dinner （正餐）, supper（晚餐）, snack（快餐、小吃）,

vegetable: cabbage（卷心菜）, potato（土豆）, carrot（胡萝卜）, cucumber（黄瓜）,onion （洋葱），tomato（番茄）

tree: evergreen(常青树), pine（松树）, fir（冷杉）, bush（灌木）,

bamboo（竹）, apple tree（苹果树）,etc.” [12]p64

As words are presented in any lesson, the students should add each new word to the appropriate section of the notebook. Soon each student’s notebook will have a useful list of words for “meal” and still other lists for words related to other areas of living. From time to time during the school year, the students should be given special opportunities to use this new vocabulary.

3.1.3 Seeing a new word in a sentence

The aim of learning vocabulary is to grasp the words' meanings, collocations and usages, make sentences and express ideas. From the point of using vocabulary, only when made in sentences or phrases, can the words fully play their communicative functions for delivering ideas. However, a word has different meanings in different sentences. We can just understand a word's meaning and grasp its usage in a certain sentence.[13]p44

At the intermediate level, a learner’s dictionary can show teachers how to explain “new” word by means of the English words the students are most likely to know. Furthermore, such dictionaries usually give helpful example sentences in addition to definitions.

An example sentence for “drown” might be: “The dead boy’s mother was ve ry sad after her son drowned in the river.” Often an examp le sentence can help the student more than a definition. No definition is needed for the verb “contain” (which is generally taught at the Intermediate level) when the students are given example sentences like the following:

4

(14) These boxes contain chalk.

That bottle contains water.

Handbags often contain money and many other things.

Although no definition or synonym for contain has been given here, the meaning of the word should be clear to students who have already learned the other words in the example sentences. Such sentences are helpful to all students. Skill in composing clear, simple example sentences is especially needed by teachers of intermediate classes. Often there is an unexpected need for an example while the lesson is being taught. The teacher cannot spend class time thinking about the best way to explain the meaning of a word; an example must be offered immediately. Intermediate students need such help more than students at the Elementary level, where more of the vocabulary can be taught by pointing, or by using pictures, or by demonstrating an action.

5

本文来源：https://www.bwwdw.com/article/4q5l.html