English Vocabulary Teaching And Learning 英语词汇教与学

英语词汇教与学

English Vocabulary Teaching and Learning

Abstract

The studies of vocabulary acquisition and its related areas of lexical research it second language acquisition have been underestimated within the fields of language teaching and applied linguistics for long periods of time.

It goes round the vocabulary teaching. At the beginning, at the begining, the problem in current vocabulary teaching, the first one is vocabulary teaching discrete, importmant for them to encounter words and association, the second a large class hardly catch the attention of students. The third, the teacher keep the same acticity of students. The fourth is the imporper teaching methology. Then, the teaching strategy and three teaching strategies proposed For instance, discrimination strategy assists learners in accurately grasping the easily confused target words. Imaging strategy may help in building up powerful and visual memory links when words are translated from abstract into concrete. At last, give some advice about the teaching of vocabulary in future. Hope this advice has good use in vocabulary teaching in future.

Key Words：vocabulary teaching, teaching strategy, the second language learners

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内 容 摘 要

二语习得中的词汇研究曾经在很长一段时间内被人们所忽视。近年来，人们对这一问题进行了重新审视，研究发现，在词汇上出现的错误的确比在语法上出现的错误要多。从而意识到词汇教学与研究仍然在二语习得过程中发挥着至关重要的作用。

文章围绕词汇的教学展开，首先分析了当今我国大学英语词汇教学存在的一些问题，第一，词汇教学非常离散，第二，大班教学小班教学难吸引学生的注意力，第三，很难保持教学活跃程度的一致性，第四，还有一些不合适的词汇教学方法。接着论述几种词汇教学策略：辩别策略能够帮助学习者准确掌握容易混淆的词汇，想象策略能够帮助学习者变抽象为具体。最后，在词汇教学方面提出了一些探讨性的建议。希望这些探讨性的建议能在以后教学中起到一定的作用。

关键词：词汇教学；教学策略；第二语言学者

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Content

Abstract in English…………………………………..………………………………………….i Abstract in Chinese……………………………………….……………………………………ii Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 1. The Problems about Vocabulary Teaching ............................................................................. 2

1.1 Factors Affecting Vocabulary Acquisition ..................................................................... 3 1.2 Challenges ...................................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Attitudes of teachers Towards Vocabulary Teaching..................................................... 5 1.4 Improper Teaching Methodology about Vocabulary Teaching ..................................... 6

1.4.1 Single Word .......................................................................................................... 7 1.4.2 Target Words Given Directly Instead of Being Introduced Gradually ................ 8 1.4.3 Unfamiliarity with English Etymology ................................................................ 8 1.5 Lack of Resource Materials to Make Teaching of Vocabulary Interesting .................... 9 2. The Strategies for Vocabulary Learning ............................................................................... 10

2.1 The Teaching Methods .......................................................................................... 10 2.2 Discrimination Strategy ................................................................................................ 12 2.3 Imaging Strategy .......................................................................................................... 14 3. The Suggestions for the Teaching of Vocabulary in Future .................................................. 16

3.1 Having a Rang of Activity Types ................................................................................. 17 3.2 Making Comprehensive Teaching Plan ........................................................................ 18 3.3 Assisting in Developing Independent Learning Strategies........................................... 18 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 20 Notes .......................................................................................................................................... 21 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 21 Acknowledgment ....................................................................................... 错误！未定义书签。

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Introduction

Lexicology is a branch of linguistics, inquiring into the origins and meanings of words. English lexicology aims at investigating and studying the morphological structures of English words and word equivalents, their semantic structures, relations, historical development, formation and usages.

Vocabulary is a key to the language and of very importance to language learners. Vocabulary learning will accompany learners for lifelong. However, in the 20th century, people paid little attention to vocabulary teaching while grammar as the central element in language acquisition. The teaching and learning of vocabulary have been underestimated in the field of second language acquisition. Fortunately, at now, acquisition of vocabulary has been recognized a more important role, to be more specific, the central role in learning language

No matter how well the student learns grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a wider range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way (McCarthy, 1990: 23).

Knowing words is the key to understanding and being understood. The bulk of learning a new language consists of learning new words. Grammatical knowledge does not make for great proficiency in a language (Vermeer, 1992: 147).

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As the focus has been changed to vocabulary teaching, the classroom teachers are confronted with the challenge of how best to help students store and retrieve words in the target language. Most vocabulary teachers want their students to learn a great deal more than they can learn from the mere memorization of word lists. They want their students to learn to become excited about words to find words interesting and satisfying. A number of recent research studies have dealt with lexical problems (problems related to words). Through researches the scholars are finding that lexical problems frequently interfere with communication, namely, communication will break down when people do not use the right words. Therefore, developing a rich vocabulary is a top priority and an on-going challenge for both L1 and L2 acquisition. As language teachers, the “know-how” or strategy of vocabulary teaching and learning is thus, in great demand.

1. The Problems about Vocabulary Teaching

Generally speaking, language is learned for the communication, that is, vocabulary acquisition is a key component to successfully developing communication. Nevertheless, language learners’ vocabulary errors constitute most foreign language errors and both learners and native speakers as well regard vocabulary errors as the most serious and difficult obstacles to communication，as Widdowson said : “Native speakers can better understand

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ungrammatical utterances with accurate vocabulary than with accurate grammar and inaccurate vocabulary”. Nowadays, although most language teachers have realized its critical role played in language learning, the following problems still exist as well as interfere with the progress of vocabulary teaching.

1.1 Factors Affecting Vocabulary Acquisition

Frequency has been accorded a high level of significance in ELT for many years as a result of the use of word-frequency counting as a procedure informing syllabus and materials design. The rationale for this is quite simply that the most frequently occurring words in the English language will be those most useful to learners. The beginner level of many series of course books or the first stage of many series of graded readers will have a basic lexical syllabus formulated from the first 500 to 800 most frequently occurring words in English. The vocabulary lists which form the basis of syllabus specifications for much material currently in use relate back to work done as early as the 1930s and 1940s, later revised and adjusted. A well- used frequency list was that of West, which has some 2,000 headwords, each accompanied by its inflected forms, together with a list of common derivatives and compounds.

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Another way in which the concept of frequency has influenced ELT is in the repetition of words in texts. Repetition of words in materials can aid the process of lexical inference and has been used as a principle for constructing graded reading material for many years. Certainly, if learners are to be exposed to a wild range of word meanings and associations then it will be important for them to encounter words and associations then it will be important for them to encounter words in a variety of different situations through extensive reading and listening.

1.2 Challenges

Nowadays the English classes for students of non-English major are in relatively large scales. In the large class, teachers and students are faced with a lot of problems. For example , the teachers have difficulty in keeping eyes on every student’s vocabulary study; students have trouble in hearing the teacher clearly; students do not have enough chance to join in the classroom activities to practice target words which would surely activate their interests in English course; teachers do not have enough chance to help each less competent English learner and stimulate every student’s motivation of learning target words, for each student has different interests, different learning speeds and different English competences, which will spend teachers long time in giving consideration to them all. What is worse may lead to the

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results that good students would stop attending the class, for they may feel bored with the easy content of vocabulary taught in class, while less competent students may suggest a rather slower teaching speed. It is a big challenge for teachers to keep both good and less competent students active in class, which would ultimately bring out much barrier to classroom vocabulary teaching.

1.3 Attitudes of teachers Towards Vocabulary Teaching

Teachers’ attitudes towards vocabulary teaching would, to a great extent, influence the outcome of students’ vocabulary learning. Some teachers regard English vocabulary learning as the students’ own business. This would surely leave a dizzy vocabulary world to college students of non-English majors. Such as, we can hear sort of statements from students, such as “I am a slow learner in vocabulary,” “I am a fast forgetter speaking, in vocabulary” and “English vocabulary makes me dizzy” Generally students view vocabulary as a most critical but most difficult section in their language studies. They are eager to learn them so long as the teachers would like to help them with the correct and effective approaches. Nevertheless, many teachers view teaching vocabulary as a low-level intellectual activity unworthy of their full attention. The reason why they think so lies in the below. Many teachers try to equal the word teaching to mere word definition and spelling, or they directly give

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students word meanings instead of gradually guiding the students to imagine or associate the target words with outside world so as to help them effectively stored in their minds. It is due to the easy process of the explanation of word definition and spelling that some teachers think of word teaching as such a simple activity. Accordingly, they would leave vocabulary learning to students themselves instead of providing them with helpful and efficient teaching strategies.

This attitude would certainly result in the following consequences: studying English for about ten years through junior high school, high school and university, the outcome has been disappointing even where teachers have devoted much time to vocabulary teaching in ESL classes. Especially in countries where English is not the main language of communication, many of the daily used words have never been taught. As a result, the students are not good at listening, speaking and writing. Their spoken English are in such a poor condition that they are not able to communicate with native speakers. The English writings are full of mistakes, including a lot of Chinglish.

1.4 Improper Teaching Methodology about Vocabulary Teaching

Vocabulary learning strategies are able to give language teachers helpful information about how the students make out the appropriate vocabulary strategies in attempt to understand and memorize the new input presented in

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the language classroom. To put it another way, vocabulary learning strategies are good signs of how learners solve their problems on the to-learn words encountered in the process of language learning.

1.4.1 Single Word

During the English classes, some teachers have the target words taught single by single. This sentence contains two types of meaning. First, target words are taught independently rather than by means of connecting them with the network of associations, such as synonyms, antonyms or hyponyms, etc. Another aspect refers to words taught without the help of concept of “chunk”. “Chunk”, as a relatively new term, attracts many researchers’ attention in recent years. It involves fixed expressions as “commit a crime”, collocations like “raise capital”, institutionalized utterances as “There is a call for you. I will get it.” and sentence frames like “in the first place, and in the second,

next, additionally, furthermore, and finally” as well. The advantage of applying the “chunk” to vocabulary teaching is to assist students in forming a clear idea of referring to English vocabulary as a comprehensive whole instead of each separate word patched up together.

Only when vocabulary is taught through the concepts of association and chunks, can the students learn how to speak and use the right target words in appropriate situations.

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1.4.2 Target Words Given Directly Instead of Being Introduced Gradually

Students’ interest and initiatives are viewed as two crucial elements for their English studies. Accordingly, target words are expected to be explained and introduced to them step by step in attempt to help the students think as well as ponder over words actively and meditatively. If teachers speak out the whole story, materials would turn to be crammed into students' minds. The learners would become the passive recipient of knowledge. This will bring about a rather negative effect on arousing their interests and do harm to their vocabulary learning.

1.4.3 Unfamiliarity with English Etymology

The theory of word-formation of English language has proved us the important and indispensable role of English etymology played on vocabulary teaching and learning. Since large amounts of English words are formed by a wealth of meaningful roots and affixes, teaching vocabulary on the basis of detailed accounts of interesting word origins in the form of funny stories would shed some light on the meaningful learning of English vocabulary. This idea put forward will surely be of particular interest to students, promote their sensibility for languages and get better understanding of lexical meanings of words as well as greatly enlarge the quantity of their vocabulary. With the

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help of teachers’ vivid analysis and explanation of target words’ roots and affixes, the process of vocabulary learning and memorization could develop into a meaningful and leisurely one. However, the employment of etymological approach in college English teaching has been paid little attention for a long period of time. The thought may have been crossing some teachers’ minds that etymology is rather profound for students to understand and be willing to learn. In fact, on the contrary, it has been shown that students not only are willing to get familiar with the origin and history of target words but enjoy very much taking part in the training activity about etymology study in the class. Besides, not abundant source books in vocabulary teaching lead to teachers’ unwillingness to collect and analyze target words on their own.

1.5 Lack of Resource Materials to Make Teaching of Vocabulary Interesting

Although some researches done and books written on vocabulary teaching, English teachers have fewer materials available at hand talking about detailed strategies they could directly at the researches in China devote themselves to vocabulary size, students’ motivation, psychological effects on words, word meaning and affixes and methodology appropriate in different learning stages. It has been shown that scholars nowadays pay more attention

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