英语毕业论文AStudyofEn...

英语毕业论文AStudyofEn...
中学英语词汇教学研究A Study of English Vocabulary Teaching in Middle School
Abstract:V ocabulary is the basic unit of a language, and is the building materials of
a language. The function of the English vocabulary, with diversified
meanings and even polysemy, should be attached great importance in
foreign language teaching. The words exist in a certain context, which in
dealing with the word meanings should be taken into consideration, where
by developing the students’linguistic knowledge and ability. The thesis
gives an interpretation on the context, expounding and proving the
importance of the context to the vocabulary teaching. This paper describes
a brief analysis of the problems concerning vocabulary teaching in middle
school and concerns the idea of forming a set of elastic system in teaching
vocabulary, and reveals the methods of making vocabulary teaching
interesting, diverse, orderly and systematic. Context is useful for teachers
to present vocabulary, and it provides an effective way for learners to
memorize the meaning of words. A combination of context with lexical
patterns and groupings performs an essential function in vocabulary
teaching.
Key words:vocabulary; context; lexical patterns; discourse
摘要：词汇是语言的基本单位，是语言的建筑材料。

英语词汇在外语学习中的作用不容忽视，英语词义灵活多变，且一词多义。

任何词语和句子都是在一定的语境中存
在的，离开语境谈词义，不利于提高学生的语言知识和能力。

本文对“语境”做
以解释说明，陈述并证明语境在词汇教学中的重要性。

文章从对中学英语词汇教
学存在的问题做个简明分析入手，通过将英语词汇教学形成一套灵活体系的观点，
展示了使英语词汇教学趣味化、多样化、条理化、系统化的方法。

总结出语境对
教师呈现词汇是有帮助的，并且语境法给学习者提供有效的方式去记忆单词的含
义。

可见，语境与词汇模式相结合的教学法在词汇教学中执行着一个必不可少的
作用。

关键词：词汇；语境；词汇模式；语篇
Contents
I. Introduction (1)
A. Background (1)
B. Research purpose (2)
II. Issues Concerning Vocabulary Teaching and Learning (3)
A. Approach to presenting words (3)
B. Approach to memorizing words (4)
III. Techniques for Vocabulary Instruction (5)
A. Skills of presenting vocabulary (5)
1. Visual aids (5)
2. Word relations (5)
3. Stems and affixes (5)
4. U sing the text as context (6)
5. Translation (6)
B. Skills of consolidating vocabulary (6)
1. Blank filling (6)
2. Matching (6)
3. Using word family (7)
4. Answering text-related questions (7)
5. Writing a story or a dialogue (7)
IV. Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary (7)
A. Context and English v ocabulary teaching (7)
1. A brief review of the study of context (7)
2. Types of c ontext (8)
B. The roles that the context plays in English vocabulary teaching (9)
1. Context help to fi x define the word meanings (10)
2. Context can remove the barrier of polysemy or “one m e aning of
many word s” (11)
C. Methodological approaches to vocabulary teaching in terms of
context (12)
1. Lexical phrases (12)
2. Blank filling (12)
3. Semantic mapping (12)
V. Conclusion (13)
Works Cited (14)
I.Introduction
V ocabulary is the basic unit of a language, and is the building materials of a language. To know the words well is a key to learn a language. There will be no sentence without words, and eventually no communication will take place. The function of the English vocabulary, with diversified meanings and even polysemy, should be attached great importance in foreign language teaching. The words exist in a certain context, which in dealing with the word meanings should be taken into consideration, w here by developing the students’ linguis tic knowledge and ability, the thesis gives an interpretation on the context, expounding and proving the importance of the context to the vocabulary teaching.
According to the problems of English vocabulary teaching in middle school, this essay concerns the idea of forming a set of elastic methods in teaching vocabulary, and reveals the vocabulary teaching by means of lexical phrases, blank filling and semantic mapping which are all based on contexts. My discussion focuses on the different types of vocabulary activities, which clarify the meaning and the usage of the words, develop strategies for vocabulary teaching, motivate students, and sustain their interest in vocabulary learning with the combination of the use of contexts.
A. Background
The putting for ward of the term “context”may go backward as early as last century. Polish human linguist Malinowski put it forward in 1923, and divided it into two categorie s—cultural context and situational context. The founder of` “London school” John. Rubert Firth ac cepted his
idea and advanced a more complete theory of context basing on it. The theory was attached importance field extensively as soon as it was born, and we have been perfecting it ever sine. Especially it provided a theoretical base for the correct processing of natural languages.
Just as the British linguist put it “without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”(Wilkins 128), so we can say vocabulary plays a decisive role in foreign language learnings. V ocabulary consists of “a series of interrelating systematized manner which will both illustrate the organized nature of vocabulary and at the same time enable him to internalize the items in a coherent way” (Gairns and Redman 89). Gairns and Redman also provide a number of
ways of grouping words, including different types of semantic fields, as well as phonological and grammatical sets. In vocabulary teaching, we commonly find that the meanings of the English words are elastic, polysemy appears frequently. English is considered as a language that has great adaptability and plasticity meanings of words rely on context a great deal, so in teaching we should combine word meanings with conversations and situations, pay attention to the relation between context and wo rd meanings, so as to improve both the students’linguistic knowledge and competence.
B. Research Purpose
By expounding context we find that the key of English vocabulary teaching is to grasp the context. We must rely on the information of all aspects supplied by context to define the word meaning. The role that context plays in the understanding of word meaning can’t be taken place by any dictionary. Teaching
vocabulary combined with context helps to create linguistic atmosphere, develops the ability of using English and linguistic sense. English vocabulary teaching is an important link in English teaching for this reason. More attention should be paid to the part that context plays in vocabulary teaching.
Context is crucial for the learner to infer the meaning of a new word that she/he encounters. By context, it is understood that it “involves the learner in seeking clues to meaning by following a number of defined steps which lead from the form of the word itself, to its immediate context, and then to its operation in the surrounding context”(Carter 74). Nunan argues “Language reflects the contexts in which it is used and the purpose to which it is put”(Nunan 98). The problem confronting both teachers and learners is that no course can provide learners with anything like the vocabulary they will need to comprehend authentic texts. It is therefore important to provide learners with strategies for inferring the meaning of unknown vocabulary from the context in which it occurs or the different meanings of known vocabulary from their particular contexts.
In all, the use of context can develop a deep level of explicit vocabulary teaching and learning. Meanwhile, contextual vocabulary teaching helps learners with higher proficiency in combination with a focus on lexical patterns and groupings.
II.Issues Concerning Vocabulary Teaching and Learning
V ocabulary learning is a difficult aspect for many Chinese students. They have difficulty memorizing words and selecting the right words in expressing their ideas and feelings. What has caused the problems? Let us examine the method of presenting words and the method of memorizing words.
A. Approach to Presenting Words
There are many methods for presenting words, but what approach to take is an issue we need to consider first. Generally, there are two approaches to word presentation: presenting isolated words in a word-list and presenting the meaning of a word in context.
The traditional practice of teaching vocabulary is to teach a list of isolated lexical items (words, phrases, idioms and fixed expressions) before teaching the text. Sometimes the teacher explains its usage and compares it with other synonyms. All the words are dealt with this way. After vocabulary explanation is finished, it is the students’ task to memo rize all those words. Usually the students apply the method of rote memorization. This kind of teaching is still in wide use. “This practice of preteaching vocabulary make s intuitive sense, but may in fact be unsound”(Seal, 296-311). Schouten-van Parreren (1989, quoted from Hedge, 2002:120) presents a three-point argument as follows:
1. If the words are presented as isolated elements, there is no point of support, no “cognitive hold” for them in the learn ers’ memory, so despite sometimes considerable learning effort, they are quickly forgotten again.
2. Isolated words do not present a linguistic reality, as the meaning of a word is in most cases partly defined by the context (Beheydt 1987:55-67).
3. Isolated words or words in isolated sentence do not present a psychological reality, because they do not carry a message. For this reason they cannot evoke emotions or involvement in the learner, a factor which plays an often underestimated, but yet important part in long-term acquisition (Leontjew 1979:89-102).
These arguments can explain why many students cannot remember words explained by the teacher on the word-list base and cannot find the right words to express themselves. Considering this we may find an alternative in presenting words, that is, contextualization.
Presenting words in context can avoid the negative effects caused by presenting words in a list. First, words in context carry messages, the understanding of which involves the student’s cognitive activities, and the meaning of the words will remain in his mind in a natural way. Another reason is that context presents a linguistic reality where the meaning of a word in this situation can be exactly identified. Also, the context supplies a pragmatic condition that shows how the word is used. Finally, when new words are taught throughout the teaching of the text, the students’ attention will frequently switch from one activity to another, and as a result, their memory burden can be reduced.
Although contextualized presentation has its advantages, presentation through word-list is not totally negative. If words are handled in proper quantities, the concentrated explanation can draw students’ attention. Therefore, in deali ng with the new words in a text, the teacher can divide the words into two categories. One category contains words whose meanings can be figured out in the text context. The other category includes words whose meanings are difficult to infer in the text. For the latter the teacher can present their meanings before teaching the text, and the methods of presentation should be flexible, from translating into Chinese to creating context in which a new word may appear.
B. Approach to Memorizing Words
Like presenting words, there are also many methods for memorizing words. Here we have to determine which approach
to take in memorizing words: rote memorization or memorization through reading.
Memorizing a word includes memorizing its meaning, spelling and usage.
A lthough “there may be learners who enjoy and succeed in learning material through m emorization” (Richards79), rote memorization takes more time and effort than memorizing words in context. When memorizing a word in isolation, the learner’s attention is focused only on its spelling and one of its meanings. But how to use the word becomes another question. The consequence of this approach is the inability to use words appropriately on the part of the student.
To avoid the negative effect of rote memorization, we can turn to another alternativ e—memorizing words through reading. After learning a text, the students are encouraged to review the passage as soon as possible to have further comprehension of the text and better understanding of the new words. They need to
read the text several times. While reading, the student should pause at the places where target words occur, examine how they are used to express the ideas, observe their collocations, and then read and memorize the chunks or the sentences that contain those words. This kind of reading should be followed by oral and written activities for using those words. Different from reading or writing a word repeatedly in isolation, using it in different contexts is meaningful repetition and involves cognitive activities. This kind of memorization is related to meaning, spelling and usage simultaneously.
III.Techniques for Vocabulary Instruction
Lexical items refer to words, phrases, idioms and fixed
expressions. In vocabulary teaching and learning, we regard each of these items as one unit. For the sake of convenience, we just use word to represent all of them. The first step of teaching vocabulary is to present word meaning. As discussed above, presenting a word in context is an effective way. However, not every word can be presented in context. Therefore, we need to look at different techniques for presenting word meaning. In conveying the meaning of a word, we should integrate several techniques to achieve he best effect.
A. Skills of Presenting Vocabulary
1. Visual aids
Visual aids can be everyday objects, pictures, models, blackboard drawings and mimes. These are used to convey the meaning of words for an object, an action and a concept. It is not enough to show a toy of panda and say “panda” or “This is a panda”. The teacher can repeat the word several times by putting it in sentences, such as “Look at this panda”, “The panda has black eyes”, or “The panda is a cute animal”.
2. Word relations
Another technique of conveying the meaning of a word is to relate it to other words. Synonyms and antonyms are two common types of word relation. The synonym of a word should not only have similar meaning but also have the same grammatical function. An antonym is opposite in meaning, but it should have the same grammatical function as the target word.
3. Stems and affixes
A knowledge of Latin affixes can help students guess unfamiliar words by relating these words to the known words. By teaching the meaning of prefixes and suffixes, the teacher is building in students an ability to figure out the meaning of many
words. If power is a familiar word, when the student knows that super- means “larger”, “greater”, then he may guess superpower might have something to do with “very powerful” or “extremely strong”.
4. Using the text as context
As discussed before, contextualization is an effective way of presenting a word. Apart from the context created by the teacher, the most effective context is in the text. Words have a habit of changing their meaning from one context to another (Labov, 1973, quoted from Nagy, 2002:64-83). Nagy argues that there are two types of contextual variation in meaning: sense selection and reference specification. In the case of sense selection, a word is assumed to have two or more senses, and the effect of context is to select one of these. In the case of reference specification, where one word, for example, boy, might refer to two different individuals and call up quite different images and associations, the interpretation of a word is any given context is necessarily more specific than the meaning stored in the mental lexicon. Therefore, the text context can help the reader understand the exact meaning of this word and arrive at the total meaning of a sentence. In deciding the meaning of a word from context, the reader has to use his knowledge of grammar and context clues.
5. Translation
Translation has an important role in conveying word meaning although we do not encourage overusing this technique. There are numerous situations where the meaning of a word cannot be made clear by whatever means except translation. Abstract words belong to this group, and so do a large number of culture-loaded words or words for concepts that are new to students. For such words, translation is the only
effective way to convey meaning.
B. Skills of Consolidating Vocabulary
1. Blank filling
The students are provided with a certain number of sentences with a blank in each. They are required to fill in each blank with an appropriate word taken from the text. This type of exercises is commonly used in textbooks.
2. Matching
Example 1
Match column A with column B.
A B
Foe effort
Endeavor enemy
Shield ancestor
Convert again
Forbear change
Anew protection
Example 2
Choose the letter of the item which is the nearest in meaning to the word in italics:
A good action movie is exciting.
a. thrilling
b. tiring
c. interesting
3. Using word family
Give the students a group of words and ask them to group them into different families.
Example: Put the following words into different word families.
desk pear bus apple car sofa bike orange chair
Vehicle: bus car bike
Fruit: pear apple orange
Furniture: desk sofa chair
4. Answering text-related questions
After studying a reading text, the students are asked to answer text-related questions. The questions are meant to elicit answers by using the target words.
5. Writing a story or a dialogue
The teacher selects a certain number of words and expressions from the text and asks the students to write a story or a dialogue in which the words must occur. Then the teacher reads the students’ completed writings and gives feedback.
For many students, perhaps it is less difficult to learn vocabulary items for the first time than to consolidate and remember them. When students study vocabulary together, say, in groups, through various activities and under the teacher’s supervision, vocabulary learning becomes more fun and effectiveness is increased. Besides, students often need more support and more varieties of exercises to help them recycle and consolidate the newly learned vocabulary so that they can get the words into active use.
IV. Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary
A. Context and English Vocabulary teaching
1. A brief review of the study of context
Context is of paramount importance for the understanding of word-meaning because the meaning is influenced immediately by the linguistic environment and in many cases by the whole speech situation as well. Without context, there is no way to determine the meaning that the speaker intends to convey, whereas with context there is generally no danger of misinterpretation, for meaning lives in context and the context
throws light on meaning.
2. Types of context
Context is used in different senses. In a narrow sense, it refers to the words, clauses, sentences in which a word appears. This is known as linguistic context, which may extend to embrace a paragraph or a whole chapter. In a broad sense, context includes the physical situation where a word is employed. This is called extra-linguistic or non-linguistic context, covering the time, place, and even the whole cultural background.
a. Extra-linguistic Context
Talking about context, Brown and Yule (1983:36) invented two situations to illustrate the effect of non-linguistic context on the meaning of the word quick:
(1) (speaker: a young mother; hearer: her mother-in-law;place: park, by a
duckpond; time: sunny afternoon in September, 1962.) They are watching the young mother’s two-year-old son chasing ducks and the mother-in-law has just remarked that her son, the child’s father, was rather backward at this age. The young mother says: I do think Adam’s qui ck.
(2) (speaker: a student; hearer: a set of students; place: sitting around a coffee
table in the refectory; time: evening in March, 1980.) John, one of the groups, has just told a joke. Everyone laughs except Adam. Then Adam laughs. One of the students says: I do think Adam’s quick.
In both cases, the speaker says of Adam that he is quick. It is clear, however, that the utterance in the contexts of situation would be taken to convey very different
messages. In (1) ‘Adam’is compared favourably with his
father. Quick can be interpreted, against backward, as meaning something like ‘quick in developing’. In (2) ‘Adam’is compared unfavourably with the set of other students. Therefore, quick must be interpreted as meaning something like ‘quick to understand/rea ct/see the joke’. In this case, quick is used ironically to mean the opposite slow.
b. Linguistic Context
Linguistic context can be subdivided into lexical context and grammatical context.
(1) Lexical Context
This refers to the lexemes that co-occur with the word in question. The meaning of the word is often affected and defined by the neighbouring lexemes. For instance, paper has a number of meanings in the dictionary, yet in each of the following context, it conveys only one concept.
1) a sheet of paper (thin flat sheets of substance for writing, printing, decorating
walls, etc.)
2) a white paper ( government document)
3) a term paper (essay written at the end of the term)
4)today’s paper (newspaper)
5)examination paper ( a set of questions used as an examination)
(2) Grammatical Context
In some cases, the meanings of a polysemant may be influenced by the structure in which it occurs. This is what we call grammatical context. Though less common, it is by no means rare. Let us consider the verb become for example.
1) become + adj / n (used as predictive), meaning ‘begin to be’, e.g.
Daydreams have become realities.
She became increasingly anxious about her husband’s strange behaviour.
2) become + pron / n (used as object), meaning ‘suit, befit’,
e.g.
This sort of behaviour hardly becomes a person in your position.
Sarcasm doesn’t become you.
3) become + of, meaning ‘happen to, often in a bad way’,
e.g.
I don’t know what will become of us if the company goes bankrupt.
Generally speaking, the immediate verbal context, either lexical or grammatical, will suffice foe the interpretation of individual meanings of a word as indicated above.
B. The roles that the context plays in English vocabulary teaching
1. Context help to fix define the word meanings
In word distinguishing, the most universally used and feasible way is to have the aid of the context. Li Yunxin (1988:77-78) puts it in《English and Chinese Discourse Translation》. “A word or a phrase is isolated in a dictionary, but once it is used in a particular context, it becomes a part of the whole discourse structure, and form a organic coding system，and relate to the specific context”. So, lexical meanings are not decided by dictionaries (of course, a dictionary supply important reference for the translators) but by context. By context, we can look forward and behind, scan the whole paragraph, define the word meanings relying on situations. Examples from 《A Dictionary of Current English Usage》:
a. He is a valuable acquisition to the team.
The meanin g of “acquisition” is quite general, based on team; we can specify the meaning of it. Translate as: 他是该球队不可多得的新队员。

b. The line of trees that breaks the monotony of the pavement is lade with leaves in shades of russet.
“monotony”is explained as “单调”, in dictionary , “break” means “打破”，打破单调，seems too limited to the surface meanings of the words, obviously not up to the Chinese habits, with another words, the whole sentence may become more coordinate and beautiful, like this: 一排繁茂的树掩映在一片黄褐色之中，给单调的人行道增色不少。

c. The functions of the federal government have expanded so much that there are few aspects of national life outside the area of its interests, if not its regulation.
We can not guess the meaning of “regulation” just from “if not its regulation”, but we can sc an the whole sentence to define it like: 邦政府的职能己大大扩大了，如果不说它控制了国民生计的各个方面，至少可以说一切都在它的关注之下。

Another example from《English and Chinese Discourse Translation》:
a. If you want a lift, please press the button.
要电梯，请按此钮。

b. If you want a lift, please let me know.
要搭车，尽管找我。

Although a translator may know the varied meanings and various uses of a word, i f there is only a word “lift”without context or hint ( if someone speaks or writes “lift” and points at it ), the receiver of information will still feel puzzled. Just because
the existence of context, it is easy for the information receiver to understand the meaning of it correctly. So, only when a word appear together with others and form a united organic system, can it be alive, can the specific meaning of a word with varied meanings leap into the mind of the information receiver validly.
2. Context can remove the barrier of polysemy or “one meaning of many words”
Polysemy is one of the most outstanding features of English. As usually a Chinese meaning of the word in the particular text enters the word list of textbooks, and the students memorize it deeply. But when the same word appears in another discourse situation the barrier of understanding occur. For instance, the interpretation of “performance” is achievement and it's correct the original sentence in the text is: Regular review leads to improved performance on tests.
定期复习是提高考试成绩的途径。

In order to avoid this phenomenon, we should let the students ignore the definition in the word list firstly, and then lead them into the discourse. T o make them understand the word in a broad sense. We may use the following situations to lead the word “performance”:
This novel is really a remarkable performance. (作品)
The car’s performance was not very good. (性能)
According to the above situations, students can grasp the different meanings in each sentence exactly. Then teachers can give a definition to the word in English and explain the usages. Thus, when the students meet with this word again, they can catch it better and more accurately, that is, they have grasped the extensive meaning of it.
Polysemy in English appears frequently in English vocabulary
teaching. If we don’t realize it, we may “take the seat accord ing to the number on the ticket”. There quite a few synonyms and nea r synonyms in Engli sh. They’re students’headaches t ake “doubt” for an example. Students have learned it in middle school, when they use it particularly, they translate “怀疑” into “doubt” in any situation. So, when they see following Chinese to English sentence, they may do it like this: 警察不知是谁犯的这个罪，但他们怀疑琼斯(The police don't know who committed the crime, but they doubt Jones).
When we interpret this word, we may apply this situation to lead in another word with the same meaning of “怀疑”. In order to avoid this circumstance, when you have an idea or feeling that somebody may be guilty of something, or think likely we have another word to express “怀疑”.。