二语习得论文--词汇学习

Research of Vocabulary Learning

Table 1(A~B refer to the examinations on the investigation; 0~10 refers to the number of people)

Table 2 (A~Q refers to different approaches of memorizing words; 0~10 refers to the number of people)

Ⅰ.Introduction

We made an investigation on attitude and practical approach to vocabulary learning.

According to the investigation, 20% respondents said that whenever they are free, they would try their best to memorize words; 30% respondents said that they would be busy memorizing words just before the exam; 40% respondents said that

they learn mew words through reading instead of choosing special time to memorize.

Table 1 &2 were made according to the results of investigation. Table 2 shows that the popular approaches people choose to memorize words are as the following: A. note-taking, B. repeating, C. memorizing mechanically D. auditory representation, E. contextualization, F. deduction, G. Imagery, H. &I. watching and listening to audiovisual materials, J. talking with foreigners in English, K. memorizing the word roots and affixes, L. elaboration, M. key-word, N. grouping, O. software of memorizing words, P. playing words game, and Q. contrastive mnemonics. What’s more, English majors tend to choose approach A,B, E, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, G; while, non-English majors prefers approach A,C, E, G, H, I, L, M, Q.

Ⅱ.Body

1.Attitude

According to the investigation, we know that there is only 20% respondents try their best to memorize words whenever they have time. Consequently, most respondents do not hold positive attitude to learn new words. We found that most of the respondents are junior students, who have already passed the CET-4 or TEM-4—one requirement of pursuing educational experiences, so they loss the motivation to study English or learn new words. Moreover, some of the respondents are studying aboard, such as in England, US, Australia, and so on. This kind of learners has social context to learn words instead of memorizing words by rots. They use English in their daily life, so they can enlarge their vocabulary through their social experience.

Nevertheless, why are the 20% respondents studying so hard to learn words? Motivation largely determines the level of efforts, which learners spend in word learning. In other words, these respondents can keep a positive attitude towards word learning because of their spherical motivations—taking part in the entrance exams for postgraduate schools, in CET-6, in TEM-8, in TOEFL, IELTS, and in BEC (according to table 2).

There are 40% respondents choose to learn mew words through reading instead of choosing special time to memorize. For these respondents, learning words become