Neat Tricks of Vocabulary Learning.doc

Abstract Vocabulary is the basic element of language. Without it, language would no longer exist. Therefore, foreign language study is closely associated with vocabulary study. Through researches scholars are finding that lexical problems frequently interfere with communication. And the second language learners generally hold the view that it is vocabulary, not grammar that hinders them from communicating with others in the target language, with the reason that vocabulary carries the basic information they need to understand and express. In the thesis, it is viewed that learning English vocabulary makes great contribution to the improvement of English study; in order to improve students English level, qualified acquisition of the vocabulary is easily to wipe off the biggest obstacle in listening, speaking, reading and writing, which all depend on vocabulary largely. However, both learners and teachers have ignored vocabulary study for a long time, which results in slow progress in English learning. So the great importance of vocabulary in English study is pointed out, but vocabulary cant be learnt by rote. In order to solve the problem of “time-consuming and poorly-efficient” English vocabulary learning, the thesis offers some interesting and efficient strategies of vocabulary learning, called neat tricks, which will stimulate the students imagination and their interest in English learning, and finally enlarge their vocabulary. Key Words vocabulary; vocabulary-learning strategies; neat tricks【摘 要】 词汇是语言的基本要求。没有词汇，语言将不存在，所以外语学习离不开词汇学习。通过观察，学者们发现词汇问题常常和交际联系在一起；而第二语言学习者普遍认为阻碍他们用目的语进行交际的是词汇，而不是语法，因为词汇载有他们需要理解和表达的基本信息。本文认为搞好词汇学习，在英语学习中起着举足轻重的作用；拥有一定的词汇量，就易于扫除英语学习中听说读写的最大障碍，进而提高英语水平。但是，词汇学习长期以来被教师和学生所忽视。这种做法导致英语学习进展缓慢现象。本文虽指出了英语词汇学习的重要性，但也强调了词汇学习绝不是简单地死记硬背。针对英语教学中中学生在词汇学习上的“费时低效”问题，本文提出了有关词汇学习的一些策略，鼓励学生积极采用多种生动有趣的词汇学习奇招，令学生产生“出格”的联想，激发其英语学习兴趣，从而扩大词汇量。【关键词】 词汇量；词汇学习策略；奇招ContentsAbstract摘要Contents1. Introduction2. Theoretical foundations2.1 Current research findings of language learning strategies2.1.1 Definitions of second language learning strategies 2.1.2 Why are learning strategies important3. Neat tricks of vocabulary learning3.1 Learning vocabulary by the way of verbal humor or jokes3.1.1 Humor caused by the same or similar speech sounds3.1.2 Humor caused by the polysemic words3.1.3 Jokes3.2 Learning vocabulary by the way of riddles3.2.1 Riddles of words3.2.2 Rebus3.3 Learning vocabulary by the way of palindrome3.4 Learning vocabulary by the way of tongue twisters3.5 Learning vocabulary by the way of intelligent questions and answers3.6 Learning vocabulary by the way of the pronunciation of letters3.7 Learning vocabulary by the way of popular etymology4. ConclusionReferences1. IntroductionIn China, teaching English as a foreign language has a long history of a century or so. During the past few decades, the researching emphasis of the second language acquisition (SLA) began to shift from teaching to learning. It has become increasingly clear that a more direct understanding of the language learning process is needed to improve learning methodsMoreover, the research on certain factors or variables and their interactions has focused on gaining insight into the individual differences in second language acquisition, notably the second language learning strategy. It has been widely acknowledged that language-processing strategies exist and influence SLA. 1 But “during the practice directed by different kinds of approaches or methods, it is found that none of them can be very successful in English teaching without students development vocabulary. The root of the problems is that students have great weakness in vocabulary.”2 Why? Because the teaching and learning of vocabulary has never arouse the same degree of interest within language teaching as that of grammatical competence, contrastive analysis, reading, or writing, which have received considerable attention from scholars and teachers. 3 So from here, we can see though English is learnt or taught widely in China in recent years, generally speaking, learners or teachers cast highlights on translation and grammar during the years before 1990s. Recently, more attention has been paid to communication in English learning. It seems that vocabulary is never stressed enough in English learning and teaching. In reality, emphasis on vocabulary is reasonable and feasible.Language is used as an instrument of communication in a society. And vocabulary is the most basic element involved in communication, because communication often breaks down when people do not use the right words.Also, the importance of vocabulary has been pointed out so such as Wilkins, a famous linguist: “Were it not for grammar, a lot of things cant be expressed; however, if there were no words, we couldnt express anything.”4 So an important aspect to improve the foreign language level for foreign language learners is to master the morphology of the language being studied.Therefore, vocabulary plays such an important role in language and language acquisition that it is possible to learn English with high efficiency if vocabulary is centered from the very beginning to the end.However, English is rich in vocabulary; there are about 1,000,000 words. The practical number of English vocabulary is about 9,000. To be communicatively competent, at least 5,000 words are required for a good foreign language learner because more than 2,000 words are essential for an average conversation, and its advised that neat tricks of vocabulary learning are necessary for English as a second language student to begin to make sense of what they are asked to read in school. Then how can the students master such large number of vocabulary easily? It seems that its a great burden for them to memorize a large number of words. It has been long viewed that reciting from vocabulary list is the only choice. Sometimes it works, but it consumes much time and becomes poorly efficient.“Vocabulary learning is a permanent, strategy-based task, and not just a rot-memorizing work. Mnemonic skills are very important and necessary in vocabulary learning.”5 But if students are well aware of some neat tricks, that is, highly effective learning strategies, they can make appropriate use of those neat tricks that the thesis offers. More importantly, they can discover, even invent some new methods of their own with the new tool. “Anxiety will be lowered, and self-esteem will be established. Vocabulary learning will be both effective and efficient.”6 2. Theoretical foundations 2.1Current research findings of language learning strategies (LLS)Its viewed that second language learning strategies can play a rather pervasive role in second language learning, and research has progressed beyond simply counting the number of strategies.2.1.1Definions of second language learning strategiesResearch into the area of language strategies began in earnest in the 1970s. And second language learning-strategies have been defined in various ways. “Stern tries to distinguish between strategies and techniques in second language learning. According to him, strategy refers to general tendencies or overall characteristics of the approach employed by the language learner while learning technique refers to particular forms of observable learning behavior, more or less consciously employed by the learner.” 7 “In the process of identifying and categorizing language strategies, many students dealt indirectly with strategies specifically applicable to vocabulary learning.”8 In fact, a famous person once noted: “Training research on learning strategies with the second languages has been limited almost exclusively to cognitive applications with vocabulary tasks.”Also, “Cohen points out that language learning and language use strategies can be defined as those processes which are consciously selected by learners and which may result in action taken to enhance the learning or use of a second or foreign language, through the storage, retention, recall, and application of information about the language.”9 Despite that there are so many language strategies, few neat tricks of individual vocabulary strategies have been researched, except for main strategies being guessed from content and certain mnemonics, such as associating mnemonic, repeating mnemonic and mechanical mnemonic. For example: “common way for students to deal with vocabulary is using the books to recite and spell the words again and again. They can remember the pronunciation, spelling and meaning quickly. But they cant get the relative knowledge, such as background and usage of the words. The words can be remembered quickly at a short time, but it can also be forgotten easily.”10 “Nevertheless, combining the results from general learning strategy research with those from more vocabulary-specific studies allows us to derive a number of tentative general conclusions about vocabulary learning strategies.”11 2.1.2Why are vocabulary-learning strategies importantThe importance of vocabulary suggests that it is significant for learners to acquire vocabulary in large quantity and good quality. Present research into vocabulary study mostly focuses on memory work based on psychology and empirical experiments，like strategies of memorizing vocabulary. In fact，in addition to these，a great deal of research on vocabulary learning is worth.Vocabulary learning strategies are effective tools for developing communicative competence, which are taken by the students to enhance and improve their English study. Appropriate vocabulary learning strategies result in improving proficiency and gaining great self-confidence in vocabulary learning. They are used because there is a lot of vocabulary for the students to master. But the size of vocabulary is so large that it is beyond the students memorizing ability. So what can they do? Highly efficient vocabulary-learning strategies come to their minds. Those strategies are used to help the learners learn vocabulary in a quite relaxing atmosphere, so that more profitable learning can take place.Efficient and effective vocabulary learning strategies are essential for a successful English learning and many students need to be told how to make use of them in their vocabulary learning. “Stress should be laid on the importance of adopting both individual and social strategies for enhancing linguistic proficiency. The former might include watching or listening to English regularly, jotting down new vocabulary or comprehension problems，and reading for pleasure. The latter is concerned with maximizing opportunities to use English. ” 12 For example, students had better join in the English corner and try to communicate with others as often as possible.Also, the importance can be seen from a research on second language learners.Based on an investigation of vocabulary learning among 100 students in the branch of Zhangzhou NO.1 Middle School, it is found that vocabulary-learning strategies of those good English learners could make considerable contribution to enhancing the development of English skills. Among the learning strategies, they, more often than not, focus on vocabulary strategies. Its viewed that vocabulary is a permanent, strategy-based task, and not just a rot-memorizing work. But the others complain that though they have a conscious of the importance of the vocabulary, its still hard for them to memorize such large number of words. In order to make the importance of vocabulary learning clear to readers, two graphs are made to invest the 100 students. Graph 1（单位：人） Graph 2（单位：人）The graphs suggest that:First, the biggest obstacle of learning English as a foreign language lies in vocabulary. And reading is next to it. Actually, reading is made up of a lot of vocabulary. In other words, the difficulty of reading can be summed up as that of vocabulary. So, in order to improve their reading, how to help them learn vocabulary with high efficiency is worthy of the research. Second, most students are working hard at English and try to employ various strategies in handling their English learning. Especially the “good” or “successful” learners know which strategy is fit for them. They have the ability to create and apply new vocabulary strategies of their own, but from Graph 2, we can see only a few students have the ability to learn vocabulary with high efficiency.Third, more and more students show a tendency to attach great importance to the vocabulary learning. But most of them are considering that it is so difficult to do well in the vocabulary learning, and they are poor at creating or making use of new strategies.Therefore, doing research on vocabulary learning strategies is necessary. It will help most students to lighten their burden of memorizing a large number of English words. For this purpose, the thesis offers some new idea of which vocabulary strategies can be efficiently used.3. Neat tricks of vocabulary learning Because of Englishs richness in vocabulary, it seems quite difficult for middle school students to memorize so many words. Its impossible for even native speakers of a certain language to learn all of the words, let alone for learners who intend to master it as a foreign language. They can easily remember them, but also forget them more easily.In view of this problem of “time-consuming and poorly-efficient” vocabulary learning, the thesis offers some neat tricks. Though some may lack enough scientific theories, they are easy and fun for middle school students to learn the vocabulary. In order to elicit others valuable methods, the neat tricks offered are summed up as follows.3.1Learnig vocabulary by the way of verbal humor or jokesLanguage is a tool by which people can express their feelings and opinions, transmit information, exchange experience and take part in all kinds of social activities. In communication, in order to create some humorous effect or avoid some embarrassment, some English verbal humor always takes advantage of speech sound or semantic word (esp. pun or homonym) to create interesting ambiguity. With the help of English verbal humor or joke, students will keep in mind at ease those easily confused words and polysemic words.3.1.1Humor caused by the same or similar speech soundsHere, humor is created by the ambiguity, which is produced by homophone or homograph. Therere several examples helping us to learn vocabulary happily.(1) Formula for Water老师: 水的化学分子式是什么?比尔: HIJKLMNO.老师: 你在说什么?比尔: 你昨天不是说 “H to O”吗?13 In this conversation, the ambiguity lies in the pronunciation of “to”. It sounds the same as the word “two”. Here what the teacher says must be “H Two O” according to the formulaH2O. But the student mistakes “two” for “to”. From the humorous conversation, middle school students will easily memorize the two words.(2)“I had a round of golf with my wife this morning.”“Which won?”The husband didnt answer.“Which won?”asked the friend a second time.“Which one?”thundered the husband: “How many wives do you think I have? Do you take me for a Turk?” 14 The humor in this conversation is created on the basis of ambiguity between “won” and “one”. “Won” and “one” sounds completely the same, so it brings about the husbands misunderstanding. It is no wonder that he asks a question in reply that if his friend takes him for a Turk who advocates polygamy.Such similar humor may happen when somebody is telephoning. Please read the next conversation. (3) “What Is Your Name?A: Who is calling?B: Watt.A: What is your name, please? B: Watts my name.A: Thats what I told you. Whats your name?B: Thats what I told you. Watts my name. ” 15 After reading this conversation, we cant help bursting into laughter. The man, called Watt, is out of luck. He has told his nameWatt, but in vain. The other person still mistakes “Watts my name” for “Whats my name” just because of the similar pronunciation. At last, both have to ring off the telephone angrily. Here, we learn the two words “What” and “Watt” without any difficulty.3.1.2Humor caused by the polysemic wordsThis kind of ambiguity caused by polysemic word or pun is the most common in English conversation. Especially, the use of pun is so interesting that we cant help laughing.Below is a conversation between a teacher and a student.(4)“A：Do you know what happens to liars when they die?（你知道说谎的人死的时候会怎样吗）B：Yes, sir. They lie still.（我知道。他们依然撒谎。）”16 In this conversation, “lie” and “still” are two different homographs. So in order to master what the humor lies, we have to read between the lines. “Lie”has two meanings, that is, “躺” and “撒谎”. Similarly, “still”another pun, means “静静地” and “仍然”. Therefore, superficially, “lie still” means “静静地躺着”; actually，it refers to the liars common featuretelling the untruth all the time, that is, “仍然撒谎”. Just as the saying goes, the leopard can never change its spots. Here, students will have a good command of those two puns easily.Verbal humor sometimes also takes place between the professor and students.(5)“BeerThe Professor rapped his desk and shouted: Gentlemen, Order!The entire class yelled: Beer!” 17Here, “order” is a polysemic word. It not only refers to “keep silent”, but also refers to “request someone to bring (food, drink, etc.) in a hotel, restaurant, etc.” what on earth does it mean? It depends on the context. When lecturing, the professor shouted, “order” in order to ask the students to keep quiet, but the students purposely misinterpreted the professors words and yelled “Beer!” Then the professor found it both funny and annoying.Another example will further explain puns humor.(6) “-How are trees and dogs alike?- They both have a bark.” 18Here, wi