谈中学英语词汇教学技巧

1 On Skills of English Vocabulary Teaching in Middle School 谈中学英语词汇教学技巧 Abstract Words are the basic element of language With the new English curriculum standards vocabulary has become one of the important standards for measuring English levels Mastering a certain amount of vocabulary is the key to learn English well However the obstructions of learning vocabulary still exist In many teachers and students mind English vocabulary has large quantity changeable and complicated styles and few principles to follow According to students psychological features the author discusses fresh and flexible ways of English vocabulary teaching It makes vocabulary teaching vivid and easy to understand and memorize This paper discusses some methods on how the teachers learn to teach words and how the students learn to grasp words based on the importance and the current situation of vocabulary teaching in middle school Key word vocabulary teaching middle school skill On Skills of English Vocabulary Teaching in Middle School I Introduction English is a kind of language which has a long history rich vocabulary complex meanings and concise grammar People all over the world are willing to learn and use this language It is like a vast ocean In order to learn it well learners should not only swim in the English vocabulary ocean but also master the skills of learning vocabulary Vocabulary plays a core role in language teaching and learning It lays a foundation for listening speaking reading and writing When students are learning a foreign language and do not know its inner rules it will affect students understanding and practicing Vocabulary is the basis of improving learners language ability Perhaps the most common way for Chinese learners of English to learn vocabulary is through memorization of a list of words and their Chinese equivalents with a lot of oral repetitions of each word Many learners may have found this kind of vocabulary learning very ineffective as they often find that they still cannot understand the meaning of the text they had read although they know the Chinese meaning of each word Without vocabulary language will lose its meaning To many English learners English vocabulary learning is one of the most difficult problems in English study Unlike the controversial role of grammar in 2 foreign language learning the role of vocabulary seems to have received more consistent understanding However uncertainty still remains regarding what constitutes a vocabulary item which vocabulary items should be taught and learned and how vocabulary can be taught and learned most effectively and efficiently Wilkins 1792 said Without grammar very little can be conveyed without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed McCarthy 1990 said No matter how well the student learns grammar no matter how successfully he masters the sounds of L2 without words to express a wide range of meanings communication in that language cannot happen in any meaningful way Xiao Xi 2003 said English vocabulary teaching is in accordance with English words phrases idioms collocations and usages and basic word formation Words are the basic material of language and one of the three key elements of language Certain amount of words is the basis of listening speaking reading and writing Teaching vocabulary lively and efficiently and letting students form the right habit of word learning can make students develop their English level as soon as possible The teaching task is quite hard and permeates from beginning to end so teaching skills appears very important In China English education is an indispensable part of the curriculum designated by the educational authorities Although they have studied English for many years and passed a lot of examinations students are still considered weak in using English correctly Reasons vary from the unreasonable education system to schools management and even to families effects Average English teachers can do very little to change those macro situations but they can polish up their micro teaching skills for instance the skills of vocabulary teaching Based on previous researches about English vocabulary this paper intends to help English teachers improve their skills of vocabulary teaching so that students can master more words in limited time II The problems of English vocabulary learning and teaching in middle school The successful acquisition of a language involves at least two main aspects the students perspective and the teachers perspective which indicates that learning and teaching are equally important and interrelated Therefore the problem of vocabulary acquisition is supposed to be explored from these two aspects 2 1 The problems of English vocabulary learning It is very common to see this situation in an English class the atmosphere is very hot Some students can talk about literature However if they are asked to write some English sentences or short essays their passages are full of mistakes especially 3 misused words Where does the problem lie 2 1 1 Students psychological factors Some students think that learning vocabulary means reciting it In fact mastering a word contains many things not only reading and writing it right but also knowing its usage and using it proficiently Because of not knowing the real importance of vocabulary learning students underestimate it They do not work hard on learning and accumulating vocabulary Moreover they do not know how to study vocabulary efficiently At the very beginning of learning English students are curious and interested in English As the accumulation of English knowledge some students are unable to do as much as they would like to After a certain time a certain number of students find it dry and dull and are tired of studying They beat a retreat in the face of difficulties Finally they give it up 2 1 2Students carelessness in their study Some students do not have a rigorous learning approach They are always careless when they read and write words They do not pay enough attention to those words which have familiar word style but different pronunciation and meaning such as polite and police They also do not distinguish those words which have the same pronunciation but different word style such as so sew and sow As a result those students cannot remember words clearly and tend to mix them up 2 1 3 Students failure in reviewing words Due to limited class time students will not be able to learn all the vocabulary simply from class teaching They usually find that it is very easy for them to memorize many new words in a short time but they will forget them in a shorter time That is because they do not know how to review words effectively They do not follow the principle of the memory to review words Ebbinghaus a world famous psychologist had a great research the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve It states clearly that the process of forgetting is not balanced At first people forget things fast but some time later the speed of forgetting slows After a certain time people will not forget anything So in order to memorize more words students should review them in time to overcome forgetting Students must strike while iron is hot 2 2 The problems of English vocabulary teaching In language teaching the understanding of how to teach vocabulary has been a focus of controversy for quite a long time and today is still going on New English Curriculum Standards for Nine Year Compulsory Education and Senior High School 4 have been issued and carried out but in many middle schools traditional teaching methods are still the mainstream How to develop vocabulary efficiently and effectively has become a very important task for teachers Today there still exist some wrong notions in English vocabulary teaching Vocabulary teaching is an indispensable part of English curriculum But some traditional vocabulary teaching methods seem to isolate the words from the context or break away from the scientific rules which cannot help students develop a language competence in the long run but cause them to lose interest in English Middle school English teachers should take great responsibility for this since they are the premier ones who introduce students to the field of English 2 2 1 Not distinguishing the primary and secondary words When students learn a new text they will meet at least ten new words One of teachers tasks is to be a bridge to connect students and knowledge If they do not do so students load will increase In fact many teachers only ask students to memorize vocabulary mechanically in morning reading time and never supervise their students in memorizing and reviewing words Another kind of teachers pay attention to all the new words They do not know which one is the primary and which one is the secondary Students load will increase too 2 2 2Reviewing words in simplistic and mechanical ways The method of reviewing words for nearly all the students is reciting The method of testing words for nearly all the teachers is dictation Some students can memorize the vocabulary list thoroughly but they cannot get high marks in examinations They usually use Chinglish in oral or written expressions Teachers should tell students that the vocabulary list is a tool to help them understand texts well not the only means to accumulate new words Otherwise they cannot make themselves understood in many kinds of communication For example if students are asked to translate a Chinese sentence 天安门广场上是人山人海 into English lots of students will translate it like this Tian anmen Square is people mountain people sea In fact the right answer is that There are huge crowds of people on Tian anmen Square Another example someone was busy carrying books into the house because it was raining At that time he said to his friend It rains cats and dogs Can you give me a hand Students will be puzzled though there are no new words in these two sentences 5 2 2 3Ignoring the pronunciation A lot of teachers think that their teaching aim is to let students get high marks in examinations and the college entrance examinations do not test students pronunciation so they ignore it Having taught English for several years the author has found that most students memorize new words mechanically not according to the pronunciation They usually missed or added letters or wrote letters in a wrong order Take the word first and quiet for example They may write them like this frist and quite If they can pronounce words right and read them silently while writing these faults can be avoided 2 2 4 Stressing grammar teaching Most language learners begin another language learning by starting with vocabulary and the learning of vocabulary seems to accompany a learner throughout the learning process even after all the basic grammatical rules have been learned Because of the influence of traditional English methods grammar teaching still occupies most time of a lesson especially in the rural areas Many teachers believe that analyzing grammar points is much more important than teaching vocabulary In some schools teachers spend more than half of the total periods in explaining grammar points They leave a little time for students to read the new words one or two times Students are not talented enough to remember all the new words in such a short time III Skills of English vocabulary teaching 3 1 Ways of vocabulary presentation Vocabulary can be presented in many different ways and different teachers may prefer to present vocabulary in different ways For effective teaching of vocabulary it is always useful for a teacher to have a repertoire of techniques so that he can choose a technique according to the type of vocabulary and different age level of the learners 3 1 1Presenting pictures Generally speaking most people think that English teachers only know English If an English teacher shows some other skills in the class as a teaching means students curiosity will be brought into play In their mind their teacher is skillful and knowledgeable They will admire him and show great interest in his lesson The teacher draws some simple pictures on the blackboard which can make the lesson full of wit and humor and motivate students interest of learning For example if the teacher teaches some words about animal he can draw a pig and tell the 6 students This is a pig and then draws some other animals and tells them what they are However he must draw quickly because time is limited PPT is also widely used in teaching It is very convenient to show the speaker s thoughts It can be used to present new words by showing pictures short films and so on All the materials teachers choose should be lively For instance when the teacher teaches the phrase open the door he had better present a dynamic picture to show the whole process of opening the door 3 1 2Presenting objects The teacher can prepare some objects which are correlated with the new lesson and take them to the classroom For example if the teacher wants to introduce the new word telephone he can prepare a dialogue like this Teacher What s this in English point to the telephone Do you know Students No Teacher No Listen to me please It s a telephone Telephone Repeat Students Telephone Teacher How do you say telephone in Chinese Students 电话 Teacher Yes That s right 3 1 3Using interdisciplinary knowledge Nothing can exist in isolation Sometimes English teaching also needs the help of other subjects For instance many students do not know how to use three positions on to and in This problem is a headache for both teachers and students The teacher tries his best to explain it in details but students are still unclear Introducing three math conceptions tangent disjoint and inclusion can solve the problem perfectly Tangent means on Disjoint means to Inclusion means in We can draw some pictures as follows to help students understand and remember Tangent Disjoint Inclusion on to in 3 1 4Paying attention to pronunciation In the teaching of English as a foreign language discussions on pronunciation are not so much around how to teach pronunciation as around the value of teaching pronunciation There are people who claim that students do not need to learn 7 pronunciation because pronunciation will take care of itself as the students develop overall language ability However there are people who assert that failure in pronunciation is a great hindrance to language learning Learning a word involves more than just the word itself Literary language is the unity of pronunciation word style and meaning Pronunciation plays a very important role in language learning especially in vocabulary learning English teachers must speak standard English or they cannot teach students to pronounce words correctly and correct their wrong pronunciation Students should read words while writing them In this process they can join the word style pronunciation and meaning together If students can pronounce words exactly they can write many mono syllabic words and bi syllabic words such as ask desk cup mother communicate and so on Many groups of English letters have fixed pronunciation We often pronounce ay ei such as day dei pay pei may mei and play plei Oo has two kinds of pronunciations One is u such as book buk cook kuk and look luk The other one is u such as zoo zu too tu and food fu d Mastering basic phonetic rules helps students spell words according to the pronunciation They can get twice the result with half the effort 3 1 5Using word formation The expansion of vocabulary in modern English depends chiefly on word formation There is a variety of means being at work now The most productive are affixation compounding and conversion According to Plyles and Algeo 1982 words produced through affixation constitute 30 to 40 of the total number of new words compounding yields 28 to 30 of all the new words conversion brings 26 of the new vocabulary into modern English Therefore teachers can use word formation rules and common affixes to build new lexical knowledge on what is already known This is a good way for students to enlarge their vocabulary As English teachers they should introduce some everyday prefixations to students For example pre means before and in advance Students can guess the meaning in accordance with the prefixation and the root they know They can infer the new word prehistory period before recorded history and prejudge make a judgment about a person or case before a proper inquiry has been held There are many other prefixations in common use such as un not the converse of super more than beyond very special and so on 8 In order to enlarge vocabulary knowing something about suffixation is also necessary It is very common to see that a lot of words end up with the same suffixation such as popularity similarity and morality The same as prefixation suffixation also has fixed meaning For instance ese means member of or language of such as Chinese It means of China its language or its people Compound cannot be ignored too Most compounds consist of only two bases but are formed on a rich variety of patterns and the internal grammatical relationships within the words are considerably complex Take the words blackboard and daybreak for example Students must know the meanings of black board day and break It helps them guess the meaning They can infer the word blackboard means a black board used for writing on with chalk especially in a school classroom and the word daybreak means the day breaks or dawn Some words are so long that students feel that it is very hard for them to remember In this situation the teacher must teach students to analyze the long word s prefixation suffixation and root Once this principle contradiction is grasped all the problems can be readily solved e g autobiography Its prefixation is auto which means self One of its roots is bio which means of living things The other root is graphy means a form of writing Put these three parts together We get the meaning write oneself In other words that is story