基于认知的中学英语词汇教学.doc

OUTLINEAbstractKey WordsI. IntroductionII. Current Situation of English Vocabulary Teaching and Learning2.1. Current Situation of English Vocabulary Learning of Middle School Students2.2. Current Situation of English Vocabulary TeachingIII. A Review of Related Theories of Cognitive Linguistics3.1. Prominence View3.2. Iconicity 3.3. CategorizationIV. A Discussion on English Vocabulary Teaching Strategies of Middle School4.1. The Content of English Vocabulary Teaching of Middle School4.2. English Vocabulary Teaching Strategies of Middle School4.2.1. Phonetics Teaching Strategies4.2.2. Word Formation Teaching Strategies4.2.3. Word Meaning Teaching StrategiesV. Effect of Cognitive Linguistics on English Vocabulary Teaching5.1. Benefit for Raising the Effect of English Vocabulary Remembering5.2. Benefit for Forming Good Learning Habits5.3. Meeting the Requirement of New CurriculumVI. Conclusion中文标题、摘要、关键词English Vocabulary Teaching and Learning of Middle School Based on Cognitive LinguisticsAbstract: Vocabulary teaching is an essential part of English teaching in middle school. This thesis mainly talks about vocabulary teaching strategies of middle school from three aspects of words, namely, phonetics, formation, and meaning based on cognitive linguistics. The principal theories that support this thesis are prominence view, iconicity, and categorization of cognitive linguistics.Key Words: vocabulary teaching and learning, cognitive linguistics, strategies,I. IntroductionVocabulary is regarded as the most important part in language learning. Wilkins, the famous linguist, said, “Without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”. As a foreign language to Chinese students, English has been widely taught for many years. Expanding vocabulary size is one of the basic goals for English learners, and it is especially critical to middle school students, for the phase of middle school is the transition for further learning. Various learning habits may be formed at this age which will affect their further study. Cognitive ability is important to middle school students and with the help of this ability good learning habits would be shaped up and suitable learning methods would be found by students themselves. But as young as they are, they do not know how to develop this significant ability in a better way, and they are not mature enough to explore valid learning methods by themselves, therefore, the role of teachers as guide counts for much. While in the practice of English vocabulary teaching, teachers are so often as not to pay attention to develop the cognitive ability of their students. Cognitive language is an approach to language that is based on our experience of the world and the way we perceive and conceptualize it (Ungerer & Schmid (1996: x). Some theories of cognitive linguistic can give a hand to English teaching of middle school. This thesis, combining with the analysis of the questionnaire which the author designed and answered by two classes in grade seven of Hengyang No.3 Middle School, valid English vocabulary teaching strategies would be discussed from three aspects of words based on cognitive linguistics theories which include prominence view, iconicity, and categorization. The number of the students surveyed is 92. The three aspects of word are phonetics, formation, and meaning of words. This thesis aims to discuss valid teaching strategies of English vocabulary and focuses on the positive impact that cognitive linguistics attaches to English vocabulary teaching and learning, so as to explore the effective methods which will lend support to promote the teaching efficiency of teachers and learning efficiency of students in a better way.II. Current Situation of English Vocabulary Teaching and Learning2.1. Current Situation of English Vocabulary Learning of Middle School StudentsDue to the special psychological characteristic of middle school students at this age, they seldom have an active attitude to study. 34.6% of the students surveyed state that they plan to memorize words only when the teacher asks them to, 41% of them plan to memorize words after they finish learning a certain unit (of course, the force made by unit exam shall not be neglected ), only 22.8% of them take words memorizing as a daily task. Additionally, during the process of memorizing some problem exists which made the effect leave much to be desired.The first students know a word is its formation that is to say, they know what dose the word looks like at first sight. But when come across some words which are similar in formation, students may feel confused. This kind of trouble is general for middle school students study. For example, most middle school students may misplace the word drawer for dresser, or confuse the difference between affect and effect, or others. The underlying cause largely comes from the mistake they made during vocabulary learning and memorizing. On the basis of the questionnaire survey, 38% of the students memorize the letters of a word one by one when they do vocabulary remembering, 42% of them memorize a word according to its phonetics, and only 19.5% of them are willing to find out the regular rules hidden in the words phonetics, formation and meaning.But middle school students do not have a clear definition about pronunciation system or know details about phonetic transcription. So, it is difficult for them to master the skills of pronunciation, which in turn would bring trouble to their vocabulary learning. According to the result of the questionnaire analysis, 35.9% of the students state that they cannot remember the words if they do not know how to read it, and 44.6% of them feel that this phenomenon happened sometimes. When asked how they can remember words, 55.3% of them state that they can remember words by thinking about its spelling while reciting the individual word time after time. The difficulty in vocabulary memorizing will cause a serial problem in English study which includes the misunderstanding in the listening and reading, and speechless in the speaking and writing. All of these would lead to short of interest in learning English.2.2. Current Situation of English Vocabulary TeachingVocabulary teaching is always the first step when teachers begin a new lesson. It seems like that leading students read the words in the words list, doing some picture matching exercises or displacement exercises, and then asking them memorize the words after class are what teachers in middle school usually do. And the frequently-used method of checking students vocabulary is doing dictation. With the grade getting higher, teachers may just lead students to read the new words in the morning class and then ask them memorize the words after class on their own. By teaching in this way, students burden a lot of assignment to remember the superficial knowledge of vocabulary. Moreover, if teachers do not strengthen supervision of vocabulary study, students will present a passive attitude to it for they have so many assignments from other courses. Teachers are liable to ignore the importance of leading students to explore valid vocabulary study methods and helping them form good study habits which are based on their cognitive abilities. Thus, students lost their subjective position in the teaching and learning, because they are not study on their own initiative.The things most of the middle school teachers emphasis on in the classroom are sentence structure, grammar forces, and useful phrases. Vocabulary is always put in the minor status, let alone the knowledge of vocabulary. Vocabulary knowledge is regarded as extracurricular knowledge and seldom mentioned in the class. In addition to the superficial knowledge of vocabulary expressed by their phonetics, formation, and meaning of words, there are other knowledge of vocabulary such as culture background and processes of word-formation which are hidden in the phonetics, formation, and meaning of words. Some teachers have realized the importance of adding vocabulary knowledge, while constrained by the limited classroom time and heavy teaching tasks they have to give up making effort to it.III. A Review of Related Theories of Cognitive LinguisticsLanguage is systematically ground in human cognition, and cognitive linguistics seeks to show exactly how (Sweetser (1990:1, 5). According to Ungerer and Schmid, cognitive linguistics is an approach to language that is based on our experience of the world and the way we perceive and conceptualize it (Wangyin (2007:11). Vocabulary is the fundamental element that bearing language information. English vocabulary teaching in middle school should not be a way of cramming, but a way to help students learn vocabulary and vocabulary knowledge based on their experience of the world and the way they perceive and conceptualize it. Forasmuch, cognitive linguistics can undoubtedly offer help to middle school teachers when they do vocabulary teaching. Among the various theories of cognitive linguistics there are three theories that benefit English vocabulary teaching and learning of middle school would be discussed here, they are: prominence view, iconicity, and categorization.3.1. Prominence ViewAccording to Ungerer and Schmid (1966), the prominence view is one of the three main approaches representing cognitive linguistics today.Prominence concerns the selection and arrangement of the information that is expressed. We can focus various amount of attention on different cognitive units and thus give prominence to different profiles against their bases. That is the basis of prominence principle (Yanjin Wang (2005:22).Words are different in formation, or in phonetics, or in meaning. It is these differences that made the numerous words and the large size of vocabulary. Comparing the differences of words by giving prominence to the different profiles in the vocabulary teaching would help students learn the characteristics of vocabulary, which is favorable to promoting students interest and vocabulary learning efficiency.3.2. Iconicity Iconicity refers to a natural relation between the signifier and the signified of the language form. This kind of relation is not arbitrary but motivated. Iconicity plays a decisive role in the daily life of forming all the culture. It has a great value in our understanding the nature of language symbol and in revealing the relation between language and cognitive.Iconicity was originally put forwarded by Peirce. In Peirces (1985:105-107) words, diagrams are icons “which represent the relations of the parts of one thing by analogous relations in their own parts many diagrams resemble their objects not all in looks; it is only in respect to the relations of their parts that their likeness consists.”Ferdinand de Saussure asserted that the link between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary (Saussure, 1964:100-102). While according to Househoders record, only 9% of words were absolutely arbitrary. Thus the remaining 91% of words can be analyzed by theories of iconicity. In terms of vocabulary the iconicity is embodied in the phonetics, formation, and meaning of words. 3.3. CategorizationCategorization is the process of classifying our experience into different categories based on commonalities and differences. Categorization is a major ingredient in the creation of human knowledge, and it allows us to relate present experiences to past ones (Huzhuanglin (2006:145).Classical theory of categorization, beginning from Plato and Aristotle, is characterized by their assertion that mental categories are discrete and absolute, Aristotle distinguished between the essence of a thing and its accidents. The essence is that which makes a thing what it is: essence is all parts of immanent in things which define and indicate their individuality, and whose destruction causes the destruction of the whole.For the linguist, categorization is an important issue because it underlies the use of words and the use of language in general. Since producing and understanding language undoubtedly involve cognitive process, categorization is necessarily something that takes place in our minds, and the categories resulting from it can be understood as mental concepts stored in our mind. Taken together they make up what has been called “mental lexicon” (Ungerer and Schmid, 2001).There are three levels in categories: the basic level, the superordinate level, and the subordinate level.IV. A Discussion on English Vocabulary Teaching Strategies of Middle School4.1. The Content of English Vocabulary Teaching of Middle SchoolPhonetics, formation, and meaning are the three basic elements of a word, and no one of them can be omitted or neglected when teach or learn vocabulary. But there are various features of vocabulary, some of the features stress on the phonetics, some of them on formation, and some of them on the meaning of words. Therefore, different teaching strategies can be issued according to the different features stressed on them.4.2. English Vocabulary Teaching Strategies of Middle School4.2.1. Phonetics Teaching StrategiesIn respect of English vocabulary, the phonetics of a word is inseparably linked with its formation. Unlike vocabulary in Chinese, as a general rule, English words can be read according to their formation thanks to the characteristics that a certain letter or a certain group of letters of a word has one or more certain sound. In the light of the estimation made by English spoken counties, among the 500,000 English words only 2.6% of them are differ in sound and formation, and 97.4% of them are corresponded in sound and formation. In the English vocabulary teaching, the role of teachers is leading students to cognize these characteristics which will offer great assistance to their further study. How to lead middle school students to cognize and learn? Teaching strategies depended on students cognitive ability should be appreciated.We have known that middle school students do not have a clear definition about pronunciation system or know details about phonetic transcription. Even spending a lot of time in teaching phonetic symbol, the effort is not as desired. Additionally, phonetics teaching is a long-time-taking work, and the time limited in the classroom is far from enough. As it is said that to teach him how to fish is more than to give him a fish, the fact of first-rate important is that teachers must help students explore valid learning methods with their teaching methods.Take this group of words for example, volleyball, basketball, baseball, which are list in a lesson that talks about sports, and the word ball was not mentioned before. After learning the phonetics of the three words, it is easy for students discover the same phonetics and letters in the end of the words. Surely, the next step of teaching is telling students what the word ball means. And then, the following steps are always neglected by teacher. Once the students find the similar in the three words, they will show great interesting in reading and repeating the words. Teachers can not let this opportunity goes by. The phonetic transcription /:/ can be taught promptly. Tell students, in order to produce the sound, push the lips forward and round them quite closely, just like a round ball, where the diagram /:/ resembles its object, ball. The iconicity theory in cognitive linguistics helps us here. However, we can not stop here, for other examples and practice should be taken next. New words in this section like sports and more can be learned at same time, for they also have a/:/ sound. Words have learned before like for, your, and lost should be reviewed. Since the phonetic transcription /:/ have been taught, the phonetic transcription / can not be ignored.Because of the short duration in the classroom, phonetic teaching can not last for a long time. Teachers can assign related homework to students, such as finding out the words with /: /and / sound from the word list, which can also help students continue their interesting in the class.But words like volleyball, basketball, baseball are not always appearing in such a certain situation, so teaching with association of mind is another method. To English vocabulary, the words middle school students can connected in mind are often the words similar in sound or form, whereas are the words they usually confused or mixed. This kind of words may be just looked similar; in order to distinguish them their differences must be found. What teachers should do is giving prominence to the differences. As the questionnaire investigation tells, 42% of the students memorize a word according to its phonetics, so giving prominence to the differences between phonetics would help a lot.The first step is to put associated words together. For example, when teaching the new word month, we can associate it with mouse and mouth. Between month mn and mouth mau, the slight difference is only one letter in the spelling of the two wards, that is, the third letter, n and u. But it is the only one difference that makes two phonemes different: the second and the third phoneme. Therefore, the phonetic difference is more important than the spelling difference of these two words. Differences between mouse and mouth can be explained in the same way.If we learn this kind of words only by comparing the difference like that, the effort comes too little. Middle school students do not think that is funny probably. After telling students the way of comparing, some practices are needed. Tongue twister is a valid and interesting method. For example: She sells seashells by the sea shore. The shells she sells are surely seashells. By practicing in this way, it is easy to hold the similar phonetics, but the differences between sou