How-to-Teach-Vocabulary-to-High-School-Students-高中-英语-论文

HowtoTeachVocabularytoHighSchoolStudents何萌西安铁一中滨河学校ItisclearthatthetaskofvocabularylearningisasubstantialonefortheEFLlearners.Richards(1976)suggestedthatanativespeakerchildonenteringschoolattheageoffiveorsixwouldalreadyhaveaproductivevocabularyofsome2,000to3,000words.ComparethiswiththebasiclexiconofsimilarsizeusedbythehighschoolstudentsinChinawhoarerequiredtomasteratleast3,000EnglishvocabulariesintheCollegeEntranceExamination,thelearningofEnglishvocabularyseemstobeanextremelynecessaryandimportanttaskifthestudentswanttopasstheexamandgetagreatmark.StrategiesforvocabularylearningInordertolearnwordslearnersusearangeofstrategies.Someofthesecanbecalledcognitive:theyaredirectmentaloperationswhichareconcernedwithworkingonnewwordsinordertounderstand,categorize,andstoretheminthementallexicon(Carter,R.,&M.McCarthy,1988).Examplesaremakingassociations,learningwordsingroups,andexploringrangeofmeaning.Anothercognitivestrategyreportedbylearnersisthatofusingkeywords.CoadyandHuckin(1997)statedthatakeywordisawordchosenfromthefirstlanguagewhichsoundslikethenewwordinthesecondlanguage,andwhereitispossibletomakesomekindofassociationbetweenthetwo.Forexample,thepronunciationoftheEnglishword‘ambulance’issimilartoaChinesesentence:“Idon’twannadie”,soonecanrememberthepronunciationandthemeaningofthisEnglishvocabularywiththehelpoftheirfirstlanguage.Othercognitivestrategiescanbeobservedwhenlearnersfirstencounteranunfamiliarwordandengageinlexicalinferencinginordertotrytoestablishitsmeaning(Hiebert,E.,&Kamil,M.,2005).Alearnermightdeducefromthesyntacticstructurethatthewordisanadjectivelocatedbeforeanoun,mightdividethewordintoitsparts,realizingthat‘-able’isacommonsuffixforanadjective,mightreadonforevidenceinthecontextofthetextthatthemeaningispositive,andmightlookforasimilarwordinhisorherfirstlanguage.Itisusefulfortheteacherstobeawareofthevarietyofmethodsusedbylearnerstocopewithwords,toencouragelearnersineffectivestrategies,andtointroducesomeofthesethroughteaching.FactorsaffectingvocabularyacquisitionManyfactorsappeartoplayaroleinvocabularydevelopment,thoughtheexactnatureoftheroleisnotalwaysclearlyunderstoodatthefindingsofsomeresearchstudiesseemtocontradictthereceivedwisdomoftheELTprofessionandwhathasbeenstandardpracticeintheclassroom.Somefactorsaretodowithinput,inotherwordsthewayinwhichvocabularypresentsitselftolearners,forexamplethroughteacherpresentation,readingwordsintexts,learningwordsduringpeerexchange,orthroughself-accessworkofsomekinds.Otherfactorsaretodowithstoring,organizing,andbuildingvocabularyinthementallexiconandbeingabletoretrieveorrecallitwhenitisneeded(Sachs,J.,2005).Here,I’mgoingtopickuponeofthefactors-frequencytoillustrateitindetail.TherationaleforthisisquitesimplythatthemostfrequentlyoccurringwordsintheEnglishlanguagewillbethosemostusefultolearners.TheconceptoffrequencyhasinfluencedELTintherepetitionofwordsintexts.AstudybyKachru(1962),forexample,whotestedhisIndianstudentstoseewhichwordstheyknewfromtheircoursebook,showedthatmostlearnersknewthewordsthatappearedmorethanseventimes,buttheydidnotknowhalfofthewordsthatappearedonlyonceoftwice.Furthermore,repetitionofwordsinmaterialscanaidtheprocessoflexicalinferencingandhasbeenusedasaprincipleforconstructinggradedreadingmaterialformanyyears(Read,J.,2000).Certainly,iflearnersaretobeexposedtoawiderangeofwordmeaningsandassociationsthenitwillbeimportantforthemtoencounterwordsinavarietyofdifferentsituationsthroughextensivereadingandlistening.Therefore,inthispoint,theimplicationforEnglishteachersistoencouragethestudentstoreadmoreandlistenmore,inwhichwaycantheyencounterthefrequentlyappearedwordsmore,sotheycanremembertheynaturally.ImplicationsfortheteachingofvocabularyAtthemoment,teachersandtextbookwritersareinapositionoftryingtoworkoutprinciplesandproceduresforteachingvocabularyonthebasisoftheinsightswehavegainedaboutthelexicalsystemofEnglishandaboutvocabularyacquisition.Itwouldbeusefultohaveinformationfromclassroomstudiesastowhichstrategiesareeffectiveforwhichaspectsofvocabularylearning.Intheabsenceofsuchinformationweneedtoreviewcurrentmethodologyandmaterialsanddecidehowbesttoexploittheideasavailablewithourwonlearners.Anumberofprinciplesseemtobeatwork,somewell-establishedandothersmorerecent,anditistothesewenowturn.AccordingtoLee.B.C.(2013),itisevidentlytheviewofmanycurrenttextbookwritersthat,aswellasindirectlearningthroughhandlingthelanguageinclassroomactivities,directvocabularyinstructionisuseful.Teacherswhowishtoprovidedirectinstructioncanfindmanyusefulideasfortasktypesinbothcoursebooksandsupplementarymaterialsbuttheywillneedtoformulateprinciplesfortheirownclassroompracticeinthisarea.Oncriterionmightbethatvocabularyiswell-contextualized,forexample,throughlisteningorreadingmaterial.Areadingtextcanprovideaspringboardforarangeofvocabulary-focusedwork.Thevocabularyworkdoesnotreplaceworkonthelearners’responsetothecontentofthetextbutispartoffollow-upactivity.Anotherprinciplemightbetousetheopportunitiescreatedbythestudents’ownqueriesorattemptstousevocabulary,andtofocusforafewmomentsonawordandotherwordsrelatedtoit(Wright,A.,2014).Thiscanbeparticularlyeffectiveas,instrugglingtofindtheappropriateword,alearnerprovidesacontextforthemeaningtheteachersuppliesatthepointoftheneed.Afurtherprinciplemightbetoallocatetimeineverylessontosomekindofvocabularyworkandtobuildachecklistoftheareastobecoveredduringayear’sprogramme,drawnupasappropriatetotheleveloflearners,fromthevariouselementslikesenserelations(synonymsandantonyms),rulesofwordformation(commonprefixesandsuffixes),collocationsandidiomsandconnotativemeaning.Workingtoasetofprincipleslikethosejustdescribedwillensurethatlearnersreceiveexposuretoarichandvariedrangeofvocabularywhichtheycanworkonintheirpreferredwaysforacquisition.Inall,thispassagehastriedtodemonstratethecomplexitiesoflearningtheEnglishlexiconandsomeimplicationsforteacherstopayattentionto.VocabularyteachingisdevelopinggreaterimportanceintheEnglishlanguageclassroom.ManyteacherswouldnowagreewithRichards’sassertionthatweneed‘arichviewoflexicalcompetence’(1976:88),andareexploringwaysofprovidingvocabularyinstruction,someofthesebasedonwhatgoodlearnerstellustheydo.Itismyhopethatwecanhavemoreeffectivestrategiesandwaystohelpstudentsimprovetheirlanguagelearning.ReferencesCarter,R.,&M.McCarthy.(1988).VocabularyandLanguageTeaching.London:LongmanCoady,J.,&T.Huckin.(eds.).(1997).SecondLanguageVocabularyAcquisition.Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress.Hiebert,E.,&Kamil,M.(2005).Teachingandlearningvocabularybringingresearchto