The Strategies of Enlarging English Vocabulary.docx

The Strategies of Enlarging English Vocabulary.docx

《The Strategies of Enlarging English Vocabulary.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《The Strategies of Enlarging English Vocabulary.docx（19页珍藏版）》请在冰豆网上搜索。

TheStrategiesofEnlargingEnglishVocabulary

英语词汇提高策略

TheStrategiesofEnlargingEnglishVocabulary

Abstract:

MemorizingEnglishvocabularyisaneverydaylearningactivityformanystudentsinChina.Formanyyears,programsthatpreparedlearnersofsecondlanguagegavelittleattentiontotechniquesforlearningvocabulary.Asweenterthe21stcentury,acquisitionofvocabularyhasassumedamoreimportantrole.

Nowadays,itisagreedbyallthatvocabularyisthebuildingblocksofalanguage.Withoutvocabularyverbalcommunicationisequaltoimpossible.ThisthesisisaimedtodealwiththestrategiesoflearningEnglishvocabulary.

Itstartswiththediscussionofwhatisinvolvedinthelearningofanewword,thenstudiesthefactorsaffectingvocabularylearning.Twoimportantvocabularystrategiesareputforwardanddiscussedindetail.

Keywords:

Englishvocabulary;Vocabularylearningconditions;Vocabularylearningstrategies

摘　要：

对大多数中国学生来说，记忆英语词汇是每天的学习任务。

许多年来，英语教学材料中给学习词汇的技巧没有太多的关注。

而当我们进入21世纪，学习词汇已变得越来越重要。

如今，词汇是语言的基石已被语言学习者所广泛接受。

没有词汇口头交流是不可能的。

这篇论文将致力于讨论学习英语词汇的策略。

论文开篇将展开讨论学习一个词汇需要注意的一些方面，然后研究了影响英语词汇学习的因素。

在这篇论文中提出了两种学习英语词汇的重要策略并且展开了细节讨论。

关键词：

英语词汇;词汇学习条件;词汇学习策略

Contents

I.Introduction…………………………………………………………………....1

II.Whatisinvolvedinthelearningofaword?

……….....………………..1

III.Factorsaffectingwordlearningability…............…………….………..2

A.Pronunciation………...……………………………………….....…………2

B.Derivationalcomplexity....................………………………………….....3

C.Abstractness................……………………………………………………..…4

D.Specificityandregisterrestriction……….................................…………..5

E.Idiomaticity.............................................……………………………………...6

IV.Strategiesoflearningvocabulary.........…………………………..............6

A.Discoverystrategies...........……………………………………………....……6

1.Determinationstrategies……................................................…………....6

2.Socialstrategies......................................................................…………....8

B.Consolidationstrategies................…………………………………………....9

1.Mutualstrategies…...........................................................…………....9

2.Memorystrategies..................................................................…………...9

3.Pictures/imagery...........................................................…………..10

4.Relatedwords….............................................................................……..10

5.Unrelatedwords...............................................................................……..10

6.Grouping..........................................................................................……..11

7.Word'sorthographicalorphonologicalform..............................……..12

8.Othermemorystrategies...............................................................……..12

9.Cognitivestrategies........................................................................……..13

10.Metacognitivestrategies...............................................................……..14

V.Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..15

WorksCited…………………………………………………………………….....16

I.Introduction

ForChinesestudents,vocabularylearninghasbeenatime-consumingtask.Memorizingvocabularyisaburdentoalargenumberofstudents.TeachersofEnglishknowverywellhowimportantvocabularyis.TheyknowstudentsmustlearnthousandsofwordsthatspeakersandwritersofEnglishuse.Butformanyyears,programsthatpreparedlearnersofsecondlanguagegavelittleattentiontotechniquesforlearningvocabulary.Somebooksappearedtotellinglearnersthattheycouldlearnallthewordstheyneededwithouthelp.Infact,teachersweresometimestoldthattheyoughtnottoteachmanywordsbeforetheirstudentshadmasteredthegrammarandthesoundsystemofthelanguage.Pronunciationandgrammarwereemphasized,buttherewaslittleornoemphasisonvocabulary.

Vocabularyisthebuildingblocksofalanguage.Withoutvocabularyverbalcommunicationisimpossible.Thetaskofvocabularylearningisasubstantialoneoflearners.Fortunately,theneedforvocabularyisonepointonwhichteachersandstudentsagree.Inteacher-preparationprogramstoday,thereismoreattentiontotechniquesforteachingvocabulary.Withthisshiftemphasis,theclassroomteacherisfacedwiththegreatchallengeofhowbesttohelpstudentsstoreandretrievewordsinthetargetlanguage.

Thestudyofvocabulary——learningstrategiesisapromisingareaofinquiry.Thisisbecauseitispossibletodefinethelearningtargetsandstrategiesveryprecisely.Andalsotoinvestigatestrategiesthathavewidecurrencyintheliterature.Also,vocabularylearningstrategieslendthemselvestoexperimentalinvestigation.

II.Whatisinvolvedinthelearningofaword?

Inmostlinguisticanalysesawordisdescribedasasetofpropertiesorfeatures.（Forvariousapproachestothedefinitionofaword,see（Chomsky,1965;GibsonandLevin,1975）.Bywayofsummary,itisgenerallyagreedthatknowledgeofthefollowingisnecessaryinordertoknowaword：

a.Form—spokenandwritten,thatispronunciationandspelling.

b.Wordstructure—thebasicfreemorpheme（orboundrootmorpheme）andthecommonderivationsofthewordanditsinflections.

c.Syntacticpatternofthewordinaphraseandsentence.

d.Meaning：

referential（includingmultiplicityofmeaningandmetaphoricalextensionsofmeaning）,affective（theconnotationoftheword）,andpragmatic（thesuitabilityofthewordinaparticularsituation）.

e.Lexicalrelationsofthewordwithotherwords,suchassynonymy,antonymy,hyponymy.

f.Commoncollocations.

Thusknowingawordwouldideallyimplyfamiliaritywithallitsfeatures,asisoftenthecasewithaneducatednativespeaker.However,inthecaseoflanguagelearning,knowingmaybepartial.Thelearnermayhavemasteredsomeoftheword’spropertiesbutnottheothers.Infact,themultiplicityoffeaturestobelearnedincreasestheprobabilityofwordsbeingproblematicandthereforeonlypartiallylearnedsinceproblemscanarisefromoneormoreoftheareas.Therearewordswhichlearnersknowinthesenseofknowingwhattheymeanincertaincontexts,butwhichtheycannotuseproductively.Otherwordsvaryinhoweasilytheycanbeproduced:

somewordscanberetrievedonlywitheffort;somearemomentarilyinaccessible;otherscanbeexpressedinstantaneously.

III.Factorsaffectingwordlearnability

A.Pronunciation

Foreignlearnerstooexperiencephonologicaldifficultiesrelatedtophonemes,combinationsofphonemesandsuprasegmentalfeatures.Whatmakessomewordsphonologicallymoredifficultthanothersisverymuchdeterminedbythelearner'ssystem.Thesystemmayberesponsibleforthelearner’sinabilitytodiscriminatebetweensomephonemesandsubsequentconfusionofwordsdifferingpreciselyintheseproblematicphonemes.Suchwordsmaybeperceivedashomophones.Forexample,SpanishspeakinglearnersofEnglishmayhavedifficultywithdistinguishingbetweenpairslikeban/van,day/they,whileHebrewspeakershavedifficultydistinguishingbetweenliveandleave,bedandbad,thinkandsink.TheSpanishspeakersmayhavetroublewithpronouncingwordslikejust,shop,andstrange,theHebrewspeakersfinditdifficulttopronouncefinalconsonantclustersinclothesandfilms.

Familiaritywithphonologicalfeaturesandaword'sphonotacticregularity（itsfamiliarcombinationsoffeatures）wereshowntoaffectaccuracyinperceiving,sayingandrememberingtheword.English-speakinglearnersofRussianshowedthatforeignwordswhichweredifficulttopronounce（e.g.mgla）werenotlearnedaswellasthemorepronounceableones.GibsonandLevin（24）reportaseriesofexperimentsonnonsensewords—somepronounceable,someunpronounceableforparticularlanguagespeakers.（e.g.slandversusndasl）.Theresultsshowedthatthepronounceablewordswereperceivedmoreaccuratelythantheunpronounceableones.Ontheotherhand,manylinguisticsfoundnorelationshipbetweendifficultyofpronunciationofsomeHebrewitemsandtheiracquisitionbyEnglish-speakinglearnersofHebrew.Butsheadmitsthatinherstudythefactorofpronounciationabilitymighthavebeenneutralizedbyotherfactorswhichhadmoreeffectontheacquisitionofparticularwords.

Correctpronunciationofawordrequiresstressontherightsyllable.Learnersoflanguageswithfixedstress（e.g.penultimateinPolish,initialinFinish）willhaveasimplertaskthanlearnersofalanguagelikeEnglishwheretheplaceofthestressisvariable（e.g.Pho'tograph,photo'graphic）andhastobelearnedaspartoftheword’sspokenform.Moreover,theweakeningofunstressedvowels（e.g.1abourandlaborious）introducesyetanotherfactorofdifficulty,particularlyforlearnersunfamiliarwiththisphenomenon.

Inviewofalltheabovementionedpronunciationdifficulties,theremaybeagapbetweenthelearner’sabilitytoperceiveawordandhis/herabilitytoproduceitcorrectly.Onestrategytocopewiththeproblemisavoidanceofthesephonologicallyproblematicwords.Forexample,anEnglish-speakinglearnerofHebrewmaychoosetoavoidthewordxaver,whichcontainsthesound/x/andusejadidinstead,bothmeaning‘afriend’.Thisisusuallythecasewithadultlearnerswhoareself-consciousofhowtheysound.

B.Derivationalcomplexity

Thelearner'sabilitytodecomposeawordintoitsmorphemescanfacilitatetherecognitionofanewwordanditssubsequentproduction.Forexample,familiaritywiththemeaningofthesuffix-shipandthewordscholarwillenablehimorhertorecognizethemeaningoftheword"scholarship".Theawarenessofante-andpre-asbeingsynonymouscanhelpthe