Discovering Techniques of Vocabulary Teaching in Middle Schools.docx

Discovering Techniques of Vocabulary Teaching in Middle Schools.docx

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DiscoveringTechniquesofVocabularyTeachinginMiddleSchoolsDiscoveringTechniquesofVocabularyTeachinginMiddleSchoolsABSTRACT:

Grammarprovidestheoverallpatterns,andvocabularyisthematerialtoputinthepatterns.Withoutgrammarwecanconveyalittle,butwithoutvocabularywecanconveynothing.VocabularyteachingisanindispensablepartofEnglishcurriculum.Butsometraditionalvocabulary-teachingmethodsseemtoisolatethewordsfromthecontextorbreakawayfromthescientificrules,thattheycanthelpstudentstodevelopalanguagecompetenceinthelongrunbutcausethemtoloseinterestinEnglish.MiddleschoolEnglishteachersshouldtakegreatresponsibilityforthis,sincetheyarethepremieroneswhointroducestudentstothefieldofEnglish.Inthispaper,Iwouldprovideelevenscientificvocabulary-teachingtechniques.IthinktheycouldbevaluableformiddleschoolEnglishteachersduringtheirteachingprocess.KEYWORDSTechniquevocabularycontextcompetence摘要：

语法是语言的基本模型，词汇是语言的基本材料；如果没有语法，我们几乎不能明确地表达思想；而如果没有词汇我们则完全无法表达任何东西。

词汇教学是英语教学中不可或缺的一部分。

一些中学英语教师在讲授词汇时，把词汇从上下文中脱离出来，忽略了科学的学习规律；从长远来看，这种传统的词汇教学方法不仅不利于学生形成和提高英语语言能力，反而会导致他们对英语失去兴趣。

作为中学生学习英语的启蒙老师，中学英语教师应对此承担一定的责任。

在该论文中，我提供了11种较为科学的词汇教学方法，我希望在这11种方法对中学英语教师会有一定的参考价值。

关键词教学方法词汇语境语言能力INTRODUCTIONInChina,Englishteachershavesometimestendedtooverlooktheimportanceofthelexicalsystem.Thisisespeciallyobviousinthemiddleschool.ThisphenomenonmighthaveresultedfromthefactthatlinguistshaveworkedoutaperfectequivalentChinesevocabularysystemtoEnglishvocabularysystem,sothatteachesandstudentscanmoreeasilydealwiththevocabularythanwiththegrammarandsoundofEnglishwhicharequitedifferentfromtheChinesegrammarandsoundsystem.Lexicalitemsmayalsohaveappearedtobeofsecondaryimportancebecausetheyhavesometimesbeenseenasthatwhichisusedto“fleshout”thestructureortoexemplifypartsofthesoundsystem.However,withoutlexiconthemajormeaning-caringelementinlanguageismissing.Therefore,theacquisitionofvocabularyisanintegralpartofEnglishteaching.Ontheotherhand,thereareteacherswhohavetendedtooveremphasizethelearningofwordsinthelengthyvocabularylists.TheoldEnglishtextbook（JUNIORENGLISHFORCHINA,PeoplesPublisherofChina,1990）bearssilentwitnesstosuchanapproach.Thesolutionhereistoseekscientifictechniquesofvocabularyteaching.Studentsshouldbeexposedtothevocabularyneededtoexpresstheideastheywanttocommunicate.Thevocabularyitemsshouldnotbestrictlylimited,norshouldvocabularyacquisitionbestressedtotheexclusionofotherpartsofthelanguagesystem.Inthefollowingpart,Iwilldiscussfourtopics:

I.Theimportanceofvocabularyteachinginmiddleschools.II.Thedrawbacksofseveraltraditionalvocabularyteachingmethods.III.ThreedistinguishingfeaturesofEnglishwordsand11scientifictechniquesformiddleschoolteacherstodelivervocabularyteaching.IV.Byadoptingscientificvocabularyteachingtechniques,teacherscanhelpstudentsimprovetheirlanguageacquisitionabilityandlanguagecompetence.I.Theimportanceofvocabularyteachinginmiddleschool:

Wordisoneofthethreebasiclanguageunits（sound,word,grammar）.Itisessentialtocommunication.OneofthefamouslinguistsWilkinsoncesaidthat,“Withoutgrammarverylittlecanbeconveyed,withoutvocabularynothingcanbeconveyed.”（Wilkins,ENGLISHSTUDY,ForeignLanguageStudyInstitute,1987）Littlechildrenlearntospeakinisolatedwordsandtheninchainsofnounsandverbs.Achildwhosays“Mumbye-byebike”iseasilyunderstoodbyEnglish-speakingadult.Studentswhoareimmersedintoanewlinguisticsettlingtendtopickupvocabularyfirst,andthengraduallydevelopamoreaccurate,structuralframeworkinwhichtousethesewords.Andtheymustcontinuallybelearningwordsastheylearnstructuresandastheypracticethesoundsystem.Therefore,vocabularyteachingisanindispensablepartofEnglishlessonsinmiddleschool,andanimportanttaskfortheteachers.WhetheramiddleschoolEnglishteachercanfollowscientificmethodstoteachvocabularyornotdirectlybringgoodorbadinfluencetowardthestudents.Ifhismethodsaresuitableforthestudentsandbeneficialfortheminthelongrun,hecouldarousetheirinterestonEnglishandhelpthemtodevelopasolidfoundationoflanguageacquisitionability;whereasifhefailstodoso,itmightresultinthestudentsdiffidencetowardthemselvesandmightcausethemtodisgustEnglish.II.Thedrawbacksofseveraltraditionalvocabularyteachingmethods:

i.Teachwordsinisolation:

MiddleschoolEnglishteachersinchinausuallyaskstudentstolearnvocabularylistsinwhichwordsareisolatedfromthecontext.Inonecase,theyletthestudentspickoutallthenewwordsinthetext,listthemonapaper,andconsultthedictionaryfortheChineseorEnglishmeanings;forexample,“display”mean“show”,“arrive”means“reach”.Inanothercase,theytrytogetthestudentstoassociateeachwordwithanimageoranobject;forexample,theyholdupapictureofacarandsay“Thisisacar.”Boththeseteachingtechniquesimplythatlearningvocabularymeanslearningindividualwordoneatatime.Thesetwomethodsmaysavetimeandbefast-effective.However,therelationshipsbetweenwordsareasimportantasthemeaningofthewordinisolation:

how“car”contrastswith“bus”and“truck”,andhowitisrelatedto“driver”and“engine”areasimportantastheworditself.NeglectingthestudyoftherelationshipsinEnglishvocabularysystemmightresultinstudentsslownessincomprehensionandinappropriatenessinexploitingtheEnglishwords.Beingtaughtinthesewayswithoutachange,studentsmighthavedifficultyinworkingoutthemeaningsofsomewords,suchas“time”inthefollowingthreesentences1Sheisnearhertime.（means“Shewoulddiesoon.”）Theumpirecalledtime.（means“Theumpirecalledforastop.”）Heisinthetimeofhislife.（means“Thedaysheisexperiencingareveryenjoyable.”）AndmanyChinesemiddleschoolstudentsoftenmakesuchsentencesas:

ThepoliciesadoptedbytheChineseCommunistPartyisbeneficial.Myspoken-Englishisverybad.Studentswhomakesuchsentencesonlyknowthemeaningofeachindividualword,buttheyarepoorintheproperuseof“beneficial”（whichshould“bebeneficialfor”people）and“bad”（whichshouldbechangedinto“poor”）.ii.TeachEnglishwordsinone-to-onecorrespondencetoChinesewords：

ManyEnglishteacherstendtoteachEnglishwordsinone-to-onecorrespondencetoChinesewords;forexample,English“glass”is“玻璃”inChinese,English“cup”is“茶杯”inChinese,andsoon.Thistraditionaltranslationteachingmethodwhichhasbeenadoptedinchinaforalongtimeisconsideredtobehelpful.Butinthelongruntheoveruseofthismethodisharmfultothedevelopmentofstudentslanguagecompetence.Especiallyintheelementarystage,thismethodshouldbeavoidedaspossibleasitcanbe.WhenstudentssaythattheyknowthemeaningofanEnglishword,theyusuallymeanthattheyhavefoundanequivalentwordinChineselanguage,butthisequivalentwordmaybemisleading.Letstaketheword“with”forexample.Inthesentenceof“Ihavemilkforbreakfast”,theword“milk”inChineseculturereferstohotmilk,becauseChinesepeopleareusedtodrinkmilkhot;whiletheword“milk”intheAmericanculturereferstocoldmilk,becauseAmericansneverdrinkboiledmilkasweChinesedo.Thisexampleshowsusthatthesameword“milk”hasdifferentsocialmeaningsindifferentcultures.Infact,manylinguistsbelievethatnowordcanbeexactlytranslatedintoanotherlanguage.Learningthevocabularyofasecondlanguageisnotjusttomemorizetheequivalentwordsoflanguageone,buttolearnthemeaningrelationshipbetween“milk”andallotherwordsinEnglishwithinthecontextofculturallife.iii.Treatallwordsequally：

SomeEnglishteacherstreatallvocabularyequally.Thatis,theygenerallyimplythatstudentsshouldbeabletoproduceallvocabularypresented.Butasissuggestedbythelinguiststhatwordscanbeclassifiedintoreceptivevocabularyandproductivevocabularyaccordingtotheneeds,languagelevelsandprofessionsofthelearners.Theypointoutthatallspeakersareabletorecognizemorewordsthantheyusuallyuseonaproductivelevel.Productivevocabularyisthatutilizedineverydayspeech.Receptivevocabulary,ontheotherhand,althoughneededforcomprehension,isnotnecessarilyessentialforproductioninspeakingandwriting.Teacherswhodonoticethisfactaskstudentstoconcentrateequallyontheacquisitionofbothreceptivevocabularyandproductivevocabulary.Thismethodofvocabularyteachingaddsmuchburdentostudents,andwouldcausethemtobecometiredofvocabularylearning。

iv.Neglectingthecooperationofsenseorgans：

Accordingtotheexperimentsoflinguists,anaverageEnglishlearnerwillbetterrememberanewwordandmakeitbecomeanactiveoneifheobserves,speaksout,hears,andwritesaswellasrecitesit.Butmanyteachersseemtobeunawareofthisrulethattherearenotafewstudentsremembervocabularybyincorrectways.Ononehand,theytreatthenewwordsasiftheyaretelephonenumbers.Theyreadthenewwordsletterbyletterwithoutobservingthepronunciationrules.Forexample,whentheyreadtheword“classroom”,theydoitinthisway:

“c-l-a-s-s-r-o-o-m,classroom”insteadof“clkl-aa:

-sss-rr-oou:

-mm,classroom”.Thisstupidmethodaddsthedifficultyinmemorizingnewwords.Ontheotherhand,sincetheteachersdonotaskstudentstonoticethekeypartsofthenewwords,theymeetmuchdifficultywhenrememberingthem;forexample,whenateacherteachtheword“mouth”and“month”,ifheaskthestudentstopayattentiontothekeypartsofthesetwowords,andtounderline“ou”inmouthwithauaboveitandunderline“on”inmonthwith/n