On Vocabulary Teaching Practice.docx

On Vocabulary Teaching Practice.docx

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OnVocabularyTeachingPractice

OnVocabularyTeachingPractice

　　Abstract：

Asiswidelyknown,vocabulary,thebuildingmaterial,isessentialtoalanguage.Vocabularyknowledgeisaprimarypredictorofreadingcomprehension.Withoutvocabularylearning,manyotherskillsoflearninglanguagewillnotcometrue.Thispaperisbasedonmyteachingpracticeaccordingtotheprincipleofstudents?

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centeredandexploredseveralfeasibleapproachestovocabularyteaching.

　　Keywords：

issuesapproachespractice

　　Introduction

　　Vocabularyisaveryimportantpartoflearningasecondlanguage,sinceitisanessentialpartoflanguageitself.Wilkinssaid:

“Withoutgrammarverylittlecanbeconveyed;withoutvocabularynothingcanbeconveyed.”AndMearasaid:

“Lexicalerrorsoutnumberothertypesoferrorbymorethanthreetoone.”Therefore,wehavenoreasontoignorethepositionofvocabularyinourEnglishteaching.However,sinceEnglishandChinesearequitedifferent,studentsfeelithardtomemorizesomanywords.What?

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sworse,theystillcannotusethosewordsappropriatelyandefficientlyaftertheirmemorization.Consequently,itisnecessarytoarousestudents?

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interessinlearningwordsandacertainexcitementinpersonaldevelopmentinthisarea.Anditistheteachers?

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dutytohelpstudentsbygivingthemideasonhowtolearnvocabularyandsomeguidanceonwhattolearn.Forteachers,vocabularyteachingisnotusuallythoughtofasinterestingasotheritems.Itisdifficultforteacherstodesignthevocabularyteachingvividly.Sohowtohelpstudentsgetthewordsmeaningclearly,quickly,andcorrectlyandhowtoimprovethewaysofteachingvocabularybecomesteachers?

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mainconcern.

　　1.Vocabularyissues

　　Thereareavarietyofproblemsinthecurrentvocabularyteachinginourcountry.Firstofall,sometextbooksappeartobetellingteachersthatstudentscouldlearnallthewordstheyneededwithouthelp.Infact,teachersaresometimestoldthattheyoughtnottoteachmanywordsbeforetheirstudentshadmasteredthegrammarandthesoundsystemoflanguage.Injournalarticlesforteachers,vocabularywasseldommentioned.Pronunciationandgrammarwereemphasized,buttherewaslittleornoemphasisonvocabulary.Inshort,vocabularyhasbeenneglectedinprogramsforteachersduringmuchofthetwentiethcentury.Secondly,vocabularyistaughtbyfollowingthreeprinciples:

pronunciation,spellingandmeaning.Inthetext,vocabularyistaughthowtomakeupasentenceandthegrammaraboutit.What?

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smore,thetestofvocabularyistomakestudentspronounceitanduseittomakeupsimplesentences.Therefore,aftermorethansixyears?

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study,studentsknowmanywordsandsentencepatterns,butitissopitythattheycannotsayonecompletesentence.Althoughtheycanusethesimplewordstocommunicatewitheachother,theywillmakeamistakes.Manystudentsknowlittleaboutthedifferenceoftheculture,sotheycannotusetherightwordsintheverysituation.

　　Vocabularyinstructionisoftenachallengeissueinamainstreamclassroom.Teachersstruggletomakethevocabularyinstructiontomeettheneedsofthestudentswithvocabulariesrangingfrom500to3000.Theresultisthatwordstargetedforthegrade?

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levelinstructionareoutofreachofthebeginninglevelEnglishstudents.Herearedifferentlevelsoftheknowledgeofwordunderstanding:

havingnoknowledge,havingageneralsenseofaword,havinganarrowcontext?

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basedknowledge,havingaknowledgeofawordthatcan?

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tbecalledtouseitinaappropriatesituationsandhavingdecontextualizedknowledgeofaword,itsrelationshiptootherwordsandhowitcanbeusedmetaphorically.Inviewofthat,I?

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mmotivatedpersonallyandprofessionallytofindeffectivewaystoteachvocabularyandnarrowthevocabularygap.Asitisagreedthatanemphasisshouldbeputonhelpingstudentsacquiringasolidvocabularyfoundation.VocabularybuildingandpracticeshouldbeseenasacurriculumbecauseitplaysasignificantroleinEnglishlearning.

　　2.VocabularyteachingPractice

　　Thefeaturesofawordcannotbetaughtatonetime.Theyshouldbetaughtonsuitableoccasionsaccordingtothelevelsandneedsofthestudentsandcharacteristicsoftheword.However,forthestudents,perhapsitislessdifficulttolearnvocabularyitemsforthefirsttimethantoconsolidateandrememberthem.Itistoooftenthatwehearstudentscomplainthattheykeeplearningandforgetting.Somepeoplesayvocabularycannotbetaught,andthatitcanonlybelearnedbythestudents.Thisisperhapspartiallytrue.Whenstudentsstudyvocabularyindividually,veryoftenitisrotelearning,whoseeffectivenessisseldomguaranteed,particularlywhentheydonotfullyunderstandthemeaningofthevocabulary.Onlystudentsstudyvocabularytogether,sayingroups,throughvariousactivitiesandundertheteacher?

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ssupervision,doesvocabularylearningbecomemorefunandeffective.Learningisalsomoreeffectivewhenstudentsunderstandthemeaningofthenewvocabulary.Belowaresomevocabularyconsolidationactivitiesorteachingpracticethatcanbedoneinclass.

　　2.1Activatingpriorknowledgeandbuildbackgroundknowledge

　　Priorknowledgethestudentsbringtoatextshouldbeactivatedanddrawnupontoincreasecomprehensionandvocabularyretention.It?

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simportanttotapintothestudentspriorknowledgeinordertoprovideacontextfornewvocabularywords.Studentsbenefitfromconnectingconcretefromtheirpriorknowledgetotheabstractnewwordsandconceptstheyarelearning.Itprovideslabelsthatdevelopoutofexperiences.Theseexperienceshelptobuildbackgroundknowledgethestudentsneedtoknowtounderstandatext.Buildingstudents?

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backgroundknowledgearoundagiventopicandprovidingfamiliarcontentreadingmaterialshelpsimprovetheirreadingcomprehensionability.

　　2.2Ensuringstudentsknowthemeaningofbasicwords

　　Somebasicwordsareeasytoteach,usingpictures,labeling,showingrealobjects,playingagame,employingdemonstration―explainthemeaningofthewordseitherthroughtheuseofrealityorinpictures.Thendemonstrationanactionisabetterway.Forexample,whentheteacherpresentstheconceptslikestretchingandwalking,heorshecanstretchorwalk.Manyactionverbs（sit,sneeze,dig,stumble,open,etc）canbepresentedbymiming.Someadjectiveslike“happy”“angry”“sleepy”canbetaughtbyusingfacialexpressionandgestures.Describingandanswering―Studentsareputintopairs.Onehasapicture;theotherhasablankpieceofpaperandapencil.Thestudentshavingthepicturemusttellhispartnerwhattodrawsothatthedrawingendsupthesameastheoriginalpicture.Thestudentmustnotshowthepictureuntilthedrawingiscompleted.

　　Basicvocabularyfoundationhelpsthemunderstandexplanationofacademicvocabularycominglater.

　　2.3Usingthewordinthecontext

　　Tolearnvocabularythroughcontextisanexcellentway,studentsuseappropriateguessingstrategieswhenencounteringunknownwords.TwaddellandmorerecentlyKrashenbotharguethatnon?

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nativespeakerswillmostefficientlyincreasetheirvocabularythroughreading,ratherthanthroughdirectvocabularyteaching.Teachingvocabularythroughreadingmeanstoaskstudentstounderstandandlearnwordsfromcontext.Tostudents,itiseasytoknowthemeaningofthewordsaccordingtothecontext.Studentsshouldnotthinkmoreaboutgrammarwhentheyarereading.Thiskindofwayismoreinterestingthanjustwritingthewordsontheboardandexplainingthemtostudents.Itcanalsogivestudentsadeepimpression.

　　And,wealsoshouldguessmeaningfromcontext.Guessingmeaningofunfamiliarwordsorexpressionsfromcontextisnotanewidea.Theproblemishowstudentscandeveloptheabilitytodoso.Initiallystudentsneedtheteachershelpregardingwhatcontextualcluestolookforandhowthesecluescancontributetothediscovery（revealing）ofmeaning.Generallyspeaking,thetopic,thegrammaticalstructure,thepossiblemeaningconnectionbetweenthegivenwordandotherwordsandlinguisticpatternwherethewordappearsmaygivehintstothemeaninginonewayoranother,lookatanexample:

　　Thecaptainaskedtheseamentothrowthe[ZZ（Z]anchor.[ZZ）]

　　Ifstudentdoesnotknowthewordanchor,thereareenoughcluesforthemtoguessthemeaning.Whodoseamenusuallythrowanyway?

　　2.4Usingwordsbuildingtoteachwords

　　Withvocabularyincreasing,wecanlearnwordsbyanalyzingwordbuilding,whichcanhelpstudentstomemorizewordsbyunderstandingthemeaningofthewords.What?

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smore,itishelpfulforstudentstoanalyzelanguagephenomenon.

　　Studentsshouldlearntodetectmorphemesinwords.Studentsdonotalwaysrealizethatwordsareconstructedofmorphemeswhichsharetheburdenofthemeaningamongthemveryclearly.Studentsshouldlearntodetectmorphemeswhichoccurinanumberofwordsandwhichcanhelpthemtoidentifyatleastpartofthemeaning,thusassistingtheminguessingfromcontextthemeaningofapparentlynewitemsasanaidtodiscoverthemeaningsofapparentlyunknownwordsthatcanbeinterestingandprofitable.Sensitivitytowordformationwillassistlanguagelearnersinextractingmeaningbymakingthemconsciousofthepartsofspeechtowhichwordsbelong.

　　1.Usingroots.Forexample,wecanguessthemeaningsofuseful,useless,userbyhavinglearntuse.Teacherscansay“useful”comesfromuse,itmeans“ofuse”.

　　2.Usingprefixes.Forexample,studentshavelearntthewordstellandwrite,ifteachersteachthemthemeaningoftheprefix?

病?

re?

病?

.Theywillknowtheotherwords.‘re