An Investigation into English Vocabulary Learning in Hanzhong Rural Senior High School Students.docx

1、An Investigation into English Vocabulary Learning in Hanzhong Rural Senior High School Students研究报告题目：汉中市乡镇高中生英语词汇学习现状调查与研究姓名：李 莹 2012年6月5日AbstractVocabulary is very important in English learning; however, there are fewer studies on senior high school students vocabulary learning. With the new curri

2、culum coming into use, senior students are required to master more words. There are more problems in the rural senior students English learning. By an investigation of the rural senior students vocabulary learning beliefs, difficulties in vocabulary learning content and the current situations of voc

3、abulary learning strategies, this paper presents the current vocabulary learning situation of the senior Students in Hanzhong rural areas. The results show that most students have changed the belief that vocabulary learning is mainly to recite. Most students have realized that learning strategies ar

4、e necessary and helpful, but less of them have put the strategies into use. In the course of their vocabulary learning, they have difficulties on the usage of words. Adjectives, adverbs and prepositions are more difficulty. These problems are related to rural areas poor teaching facilities, the trad

5、itional teaching modes and teaching beliefs, students poor study conditions and their own study consciousness.Key words: investigation; vocabulary learning; senior students; rural摘 要词汇在英语学习中有着重要地位，而关于初高中生的词汇学习现状的研究较少.在新课改的情况下，对高中生的词汇量也有更高的要求。而农村乡镇高中生的英语学习问题较多，学习效率不高。因此，本文通过问卷调查的方式以乡村高中生的角度从学生的英语词汇学习

6、的观念、在词汇学习内容中的困难和基本策略的使用现状三方面对汉中市乡镇高中生英语词汇学习现状进行调查，并发现目前大部分的学生已经转变了词汇是靠背的这种学习观念，并认识到学策略对词汇学习的帮助，但并未将学习策略用于学习中；在词汇的学习中对词汇的用法关注较少，且在副词和形容词及介词的学习上存在困难。这一现状与乡镇高中教学设备和教学资源相对落后、教师陈旧的教学方式和教学观念、乡村家庭中较差的学习条件和学生薄弱的学习意识相关。关键词 乡镇;高中生;词汇学习;现状 An Investigation into English Vocabulary Learning in Hanzhong Rural Sen

7、ior High School Students1. IntroductionLanguages must be of three basic elements. They are phonetics, vocabulary and grammar. Phonetics is the outer form of the language; vocabulary and grammar are the internal structure. In this structure, vocabulary is like the basic architecture material, such as

8、 brick and stone, and grammar is like the tackiness agent to bond the bricks and stones. 1English learning does not work without vocabulary learning. “Were it not for grammar, a lot of things cant be expressed; however, if there were no words, we couldnt express anything.”2For Chinese students, thei

9、r main problem is vocabulary learning in the course of English learning. 3The Previous English course syllabus demands the students to have a mastery of 1200 words and 750 phrases in three years study in high school. However, the New English Curriculum for Senior High School (testing manuscript) iss

10、ued by ministry of education demands a higher requirement on students vocabulary. It needs students to grasp about 3300 words and at least 400-500 related phrases and idioms. On the other hand, it has a high requirement on the usage of the words and these phrases. 4 It is common to hear the complain

11、ts from the students that it is difficult to learn the new words, and easy to forget the words they memorized. In such case, more attention should be paid to the current vocabulary learning situation of the senior students. Wen Qiufang and Wang Lifei statistics shows 70% of the vocabulary learning r

12、esearches are about the college students, and the senior students vocabulary learning has got less attention.5It is universal that the English teaching achievements in rural senior schools are fewer. 6At present a large population of students come form rural areas. As an important part of English le

13、arning, in rural senior students vocabulary learning should be given more attention to. Therefore this investigation aims to analyze the senior students current vocabulary learning situation in Hanzhong rural areas.2. ProblemSince the reasons that are mentioned in the introduction part, and in order

14、 to reflect the real current situation of the rural senior students vocabulary learning, this investigation must be reasonable. And the following four parts are the related information of this investigation. The questionnaire aims to investigate three parts of the current vocabulary learning situati

15、on of the rural senior students in Hanzhong. They are the vocabulary learning beliefs that the students hold; difficulties on the vocabulary learning content that the senior students have; the general current vocabulary learning strategies using situation .Three senior high schools on the edge of th

16、e city of Hanzhong attended this investigation. They are Longjiang Middle School, Puzhen Middle school and Wuxiang Middle School. The questionnaires were handed into some students who are studying in these schools including 57 males and 43 females. 3. Problem AnalysisThe results of the investigation

17、 are divided into three parts. They are current situation of rural senior students vocabulary learning beliefs, current situation of rural senior students vocabulary learning strategies using, and current situation of rural senior students vocabulary learning contents. And this paper will discuss th

18、e current situation of rural senior students in Hanzhong. Current situation of vocabulary learning beliefs This survey mainly covers three parts on the senior students vocabulary learning beliefs; they are the students attention to vocabulary in their English learning; the students motivation of lea

19、rning vocabulary; the senior students realization on the importance of vocabulary learning strategies.Realization of the importance of the vocabulary learning Table 1: The importance of vocabulary learningContent of the ChoicesPercentageExtremely important58%Somewhat important25%Not very important15

20、%Not important2%From table 1, it is can be clearly seen that 58%of the students think vocabulary learning is very important for English study. 25% of the students think vocabulary learning is important in some way. But there is still one quarter of the students think vocabulary is not very important

21、 in English learning. And among the students under the investigation, there are only two students have not realized the importance of the vocabulary learning. The table shows that most of the senior students in Hanzhong have realized the importance of vocabulary learning in English study. Generally

22、speaking, majority of the senior students may pay more attention to vocabulary learning. Possession of the correct vocabulary learning motivation Table 2: Purpose of vocabulary learningContent of the ChoicesPercentageTo pass the exam36%To communicate56%To know western culture8%It is clearly to see t

23、hat 36% of the students agree that to learn vocabulary is to pass the examinations. 56% of the students agree to express and communicate. Among the students, there are 8% of the students go along with to learn vocabulary is to know more about western culture. From table 2, it is can be see that most

24、 of the senior students have understand that vocabulary is not used to pass the examinations, but a kind of mean to help them to communicate with others and to help them to learn more. However there are still 36% of the students keep the beliefs that to learn vocabulary is good for them to pass the

25、examination. In general, most of the senior students have correct and positive motivation of English vocabulary learning.Realization of the necessity of vocabulary learning strategiesTable 3: Importance of vocabulary learningContent of the ChoicesPercentageExtremely important39%Somewhat important32%

26、Not very important24%Not important5%The table shows that 39% of the students think vocabulary learning strategy using is extremely important in English study. 32% of the students agree that vocabulary learning strategy is fairly important in the course of vocabulary learning. 24% of the students hav

27、e not paid enough attention to the strategies used for vocabulary learning. And 5% of the students have no idea of using strategies to help them to learn English effectively. In general, the senior students in Hanzhong rural areas have already changed their vocabulary learning beliefs and learning p

28、urpose. They have realized the importance of vocabulary learning and learning strategy.Current situation of vocabulary learning strategies usingFor the senior students, their scopes of ages are mainly from sixteen to eighteen. After at least three years English learning, they can grasp some basic le

29、arning strategies and use these basic strategies in their course of English learning. From the survey it is clear that the senior students vocabulary learning beliefs are good for their English study. And since they have already realized the necessity of vocabulary learning strategies, can the senio

30、r students put the English learning strategies into their vocabulary learning?Current situation of cognitive strategy useTable 4: Cognitive strategyStrategiesWays of memorizing wordsPercentageCognitive strategyRote memory47%Use rules of spelling and word structure34%Association24%Classification5%Acc

31、ording to the choices and the percentage statistics, it is clear that most of the senior students use rote memory strategies on their English vocabulary. Nearly half of the students memorize the words by reciting or copying the words again and again. For the senior students, they should try to use t

32、he rules of the spelling and the word-formations according to the requirement of the English curricular standard. Only 34% of the students will make use of the spelling rules or the word-formation rules to help them memorizing the words. The senior students should put association strategy into use to memorize words. But the senior students in Hanzhong have not put it into use widely. In the field of cognitive strategy, classification here means to classify the words accor