Context Theories And English Vocabulary Teaching In Middle School

Vocabulary teaching is an integral part of foreign language. Its efficiency is directly related to the development of the learners'communicative competence. But with the traditional teaching methods, many students especially middle school students could not understand and use English words appropriately after learning English for many years. The reason is that the students only remember the connotative word meanings, which are usually mentioned on the textbooks or in the dictionaries. However, the same English word may mean differently in different contexts, for the same word may bear different associative meanings. Contexts play a crucial role in interpreting and restricting the meaning of words. Therefore, the teaching and learning of English vocabulary cannot be detached from context.This thesis aims at finding out the current situations of the application of context theories to the teaching and learning of English vocabulary in middle schools. There are various context theories, which were proposed by many different researchers, but their classifications of context are almost the same. After giving a brief overview of the various context theories and the developments of vocabulary teaching both abroad and at home, the author gives a theoretical discussion on the classifications of context and the concept of word meanings. The author conducts the research by using a written questionnaire. During this study, the author first wants to know the informants'understanding of the concepts of context and word meaning, then their understanding of the importance of applying context theories to the teaching and learning of vocabulary, and finally if they can apply context theories to their teaching and learning of vocabulary effectively. Results show that though most of the teachers and students admit that context is very important in teaching and learning vocabulary, they do not have a clear idea about these theories. As for the application of these theories, their performances are far from satisfactory, especially the application of non-linguistic context. The application of linguistic context to the teaching and learning of...