Study And Application Of English Vocabulary Learning Strategies Based On Newly-issued English Curriculum Standards

“No matter how successfully a learner learns grammar, no matter how perfectly hemasters the sounds of second language, without words to express his feelings andmeanings, his communication in second language can’t happen in any meaningfulway”(McCarthy,1992). Knowing vocabulary is the key to understand and to beunderstood. Therefore, Vocabulary learning and mastering becomes one of the mostimportant parts of language learning. In view of its importance, the newly-issued SeniorHigh School English Curriculum Standards (Trial Edition)(2003) of our country haslisted a specific vocabulary aim of Band7to Band9.Since the1970s, many foreign scholars (Nation,1990; Oxford,1990; Rubin,1995;etc.) have gradually focused their research on vocabulary-learning strategies with thepurpose of improving vocabulary-learning efficiency and enlarging vocabulary size.Similar researches in China began in the1980s. Nevertheless, most of their subjects arerelated to collage students (Ma Guanghui,1997; Wu Xia, Wang Qiang,1998, etc.). Toour disappointment, current foreign language teaching in our senior high schooloveremphasizes on training low-level skills but always neglects the cultivation ofadvanced-level skills of students, such as learning strategies, etc. The writer, as anEnglish teacher in this senior high school, deeply knows students’ vocabulary-learningsuffering from shortage of appropriate vocabulary learning strategies. For example, theycan’t listen or read comprehension, nor speak English or write passages without enoughwords and expressions. And then we are affected by the necessity and urgency of thestudies and applications of vocabulary learning strategies.In order to learn about the current vocabulary size, learning belief and the usage ofvocabulary learning strategies of students in this senior high school, the writerrespectively designs teacher and student questionnaires, and two copies of vocabularytest paper with reference to the former researchers(Chen Luoyu,2003;Li Songhao,2003).As for the teacher’s vocabulary teaching situation through the study, the subjects areaimed at English teachers who have at least two years’ teaching experience from local senior high school. Teacher questionnaire includes single-choice, multi-choice questionsand conversational interview while student questionnaire is designed by means offive-point scale. Then, the writer analyzes the data by using SPSS11.0. On the basis ofthe result of these two studies, the writer has a vocabulary instruction experiment underthe guidance of cognitive theory, constructivism theory and with the requirement of thenewly-issued Senior High English Curriculum Standards. This experiment is aimed toresearch into the influence of vocabulary learning strategies on learning vocabulary. Thetwo classes (302and305) which were both taught by the writer are set as experimentalclass and control class. During the experiment we mainly adopt comparison between thetwo classes.According to the final result of experiment, we can see English vocabularylearning is a complex process which involves a variety of factors. Learning strategy isone of the most significant elements. Therefore, it is crucial for senior high schoolstudents to have vocabulary learning strategy training under the guidance of theirteachers, because it meets their needs; and they have capability of attending strategytraining. What’s more, it is also an important way of enhancing students’ independentlearning capability and overall ability.