A Study Of English Vocabulary Learning In Senior High School

Vocabulary is one of the three elements of a language, the other two being pronunciationand grammar. Learning English vocabulary makes the greatest contribution to thedevelopment of grammar, listening, speaking, reading and writing and to the enrichment ofEnglish cultural knowledge that is required in the new curriculum standard. It’s realized thatvocabulary teaching is the base of language teaching; it plays an important role in the wholeteaching process. Teaching English vocabulary effectively has direct effect on students.But in China, especially in senior schools, because of various influences, vocabularystudy has long been ignored both by students and teachers. Teachers think that it is impossibleand largely unnecessary to give vocabulary teaching to students and that it is up to thestudents themselves to take responsibility to increase their vocabulary. Some students put itaside because they feel the vocabulary they meet during an exam is limited and appearsinfrequently. Furthermore, students are not scored according to the amount of vocabulary theyknow. Influenced by this practice, students make slow progress in English learning.This paper takes vocabulary learning as the research focus and points out the importanceof vocabulary learning in studying English and reviews the related literature and elaborates onthe present situation of vocabulary learning in senior schools and offers some efficienttechniques to help students increase their vocabulary. The study was carried out throughinterviews, observations, tests and questionnaires. The tests conducted before and after thevocabulary strategies training concluded that the experimental class out-performed thecomparison class. It’s clearly confirmed that vocabulary strategies training and teaching areclosely related to the students’ achievements. Analysis of the experimental results, lessonnotes and materials revealed the fact that teaching English vocabulary properly has effect onstudents. During the experiment, the talks and discussions offered by foreign teachers whoteach in various institutes in China and the experience in language teaching are greatly helpfulboth to the Chinese teachers and students.Vocabulary learning should be paid more attention to and it is an indispensable part ofthe English curriculum. It’s one of the biggest challenges English teachers face in the practiceof English learning standards. It’s a lesson for teachers and students on how to use thesetechniques in context and pursue the whole procedure of vocabulary learning in seniorschools.