Experimental Research On The Effectiveness Of The Training Of Pupils’ Associative Strategy On Their English Vocabulary Learning

As one of the three elements (phonetics, vocabulary and grammar)of language,vocabulary plays a key role in the process of language learning and communication. Itis believed that the key factor in vocabulary learning is to grasp and intelligently usevocabulary learning strategies. Therefore, it is very necessary to teach learners someuseful and effective vocabulary learning strategies in order to develop their ability ofvocabulary learning.Teaching practices indicate that pupils have some difficulty in grasping and usingvocabulary in their English study. Some pupils have even lost their confidence inlearning English for this reason. As pupils have great potentials, they are quite openminded. The experiment of vocabulary associative strategy training has been carriedout among them. The experiment has three stages: pre-test, middle training andfinal-test. In the end, the result is given through data statistics and analysis.In order to find out whether vocabulary associative strategy training is effective inhelping pupils to improve their English vocabulary learning, the author has done anexperiment, in which two classes of pupils from Grade Four in the school where theauthor is working are chosen as the subjects. The pupils have studied English for morethan three years at Xujing Primary School in Guangdong province. The experimentlasted for sixteen weeks. The first two weeks was devoted to pre-test. The scores ofpre-test were recorded and analyzed. The teaching treatment was conducted from thethird week to the sixteenth week. The book used is Success with English (Book Four).In the last week, the participants of the two groups were given the post-test and theparticipants of experimental group were given the post-questionnaire. All of theparticipants took the final examination of Term Two in Grade Four after theexperimental treatment in the end of the term. The data was analyzed through SPSS(Statistic Package for Social Science)8.0for Windows. Conclusions were gained fromthe statistical analysis.The purpose of the experiement is attempted specifically to provide answers to the following two questions:(1) Can the instruction of vocabulary associative strategy promote pupils’vocabulary learning?(2) Can the associative strategy training raise pupils’ interests in learning Englishvocabulary?Though the experiment, taking the methods of tests and questionnaires the authoranalyzed the result of pupils’ vocabulary associative strategy training. There are somefindings through this research: firstly, vocabulary associative strategy training isscientific and effective for pupils. Secondly, associative strategy can improve pupils’ability of English vocabulary learning and their use of English. Thirdly, it can also behelpful for developing their consciousness of vocabulary learning strategies. Finally,the attitude and interest of pupils’ English learning can be improved as a result of this.