The Application Of Context-based Vocabulary Teaching In College English

It is difficult to tell the meaning without appropriate contexts, for most words have more than one meaning or are used in one context. Many researches argue that words have no meanings but context gives them. Therefore, context in exchanging information has an uncontroversial function in communication.The literature review aims to investigate the relevant theories about vocabulary teaching methods and context theories. And then these theories will be applied to the teaching practice. Can context-based teaching of vocabulary contribute to students’comprehensive language proficiency or not?The experiment was implemented in two non-English major classes. The questionnaire and the test were engaged as a means to investigate the influence of teaching vocabulary in context. The experiment class was taught in the context-based vocabulary teaching method whereas the control group was taught in the traditional method. Before learning the new passage, a pretest has been conducted to investigate whether the students knew the target words before. The targe! words were chosen in terms of the parts of speech and frequency. After finishing vocabulary teaching, an immediate test was administered as soon as possible. The participants sat for the posttest one week later.The result of the investigation shows that context-based vocabulary teaching can influence the way students memorize new words. Context-based vocabulary teaching can promote the students’involvement in vocabulary learning and have a positive influence on the students’vocabulary learning strategy. Students deepen their understanding of words in accordance with the results of test scoresand classroom observation. They can respond to the question using target wordswhich they are not familiar with before teaching. They have recognized theimportance of contexts in comprehension of the word. They manage to guess theword’s meaning from the contexts. The posttest and the interview have certiifedthe effect of contexts.In a word, context-based vocabulary teaching can be one of the effectiveways for English teaching.