A Study Of English Vocabulary Acquisition From The Perspective Of Iconicity In Non-english Majors

Vocabulary is one of the most important elements in a language. It is widely admitted that vocabulary is indicative of learners’ second language proficiency. For many years, researchers had devoted themselves into grammar(form and syntax) research. It was not until 1980 s that researchers paid their attention to vocabulary. Research into vocabulary acquisition both abroad and at home has undergone considerable development. Cognition has become a new perspective of research into vocabulary acquisition. Besides, empirical studies of vocabulary acquisition emerge in large numbers. Furthermore, with the deeper development of cognitive linguistics, iconicity has become a heated factor of linguistic signs in the cognitive field. The iconicity theory has developed rapidly at home since 1980 s. However, the iconicity research is mainly conducted on syntax and discourse. There is less attention paid to lexical iconicity.The present study carried out an experiment with the application of lexical iconicity(esp. phonetic iconicity, morphological iconicity, semantic iconicity and etymological iconicity) into English vocabulary acquisition among non-English majors, investigated the effect, and found a more efficient way for vocabulary teaching and learning.108 non-English majors and 10 English teachers from Qingdao Harbor Vocational and Technical College were chosen as the subjects. During the four-month teaching experiment, the students took the questionnaire for vocabulary learning and two vocabulary tests before and after the experiment. Meanwhile, an interview to the teachers was conducted. All was to find out whether the teachers and the students apply iconicity theory in vocabulary teaching and learning and the effect of lexical iconicity in vocabulary acquisition. The data collected were analyzed to find out that although the teachers and the students do apply some iconicity knowledge in vocabulary teaching and learning, they don’t apply it systematically. What’s more, iconicity plays an important role in vocabulary acquisition. Students of the experimental class taught with lexical iconicity applied to vocabulary teaching and learning, achieved great progress in their vocabulary test scores.The findings have confirmed the effect of iconicity on vocabulary acquisition, provided some pedagogical implications for vocabulary teaching and learning in colleges. Teachers should help and lead students to learn vocabulary with iconicity consciously and systematically according to the classroom environment so as to improve their vocabulary learning proficiency. Effective vocabulary learning strategies should be presented to students to help them learn English words more effectively.