An Action Research On Improving The Learning Of English Vocabulary For Junior High School Students

Vocabulary learning is an essential part of language learning. The British linguist D. A. Wilkins(1972: 111) once said: “Without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed.” The updated version of English Curriculum Standards(2011) explicitly puts forward that students should understand the basic meaning of words as well as the specific meaning in given context. It also stresses students’ interaction will promote students’ autonomous learning, cooperative learning and inquiry-based learning. In current vocabulary teaching situation, teachers usually explain the usage of key words in the word list and then ask students to recite the words by themselves. The whole process of vocabulary learning is mechanical and students are in a passive status, which is not helpful for students to memorize, understand and use vocabulary. Though vocabulary learning costs students a lot of time and effort, the outcome is far from satisfactory, which has caused students’ negative attitude towards learning.Based on the theories of Constructivism and Social Interactionism, an action research about vocabulary learning for junior high school students is conducted in Class7, Grade8 in Luohe Foreign Language Middle School. It aims at helping students find more efficient learning method, developing their vocabulary learning strategies and promoting their lexical competence.According to Kemmis & Mc Taggart’s(1982) action research process, the author has implemented the following research steps:(1) discovering and identifying problems;(2) putting forward hypotheses and designing action plans;(3) implementing the action plans;(4) evaluating and reflecting on the action research.Luohe Foreign Language Middle School is a foreign language education training and research base of Henan Normal University. The author, as a postgraduate trainee, taught a class of eighth-graders’ English there from August 28 th 2014 to January 31 st 2015. In terms of students’ English vocabulary learning, two major problems were discovered in previous classroom observation(June 3rd 2014 ~ June 20th). First, most of the students show little enthusiasm to vocabulary learning. Second, students’ vocabulary learning efficiency is far from satisfactory. Then the author conducted a questionnaire and an interview to investigate causes of these problems. The results revealed that: on one hand, students’ ways of learning vocabulary are relatively monotonous and mechanical. They seldom use vocabulary learning strategies and lack the sense of exploration and autonomous learning; on the other hand, the previous prescriptive vocabulary teaching method deprives students of the opportunity to discover knowledge on their own. It seldom involved students in using vocabulary, which is crucial to students’ acquisition of lexical competence. Based on the previous theoretical study and a well-directed literature review, the author started to implement multi-interaction in class. The present action research shows that multi-interaction in class can help improve students’ learning of English vocabulary. A majority of students with negative attitude towards vocabulary learning at first adopted a more positive attitude at the end of the action research. More and more students are able to make use of learning strategies. They become more active in participating in classroom activities. Their lexical competence has also been improved to some extent.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the research background, research motivation, research significance and the layout of the thesis. Chapter 2 presents the literature review of vocabulary teaching and learning, classroom interaction as well as theoretical basis. Chapter 3 provides the research design, including research questions, research subjects, research instruments and procedure. Chapter 4 reports the whole action research in detail. Chapter 5 summarizes the major findings of the study and some pedagogical implications. The limitation of the study and prospects for further research are listed here as well.