A Study On The Contextual English Vocabulary Teaching Approach In Junior High School ESL Classrooms

Vocabulary is one of the primary factors of language and vocabulary teaching is also an essential part of English teaching. However, so far there are still some problems in our middle school vocabulary teaching. For example: some teachers make use of the traditional teaching method and make students in the passive status; without appropriate learning methods, students recite words mechanically instead of applying them flexibly. With the deeper evolution of curriculum, for the past few years, the studies connected with vocabulary teaching also make some progress. People start to notice and accept the vocabulary teaching approach based on the context theory. However, this approach is still in the tentative moment, and it lucks of abundant practical implement. Besides, there are relatively rare researches about the effect of this approach on students with different English foundation. For the above reason, this thesis tries to make a study on vocabulary teaching based on the context theory in junior high school for students with different English levels.Through the dedicated analysis of the vocabulary and context theories, and the careful observation of different English students’ practical study, the author designed a four months’ contextual vocabulary teaching experiment and proposed the following research questions:For different English level students in junior high school(1) Can the contextual vocabulary teaching approach have effect on their vocabulary study?(2) In which aspects does the contextual vocabulary teaching approach have effect on their vocabulary study?(3) How can teachers make use of the contextual vocabulary teaching approach more effectively in junior high school ESL classrooms?The author made use of a control class and an experiment class to conduct this research, and to compare its effects on the students with different English levels, each class’ s students have been divided into two groups: group A(students with good English foundation) and group B(students with poor English foundation). With the analysis and discussion of the questionnaires, test papers and the interviews, the author obtained the following findings: ① The contextual vocabulary teaching approach indeed has some positive effects on students’ vocabulary learning. ② For the students with relatively poor English basis, their study interest has been stimulated obviously and their ability of vocabulary memorization has been largely improved. For the students with relatively good English level, their strategies of vocabulary learning have a positive change, and their comprehensive vocabulary use ability has been enhanced obviously.③ To better make use of the contextual vocabulary approach in the ESL classroom, for different English level students, teachers should make different requests and focus on different contextual related methods according to their various learning situation. At last, the author made a conclusion about the whole thesis and gave some suggestion about English vocabulary teaching.