A Study On Categorization Theory In Senior High School Vocabulary Teaching And Learning

Vocabulary is very important in the process of English learning. For students of senior high school, it is the basis to master and accumulate any amount of vocabulary in the stage of senior high school. However, most students still adopt traditional mechanical method to learn vocabulary. The method to memorize vocabulary wastes any amount of time and energy. Its effect is limited as well. To solve this problem, this thesis aims at applying the categorization theory of cognitive linguistics to English vocabulary teaching so as to achieve ideal resultsCategorization is one of the most important issues in cognitive linguistics. Its core idea is as follows: human cognition is based on embodiment to objective reality. Human cognition originates in categorization. By means of categorization, category is produced and then categories form concept(Wangyin, 2006). Prototype theory and basic level theory, as the latest research achievements of categorization theory development, provide a new perspective for English vocabulary teaching: in the process of English learning, teachers use prototype vocabulary as reference point to teach polysemy guiding students by divergent thinking. Based on this teaching method, basic level vocabulary is taught prior to other levels. These two methods combine with one another which enable students enlarge English vocabulary, open think and boost confidence of English learning.80 students of one senior high school from Shanxi Province Taiyuan City participated in this research. 40 students are from control group and the other 40 students are from experiment group. In this research, research instruments are questionnaire, experiment and interview. Questionnaire is used to investigate students’ learning attitudes, learning obstacles and so forth. Experiment is carried out with basic level vocabulary teaching and prototype vocabulary teaching by combining English Teaching Syllabus with English vocabulary of book one from senior high school. By means of Independent-Sample T-test and Paired-Sample T-test, pretest and post test from control group and experiment group are finished as well as comparison test. 8 students participated in interview aiming at testifying further experiment results.The results show that basic level-prototype vocabulary teaching is better than traditional mechanical vocabulary teaching. With the help of new teaching method, students from experiment group have larger amount of vocabulary than control group with an increase of 3 percent. Meanwhile, Students from experiment group improved English vocabulary learning efficiency and strengthen learning confidence.