Senior School English Vocabulary Teaching Based On Etymology

Vocabulary teaching always plays such an essential role in foreign language teaching that its effects determine whether the teaching aims can be achieved or not and what qualities of students we can cultivate. There is no doubt that vocabulary, a basic element to language learning and communication, is vital to the exchange of language and culture. However, in present English teaching, especially middle school English teaching, it tend to be ignored. Following the traditional teaching methods, a majority of teachers focus their attention on word spelling, pronunciation, the part of speech and Chinese meaning, rarely referring to the origin and its cultural connotation, as a result of which senior high students misunderstand and misuse them. With the evolution of foreign language teaching and research and the objective requirement of the College Entrance Examination, vocabulary teaching is receiving unparalleled attention. On the other hand, although foreign language teachers have been aware the shortcomings of traditional teaching strategies and the significance of effective vocabulary teaching, they are still suffering the lack of systemized teaching strategies.Based on the domestic and overseas etymology teaching, the thesis, attaching importance to the application of etymology in vocabulary teaching of middle school, has summarized seven factors affecting etymology teaching. After comparing and mixing, the author come up with four vocabulary teaching strategies, that is cultural introduction, association memorization, etymology explanation language translation. Besides, the thesis describes the concrete applications of etymology teaching in practical teaching and designs a relevant teaching experiment, during which the author makes a survey on students’ attitude and acknowledge of it among students from both the experimental class and the control one. After the eight-week-long etymology teaching, a test is given to both classes to examine their vocabulary level. Considering the fact that the two classes have a similar vocabulary, the experimental class has made a greater and faster progress. Thus, we can safely draw a conclusion that etymology teaching helps to improve students’ interest in language learning enhance classroom teaching effect.Chapter one is an introduction to the whole study, including research background, research necessity and significance, the content and purpose of the research, which can serve as reference to the later study. The second chapter interprets the definition of etymology in details, summarizing relevant research and achievements of etymology teaching both at home and abroad. In the following chapter, through analyzing the present situation and deficiency of senior high school teaching, the author proves the urgency of etymology teaching. At the end of the chapter, based on the former researches, the author tracks the resources of etymologies and classifies them into seven groups and do statistics and analysis on proportion of them. The next chapter is an empirical research, during which the author designs four etymological strategies and applies them into vocabulary teaching in experiment class. According to the experimental statistics and conclusion, the author summarizes the whole thesis, points out limitations of the study and makes some suggestions for further studies.