An Experimental Study On Multimodal Approach To English Vocabulary Teaching In Junior High School

In the 1990 s,the study of Multimodal Theory became popular in western countries and this theory attracted a lot of attention of learners and experts from different fields.Because of the development of information technology and modern education,a great many linguists attempted to apply Multimodal Theory to English teaching.Afterwards in teaching field,the pattern of the Multimodal Approach was clear and accepted by more and more scholars.This approach had great effects on language teaching and learning.Especially the framework of Multimodal Approach had important effects on English teaching.In China,the research of the multimodal teaching approach started in the early 21 stcentury and it is also advocated at present.Vocabulary actually plays a basic role in a language.Famous linguist Harmer(1990)said if the language structure is the skeleton of a language,the vocabularies are flesh blood and organs of it.However there were surveys showing that the methods that students use to learn English vocabulary are mechanical and inefficient.In most English classes,the traditional teaching method is still used widely to teach vocabulary.However,the National English Curriculum demands that teaching methods should be advanced and the function of communication be emphasized.Multimodal teaching method applies various modes in English vocabulary teaching,which can motivate students' learning interest.Therefore,it is vital to apply multimodal teaching method to vocabulary teaching.This thesis studies whether Multimodal Approach can arouse middle school students' interest in and ability of learning vocabulary.The author started the experimental study in a junior high school in Beijing.Sixty students from Grade Eight were chosen as subject.They are from two parallel classes A and B(30 from Class A,30 from Class B).Class A was selected as the experimental class(EC),and class B was chosen as the control class(CC).The Multimodal Approach was used in ES and the traditional vocabulary teaching mode was used in CC.Comparing students' grades of pre-test and their last final examination,the author found that there was little difference between the two classes.After four months of teaching experiment,a post-test was conducted in EC and CC to test the effect of multimodal vocabulary teaching method.The vocabulary wasselected from Unit 1 to 4 of the English Book 3 published by Beijing Normal University Press.Then the author compared and analyzed the grade and data with SPSS 13.0.And the questionnaires and interview were used to study whether students' learning interest are aroused by the multimodal teaching method.In the end,some conclusions were made: Firstly,students' interest of learning vocabulary is aroused by the Multimodal Approach;secondly,the Multimodal Approach will enable improve students' proficiency of learning vocabulary.