The Study On The Application Of Schema Theory In English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School

With the development of science and economy,English,which is one of the vital languages in communication,is becoming more and more important.When it comes to English learning,we may easily think of vocabulary learning.It is well known that vocabulary is the foundation of English learning.And the New National English Curriculum Criteria has also put forward a higher requirement for students' English vocabulary learning ability in senior high school.However,the author finds that there are three main problems during the English vocabulary teaching process through the investigation.First,teachers emphasize grammar while underestimate the vocabulary learning.Second,most of the teachers just ask students to read and repeat the words again and again,which is boring for students.Third,due to the lack of interaction between teacher and students,the classroom atmosphere becomes boring and depressing.Which makes it hard to stimulate students' learning interests.Corresponding with the three problems among teaching,there are also three main questions during students' learning process.First,students often put the cart before the horse.Students cannot recognize the high-frequency words,so they remember all of the words in the textbook,which is a heavy burden for students themselves.Some students are not fond of learning English gradually,even giving up English.Second,students often ignore the words' application,thus they make mistakes frequently.Third,the method of remembering words is single.What they can do is just repeating words again and again.Although they can remember the word finally,it's difficult for them to apply it correctly.Thus,they think vocabulary learning is dulling and they have no motivation for English learning.Teachers need to explore a feasible teaching method rather than the traditional teaching methods and help to arouse students' learning interests so as to improve their vocabulary learning abilities.Kant,a philosopher of Germany,came up with the concept of schema in 1781.Then the English psychologist Barlett developed it into schema theory.After that,many scholars have done lots of detailed researches in schema theory both at home and abroad.But most of the researches focus on reading,writing and listening,while the researches on vocabulary learning are rare.So,the author tries to explore the application of schema theory in English vocabulary teaching in senior high school,which can play an important role in enhancing students' vocabulary learning ability,enlarging their vocabulary as well as stimulate students' English learning interests.Based on the previous researches,this paper aims to answer the following three questions:1: How do high school teachers apply the schema theory in vocabulary teaching?2: Can students' vocabulary be improved obviously by applying schema theory in English class?3: What is students' attitude towards English vocabulary learning after applying schema theory into English vocabulary class?With the aim of solving above three questions effectively,the author studies the application of schema theory in two classes of Zhengzhou No.20 high school.During one semester,the author uses two different teaching methods between two classes.In the control class,the traditional teaching method is used while the experimental class uses the new teaching method based on schema theory.To guarantee the reliability of the test,both classes need to receive two tests during the experiment.The pre-test is used to check whether the two classes are in the same level or not.And the post-test is used to check the effects of new teaching method.Meanwhile,the author also uses questionnaires and interviews to assist in the analysis.After that,the author makes use of SPSS,which is a professional statistical analysis software,to analyze the experimental results.Data shows that vocabulary teaching based on schema theory is better than traditional teaching method and it can help students improve English vocabulary ability effectively.What's more,students are more interested in vocabulary learning after applying schema theory into English vocabulary class.