A Study Of Corpus-based Vocabulary Teaching At Senior High Schools

Vocabulary,one of the main elements in a language,plays a crucial role in learners'language acquisition or learning.However,for many years the outcome of vocabulary teaching has not been satisfying and it seems that how to learn or instruct English vocabulary in an EFL context is an insurmountable problem both for learners and instructors.The present study attempts a corpus-based vocabulary instruction approach which mainly aims to explore the effects of the novel approach on subjects' vocabulary learning.The experiment chooses 95 senior two students at S senior high school as the research subjects and conducts the traditional definition-based vocabulary teaching method and corpus-based vocabulary teaching method in the two classes respectively,focusing on seeking answers to the following questions:1)How is the current non-corpus-based English vocabulary teaching implemented at senior high school classes?2)Compared with traditional definition-based vocabulary teaching method,to what extent does the corpus-based English vocabulary teaching affect students' vocabulary learning in terms of receptive knowledge and productive knowledge?3)Compared with traditional definition-based vocabulary teaching method,to what extent does the corpus-based vocabulary teaching affect students' vocabulary retention?4)What are the attitudes of the high school students and teachers towards corpus-based English vocabulary teaching at senior high schools?With the help of attending record and SPSS 21.0 statistical software,descriptive analysis,independent sample T-test and paired sample T-test were operated.The major findings are as follows:1)Most of the non-corpus-based vocabulary classes adopt the definition-based vocabulary teaching method,with the vocabulary presentation in isolation of context and lack of teacher-student or student-student interaction.2)Generally,compared with the traditional definition-based vocabulary teaching method,corpus-based vocabulary teaching method is more effective in terms of students' mastery of receptive knowledge and productive knowledge.3)Compared with the traditional definition-based vocabulary teaching method,corpus-based vocabulary teaching can effectively promote students' vocabulary retention effects.4)Most of the senior high school students and teachers generally hold a positive attitude towards the corpus-based vocabulary teaching at senior high schools.The findings have some basic implications.First of all,teachers of English should receive training on corpus-based language instruction in terms of both the theory and practice to ensure the successful implementation of corpus-based vocabulary teaching approach and update their knowledge of current advancement of EFL instruction as well.Secondly,teachers' instruction is of great importance for organizing activities in classes.Thirdly,the combination of corpus-based vocabulary teaching method and the traditional vocabulary teaching methods is highly recommended to cater to the features of different vocabularies.Fourthly,layered teaching might be a feasible way to make every student benefit from the novel teaching method in light of students' individual differences.