An Empirical Study Of Iconicity Theory In High School English Vocabulary Teaching

As one of the three major elements of language learning,vocabulary occupies an important position in English learning.Wilkins says that: without grammar very little can be conveyed;without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.River(1988)proposed the amount of the vocabulary is the key to use of the language successfully,less vocabulary is difficult to achieve language functions,for example communicational function.Levelt said: “Vocabulary is the driving force of language output.” Thus,vocabulary learning has a great impact on language learning,affecting learners' listening,speaking,reading,writing,translating and other language skills.The “Full-time Standard English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School” has promulgated in 2003,which the requirements of the new curriculum standards on the quantity and quality of vocabulary are constantly increasing.This also requires teachers to change their teaching methods according to their needs.Judging from the current teaching classroom,teachers mainly adopt the teaching methods of translation method,scenario teaching method and communication method.With the rise of cognitive linguistics,iconicity theory has become the focus of scholars at home and abroad.With the study of iconicity theory,this paper will verify the effect of iconicity on vocabulary teaching to help students about vocabulary learning.Judging from the current status of lexical teaching in the classroom,it is found that the excavation of the lexicon itself is not deep enough,which only stays in lexical meaning,lexical collocation and simple application.Students cram the vocabularies but do not understand the deep meaning of them.From Ebbinghaus forgetting curve we can know that students continue to cycle of learning and forgetting.It is not only time-consuming but also to combat the enthusiasm of students and students gradually tired of vocabulary.Cognitive linguists think that language is the cognition of objective things by human beings.Therefore,there is a motivation between the forms and meanings of language,from which the iconicity of language can be revealed.Iconicity exists in the vocabulary of phonology,morphology,semantics and etymology which can help students understand and memorize vocabularies.This thesis based on the iconicity theory which the object of study includes students and teachers in Grade Two of Harbin No.3 Middle School.Through the pre-test,it was verified whether the two classes could carry out the control experiment,that is,by analyzing the grades of two classes(Appendix III).The result of grades showed there is no significant difference between the two classes,so they can be used as experimental classes and control classes.The author will carry out differential teaching on two classes,use the vocabulary iconicity theory in the experimental class to guide its vocabulary teaching,and use usual teaching methods to guide the teaching in the control class.The experiment time is three months.Vocabulary post-test was conducted on the two classes after the experimental teaching.The test results were tested by SPSS software.The research shows that the average scores of the post-test scores in the experimental class are higher than those in the control class.The results of the independent sample T-test also show that the scores of the experimental class have been significantly improved.Iconicity theory can improve vocabulary teaching effectively.