The Application Of Lexical Approach To English Teaching At Vocational College For Non-English Major Students

The Ministry of Education officially issued Basic Requirements of Higher Vocational Education for the Teaching of English Courses in 2010,which points out that higher vocational English teaching should "cultivate students’ basic ability to use English in the workplace environments,improve students’ comprehensive cultural literacy and cross-cultural awareness,and lay the necessary foundation for improving students’ employment competitiveness and future sustainable development”.However,practice shows that the autonomous English learning ability of higer vocational students is very weak and their English competence is poor as well.Due to the advantages of both traditional struactural approach and the communicative approach,the application of lexical approach can significantly improve the English competence of higher vocational college students.Therefore,this study tries to apply the lexical approach to English teaching at higher vocational college,hoping to promote higher vocational college students’ English competence and autonomous English learning ability and provide some advice for the reform and development of higher vocational English teaching for non-English majors.This study uses the research methods such as documentary research,questionnaire and experimental method.Questionnaires and English test papers are used as research tools for a one-semester study of 100 students majored in network technology of grade 2018 from one of Zhangzhou’s vocational colleges.These students are from two classes: class one is the experimental class using lexical approach and class two is the control class using traditional teaching method.This study seeks to test two hypotheses.First,lexical approach can improve English competence of non-English major students at vocational colleges.Second,lexical approach can promote students’ autonomous English learning ability.The results show that:(1)Lexical approach can improve English competence of non-English major students at vocational colleges.The pre-experimental results show that the English level of the experimental class(m=56.48)is equivalent to the control class(m=55.867),and there was no significant difference(p=0.822 >0.05).In addition,there existsno significant difference between the two classes in listening(p=0.927>0.05),vocabulary and grammar(p=0.943>0.05),reading comprehension(p=0.723>0.05),translation(p=0.877>0.05),and writing(p=0.655>0.05).After a semester of teaching experiment,the postexperimental results shows that the English level of the experimental class(m=68.706)was significantly higher(p=0.011<0.05)than that of the control class(m=61.989).Morover,it turns out to be significant different between the two classes in “vocabulary and grammar”(p=0.000<0.05),“translation”(p=0.039<0.05)and “writing”(p=0.021<0.05).However,there seems to be no significant different in“listening”(p=0.679>0.05)and “reading”(p=0.222>0.05).(2)Lexical approach can promote students’ autonomous English learning ability.The average score of the post-questionaire is 110.76,which is 35.99% higher than that of the pre-questionaire(m=81.45)and appears to be rather significant(p=0.000<0.05).Besides,the average score of each of the five dimensions before and after the experiment is significantly different,especially the second dimension(setting learning objectives and making learning plans)with an increase by 42.99%.Based on the above findings,it is suggested that further study and application are needed for lexical approach in English teaching for non-English major students at vocational colleges.Besides,more attention should be paid to the application of situational teaching,to the promotion of students’ lexical chunk awareness and autonomous learning,and to the cultivation of cross-cultural awareness.Thus,student’s English language proficiency and autonomous English learning ability can be greatly improved.