A Study On Application Of Context Theory To English Vocabulary Teaching For Art Students In Senior High School

Under the background of revision of the New Curriculum Standards and the new requirements for the college entrance examination,English teaching in high school has a new task,and the high school English teachers also face a new challenge.As we all know,vocabulary is the cornerstone of language teaching.In the high school English teaching stage,the quality of vocabulary mastery has a direct impact on students’ English scores,especially for art students.However,the fact is that when it comes to English learning,memorizing words is the most difficult thing for the students,and they have to deal with the every day’s pre-class dictation by cramming.In the long run,students will have negative emotions towards English learning,and they become less interested in learning.Gradually,they will lose confidence in learning English,leading to worse English performance.Under the mentioned circumstances,application of context theory to vocabulary teaching for Art students in senior high school has become the main study subject of this thesis.The author put forward two hypotheses,that is,1.Based on context theory,vocabulary teaching for Art students can increase their interest in vocabulary learning,and will have a positive effect on developing their word guessing strategy.2.Based on context theory,vocabulary teaching for Art students is beneficial to better theability to use vocabulary,which will contribute to their good scores in English tests.In this thesis,totally 84 Art students in two classes(experimental class and control class)were selected as experimental subjects from North Heavy Industry No.3 Middle School in Baotou where the author worked over ten years.The author conducted a 16-week teaching experiment,using test and questionnaire as instruments.Then the data were analyzed with the help of SPSS 20.0 which were collected respectively before and after the experiment.Before the experiment,it turned out that there is no significant difference between the experimental class(EC)and the control class(CC).During the experiment,42 Art students in EC were taught vocabulary based on context theory,and were increasingly engaged in learning activities.While in CC,the author explained words one by one in a traditional teaching way.After 16-week experiment,scores of post-test in EC were obviously better than that in CC.According to the result of post-questionnaire,students in EC got more improvement in learning interest,word guessing strategy and learning effect than students in CC.Finally,the author makes a conclusion that vocabulary teaching based on context theory has a good effect on vocabulary learning for Art students.It is helpful to increase Art students’ interest in learning vocabulary,develop their word guessing strategy effectively and get theirperformances improved in English.The study has improved the current situation of Art students’ vocabulary learning effectively,and put forward operable advice on vocabulary teaching,which would provide the reference for related study on English teaching in senior high school for Art students.