A Study On The Application Of Context Theory To English Vocabulary Teaching In Junior High School

In China,vocabulary teaching has played an important role in English teaching.However,most students in junior high schools have some difficulties in some aspects,including memorizing words and using vocabulary learning strategies,for the simple reason that the teachers still use the traditional methods to teach vocabulary.With the higher requirement of language knowledge in the new English curriculum standard,more and more teachers begin to focus their attention on the new vocabulary teaching methods.The concept of context is first put forward by Malinowski.He proposes that context is a kind of linguistic phenomenon or phenomenon related to the use of language.With the development of context theory,context can be divided into linguistic context,situational context and cultural context.In fact,context plays an important role in language study,especially for vocabulary learning.Context is the key to vocabulary teaching and it is closely related to the meaning of words.This research aims to explore whether vocabulary teaching based on context theory is feasible in junior high school.Based on the context theory and according to the real situation of junior high school students,the thesis puts forward three questions:Question 1: Can English vocabulary teaching based on context theory improve junior high school students' interest in learning vocabulary?Question 2: Can English vocabulary teaching based on context theory have positive impact on promoting junior high school students' vocabulary achievement?Question 3: Can English vocabulary teaching based on context theory enhance junior high school students' competence in guessing meanings of unknown words?98 students who come from two parallel classes of Grade 8 in Xingcheng NO.1 Junior High School took part in the experiment which lasted from September1 st,2018 to December 21 st,2018.Both the control class(CC)and the experimental class(EC)have 49 students.In order to answer the three questions,the traditional teaching method is still used in the control class while the experimental class is taught by the vocabulary teaching method based on context theory.The research appliesquantitative and qualitative methods to collect the data from questionnaires,tests and interviews,and the collected data of questionnaires and tests are analyzed by SPSS.The research results show that the application of context theory to English vocabulary teaching in junior high school is effective.Under the guidance of context theory,not only students' vocabulary learning interest is improved,but also the vocabulary scores are increased effectively.Besides,the ability of guessing unknown words' meaning is strengthened.Obviously,the vocabulary teaching based on context theory to junior high school students is feasible.