A Study On Narrative Approach In English Vocabulary Teaching Of Higher Grades In Primary Schools

Vocabulary is the foundation of language.In EFL teaching,vocabulary teaching plays an essential role.Therefore,great attention should be paid to vocabulary teaching in primary schools,which lays foundation for the further English learning.However,English vocabulary teaching in primary schools is facing various problems.This thesis attempts to make a tentative study of the application of narrative approach in primary school English vocabulary teaching in the hope of finding some solutions to the problems so as to raise its vocabulary teaching efficiency.This study,by taking the Primary School Attached to Xi'an Foreign Language School as an example,chooses 165 students and 4 English teachers from Grade 5 and Grade 6 as participants.It adopts three research methods: class observation,questionnaire and interview.The design of the class observation scale,the questionnaire and interview questions are all based on Professor Xiong Muqing and Deng Da's theory of Narrative Approach.A pilot study was made of the questionnaires and the reliability and validity were tested by SPSS20.0.For more authentic and effective information,the author also interviewed the four English teachers.The results indicate that narrative approach is relatively widely used in the Primary School Attached to Xi'an Foreign Language School.Additionally,learning words in stories,role-play and retelling are the three most frequently used narrative activities.Other narrative activities,such as description of real life scenes,continuation or adaptation of stories,are relatively less used.Making up stories is especially rarely used.Among all the narrative activities,students like role-play most.On vocabulary teaching,Narrative approach can produce many effects.First,narrative approach can increase pupils' interest in vocabulary learning as well as English learning.Second,narrative approach can help pupils better understand and use vocabulary.Third,narrative approach can improve pupils' communicative and cooperative abilities.Last,narrative approach can contribute to the development of the learners' imagination and creation.Based on the research findings,the author proposes that teachers should know more about narrative approach and try to apply it effectively in vocabulary teaching so as to maximize the vocabulary teaching effect.