An Empirical Study On English Vocabulary Teaching In Junior Middle School From The Perspective Of Memetics

Vocabulary is one of the three major components that constitute English language knowledge.As an indispensable part of English teaching,vocabulary teaching runs through the whole English learning process.However,in view of the unsatisfying achievement in vocabulary teaching,many language teachers reveal their considerable concern for more effective ways in vocabulary teaching,especially in teaching English in junior middle schools.In recent years,with the in-depth study of foreign language teaching,meme theory has been gradually applied in English teaching.Meme is a social and cultural phenomenon,which is closely related to language and can survive through constant imitation and replication.In terms of vocabulary teaching,morphemes,roots,affixes,lexical chunks and vocabulary learning strategies can be regarded as memes,so we can explore vocabulary teaching based on memetics.This study aims to explore the effects of memetics into the English vocabulary teaching in junior middle schools.It is intended to answer the following two research questions:(1)How does the memetics-based vocabulary teaching affect the interest,confidence and motivation of junior middle school students in vocabularylearning?(2)What's the effect of memetics-based vocabulary teaching on improving thejunior middle school students' English vocabulary learning?A total of 57 students,selected from two parallel classes of one junior middle school in Hangzhou participated in this research,which lasted for three months.Three stages were involved: the pre-experimental,the experimental,and the post-experimental.Class Seven was the experimental class taught by memetics-based vocabulary teaching,while Class Eight was the control class taught by the traditional method.Pre-questionnaire was conducted among all the students in two classes.Vocabulary tests were conducted respectively in the pre-experimental stage and the post-experimental stage in both classes,while post-questionnaire was only carried out in the experimental class.After the experiment,the following conclusions can be obtained:(1)Memetics-based vocabulary teaching is conducive to improving students'interest,confidence and motivation in vocabulary learning as well as thedevelopment of learning strategies for junior middle school students.(2)Memetics-based vocabulary teaching can improve students' vocabularylearning efficiency in junior middle schools so as to help them get out of thetrouble in learning English to some extent.According to the research findings,some pedagogical implications are proposed afterwards,hoping to provide some help for English teachers.The limitations as well as future suggestions are also presented at the end of the thesis.