An Empirical Study Of Context-based English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School

As the foundation of human communication,vocabulary is also a most important source of language learning,teaching and research.In line with The New Curriculum Standards(2017)for senior high school,students are expected to master up to 2,000-2,100 words in the “compulsory course”.To achieve this goal,teachers are required to explore effective ways for teaching vocabulary in the English classroom.Based on Constructivism Learning Theory and Vocabulary Acquisition Theory,this thesis reports a study which aimed to investigate the present English vocabulary teaching in senior high school and test the effectiveness of context theory in senior high school English vocabulary teaching.The research questions were: 1.Does contextual vocabulary teaching stimulate students' interest in vocabulary learning? 2.Does contextual vocabulary teaching improve students' vocabulary mastery? 3.Does contextual vocabulary teaching help students improve ability of vocabulary use? A four-month experiment was conducted in Dingyang Senior High School during the first half of 2018.101 students participated in the study,with 50 students in the experimental class and 51 in the control class.In the experimental class,the researcher taught vocabulary through context,while in the control class,the previous vocabulary teaching method was adopted for 51 students.The research adopted questionnaires,interview and tests to collect data.The results showes:(1)contextual vocabulary teaching method is an effective teaching method,which can improve students' interest in vocabulary learning.It can be seen from the changes in students' behaviors toward vocabulary learning and their feelings of vocabulary learning before and after the experiment;(2)contextual vocabulary teaching improved students' vocabulary mastery,which were displayed according to the SPSS19.0 analysis of the results of the vocabulary tests.Before the experiment,there was no significant difference between the two classes(P=0.972>0.05);after the experiment,there was a significant difference(P=0.031<0.05),indicating that the experimental intervention was effective;(3)contextual vocabulary teaching can help students to improve ability of vocabulary use.It is displayed according to the SPSS19.0 analysis of the results of the “making sentences” scores.There was no significant difference between the two groups before the experiment(P=0.590>0.05);but after the experiment,there was a significant difference(P=0.001<0.05).And the questionnaire shows that after the experiment,students' vocabulary learning strategies and vocabulary application strategies are also improved,that indicating that the experimental intervention was effective.