The Different Effects Of Semantic And Thematic Clustering Presentations On Learning Multidimensional Vocabulary Knowledge By Junior Middle School Students

Vocabulary is the cornerstone of language and is especially important in language learning.The mode of vocabulary presentation is one of the possible factors affecting vocabulary learning.Although researchers have done some research on the effects of vocabulary presentation on vocabulary learning,few studies have focused on its effect on the acquisition of multidimensional vocabulary knowledge.The purpose of this study is to explore the different effects of semantic and thematic clustering presentations on learning multidimensional vocabulary knowledge by junior middle school students.The research questions of this paper are as follows:(1)What are the overall effects of semantic and thematic clustering presentations on learning multidimensional vocabulary knowledge by junior middle school students?(2)What are the effects of semantic and thematic clustering presentations on learning the form,meaning and use of vocabulary by junior middle school students?Quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in this study.The subjects of this study were students from three classes of a junior middle school in Zhangjiagang.Among them,20 students from Junior Two Class(2)took part in the pilot experiment,and all the students from Junior Two Class(3)and Junior Two Class(4)took part in the formal experiment.In the formal experiment,the author used semantic or thematic clustering presentation for vocabulary teaching.Class(3)was the thematic clustering class,and Class(4)was the semantic clustering class.After the vocabulary teaching,an immediate post-test was conducted.One week later,the delayed post-test was carried out in these two classes.Then the author used SPSS 25 for statistical analysis.The qualitative research adopted the semi-structured interview.The author interviewed three students in Class(3)and three students in Class(4)respectively.The interview was conducted in Chinese and then translated into English for research.Through the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the collected data,the following conclusions are drawn:Firstly,in terms of the overall effects,there is no significant difference between semantic clustering presentation and thematic clustering presentation in both immediate and delayed post-tests,but in terms of the learning of productive and receptive knowledge of vocabulary,semantic and thematic clustering presentations have their respective advantages.Semantic clustering presentation is significantly better than thematic clustering presentation in the learning of productive vocabulary knowledge in immediate post-test(p=.004<.01),while thematic clustering presentation is better,though not significantly,than semantic clustering presentation in the learning of receptive vocabulary knowledge.Secondly,semantic and thematic clustering presentations have their respective advantages in the learning of the form,meaning and use of vocabulary,but neither of the two presentation modes is superior to the other in all dimensions.In the dimension of form,semantic clustering presentation does a better,though not significantly,job than thematic clustering presentation in the learning of productive and receptive form knowledge.In the dimension of meaning,semantic clustering presentation has a significantly better effect than thematic clustering presentation on the learning of the productive meaning knowledge in both the immediate(p=.000<.01)and delayed post-tests(p=.000<.01),but there is no significant difference between them in terms of the learning of receptive meaning knowledge.In the dimension of use,thematic clustering presentation performs significantly better than semantic clustering presentation in regard to the learning of productive use knowledge in both the immediate(p=.021<.05)and delayed post-tests(p=.040<.05),but there is no significant difference between them as far as the learning of receptive use knowledge is concerned.The above conclusions have some implications for vocabulary teaching and learning.In vocabulary teaching,teachers can consider using different vocabulary presentation modes,which may be better than a single way of vocabulary presentation.For students,a personalized vocabulary learning plan should be made according to their current levels and needs.For compilers of textbooks and vocabulary learning materials,vocabulary should be presented according to specific learning tasks.