An Experimental Study On The Application Of Multimodal Approach To Junior High School English Vocabulary Teaching

Multimodal communication is the way that a variety of semiotic resources cooperate with each other to construct meaning.In recent years,multimodal theory has also been applied to the field of language teaching.Numerous studies in linguistics and education have investigated the positive impact of multimodal approach on college vocabulary teaching,while few researches have involved the application of multimodal approach to vocabulary teaching in the stage of elementary education.In this study,multimodal approach is applied to junior high school English vocabulary teaching and examines the following two research questions through an experiment:1)What is the impact of multimodal approach on junior high school students’ English vocabulary learning effect?2)What are the different effects of multimodal approach on junior high school students’ learning of English vocabulary in terms of form,meaning and use?This study took 86 students from two parallel classes in the first grade of a junior high school in Guangzhou as the objects of the study,and the teaching experiment lasts for eight weeks.The two classes are randomly defined as the control class and the experimental class,adopting conventional vocabulary teaching and multimodal vocabulary teaching methods respectively.The instruments used in the experiment include vocabulary pre-test,post-test,Vocabulary Knowledge Scale,spelling test and questionnaire.Some of the required vocabulary in their entrance examination for senior high school are selected as the target words in the experiment.In the process of applying multimodal approach,the teacher uses verbal language,pictures,sound and other non-verbal semiotics to help students understand the target vocabulary.Meanwhile,classroom activities are organized in various forms to strengthen teacher-student interaction and peer interaction,which helps students consolidate and use the learned vocabulary knowledge in the real input and output environment.Based on the the results of data analysis after the teaching experiment,the following findings are reported: 1)the total score of English vocabulary test for students in EG has been significantly improved under the multimodal approach: the average score of EG in vocabulary post-test is increased by 2.89 points and 3.54 points higher than CG.Multimodal approach has more potential of improving students’ interest in learning vocabulary,attracting students to actively participate in the classes,and cultivating their awareness of using vocabulary learning strategies.2)multimodal approach can effectively improve students’ learning effect on word meaning and use: the average score of EG is 1.53 and 1.54 higher than that of CG respectively.There is no significant difference in the test results of word form between EG and CG.This study not only extends the application of multimodal theory,but also is the reference for its practice in language teaching.