Design And Application Of English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School Based On Prototype Category Theory

The English Curriculum Standard for General Senior High School（revised in 2020）clearly requires that vocabulary teaching in senior high school should focus on cultivating students’ awareness of lexical chunks,expanding their vocabulary and improving their ability to use vocabulary to accurately understand and express meaning.At present,the most important problem for English teachers is how to effectively improve English vocabulary teaching and enlarge their vocabulary.Many researchers have found that it is necessary to explore the internal relationship between cognition and language from the perspective of cognitive science,and apply the theory of cognitive linguistics to English vocabulary learning and teaching to guide teaching practice.This research takes the prototype category theory as the theoretical basis,takes the literature research method,the questionnaire survey method,the classroom observation method,the test method and the interview method as the main research method,carries on the teaching experiment to a class of a senior high school in Yan’an.The teaching experiment lasts for three months,from September 2021 to December 2021.The purpose is to solve the following two major problems: 1)What is the current situation of students’ English vocabulary learning? 2)What is the effects of English vocabulary teaching based on prototype category theory on the breadth and depth of students’ vocabulary learning?The results show that: 1)Most students are still in the passive vocabulary learning stage and need help to improve the breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge.Teachers urgently need to take action to change the status quo of students’ vocabulary learning.2)Vocabulary teaching in senior high school based on prototype category theory plays a positive role in improving the breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge of learners.This teaching mode can help students to understand the roots and affixes of vocabulary more clearly,master the laws of part of speech change,and distinguish the part of speech meanings of polysemous and near-synonyms according to the context,so as to enlarge their vocabulary and improve their ability to accurately understand and express meaning.To sum up,prototype category theory provides a new perspective for foreign language teaching research,especially vocabulary teaching.Teachers should constantly try to apply this theory to English vocabulary teaching,explore more efficient and scientific teaching strategies,stimulate students’ interest in vocabulary learning,and cultivate students’ vocabulary cognitive ability and thinking quality.so as to effectively promote English vocabulary teaching in senior high school.