A Study On The Effects Of Narrow Reading On Junior High School Students’ English Vocabulary Acquisition

Since the aim of cultivating students’ key competencies was put forward for English teaching,many scholars have been actively exploring its realization ways.According to English Curriculum Standard of Compulsory Education(2022),teachers should design teaching activities according to some certain themes and contexts.As a result,it is an effective vocabulary learning method to learn vocabulary according to different themes and contexts.As early as 1981,Krashen put forward the concept of“Narrow Reading”,in which a series of articles have the same theme,and the theme-related words are repeated.Based on Input Hypothesis,Schema Theory and Affective-filter Hypothesis,this paper carries out a three-month teaching experiment to explore the effectiveness of narrow reading in English vocabulary teaching for junior middle school students.The research questions of this paper include:(1)How does narrow reading affect junior two students’ vocabulary learning?(2)Is there any difference in the impact of narrow reading on students’ acquisition of receptive vocabulary knowledge and productive vocabulary knowledge?(3)How does narrow reading affect students’ interest and confidence in English vocabulary learning?Three research methods were used in this paper,namely,test,questionnaire and interview.Before the experiment,the research subjects were determined as two parallel classes in Junior Grade Two,one was the experimental class and the other was the control class.On this basis,a three-month teaching experiment was carried out,in which reading materials with the same topics were added to the experimental class,while reading materials with different topics but the same amount and readability as the experimental class were distributed to the control class after class.Before the experiment,except for the reading materials,other irrelevant variables were controlled to keep consistency as much as possible for the reliability of the experiment.It should be noted that there are no empirical studies in which all irrelevant variables are controlled,such as the difference of students’ cognitive development.However,as some basic irrelevant variables are controlled before the experiment,the study explores each research question from quantitative analysis(tests and questionnaire)to qualitative analysis(interview).The parallel classes are different obviously in vocabulary proficiency,the interest and confidence in vocabulary learning,which can to some extent prove the feasibility and effectiveness of narrow reading in English vocabulary teaching in junior two,provide some guidance for students and teachers in junior high school in the learning and teaching of English vocabulary.