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【中图分类号】G42【文献标识码】A【文章编号】2095-3089(2012)12-0110-02
As is known is us all, vocabulary is the foundation of any language. It is one of the three main factors of a language. And it is the building materials of language. People’s thinking relies on vocabulary. The communication of thoughts between people is achieved by the sentences which are made up of words. “If there is no vocabulary, it is unimaginable for any kind of language” Wilkins, a famous linguist once said, “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”.
The High School English Curriculum Standards (trial version) , established by The National Ministry of Education， requires that 2400-2500 English words and 300-400 idioms and fixed collections should be reached at level seven; 3000words and 400-500idioms and fixed collections should be reached at level eight. The increase in vocabulary put forward a higher requirement in vocabulary teaching. So we must consider how quality objectives can be completed more efficiently.
According to my teaching experience for years, I think that there are some rules that we can follow in vocabulary teaching.
1. Lay stress on phonetics. Phonetics is the material base of the existence of language. Among the three main factors in language, vocabulary and grammar are both embodied by phonetics. If phonetics is removed from a language, any kind of language would be an inactive language. Studying phonetics well contributes to not only pronunciation, intonation, but also the vocabulary learning and memorizing. When students begin to contact English, teachers must be strict on the demands and keep a firm grasp on phonetics. What a teacher needs to do is to make sure that students pronounce every syllable correctly and read every word correctly. Only in this way can students lay a good foundation for the vocabulary learning.
2. Combine the sound and form of a word, and spell it correctly. While teaching ,teachers should direct students to find the pronunciation rules of vowel and consonant letters and the students should be familiar with the combination of letters. When new words are taught , this method can be used to list the similar words that have ever been taught. For example, we can list the words in the same pronunciation: float, blow, boat. Teachers can also group the words into homographs, and homophones. For example, homographs: wind (n.风)——wind(v.蜿蜒)， lead(n.铅)——lead(v.带领). Homophones: see——sea, piece——peace. In this way, the students can have a better understanding of the words. 3. Teach new words through the ones learnt before. The best way of explaining a new word is to use what has been taught before. This is a good way to review and consolidate those words that have been learnt. For instance, we can use “not fair” to paraphrase “unfair”, we can use “not easy” to paraphrase “difficult”. When paraphrasing the word “freezing”, we can say “extremely cold”. For some words, explaining in English is more brief and exact. eg. “aunt”: parents’ sister, uncle’s wife.” It’s clearer than explained in Chinese.
4. Extend words by association. Teachers can present a word and then ask students to extend it till a whole sentence is finished. For example, movie——a wonderful movie——see a wonderful movie——We are seeing a wonderful movie——We are seeing a wonderful movie which is set in New York. Doing like this can do good to students’ thinking capability and the ability to make up sentences.
5. Teach in certain situations. Chinese students must learn to communicate in English, but it’s difficult for them to have real English occasions to practice speaking English. . It is inevitable to affect their initiative and interest for English study. Therefore, while learning English , students should be offered lifelike situations for communication so that they can be trained in an authentic language environment. Teaching new words in certain situations helps students not only to understand, but to use the words correctly in communication. For example, when teaching the word “touch”, the teacher can ask students to “touch your nose (ears, arm)”. And the students will say: “I’m touching my nose(ears, arm, etc)”.
6. Teach with audio-visual instruments. Audio-visual education program in English teaching refers to the teaching activities in which sound, light, electronic medium,such as tape-recorder, multimedia and so on. The application of instruments can involve all sense organs of the students to participate in learning and their attention is liable to be concentrated on. For example, when teaching the words “rain” “snow” “dance”, the teacher can use flash to display the vivid images. “it’s raining, it’s snowing, someone is dancing”. When teaching “smile” “cry”, the teacher can act it out himself herself or ask students to do it. In the process, sound and the meaning of a word can be finished once and a time. Besides, this method is interesting and vivid, which can improve the memory efficiency.
7. Teach in games. Middle school students are quite active, so they should be involved in something active. Games are a good way for this. In games, students’ physical organs must be more active in participation. For instance, teachers can have dictation competition. Two groups with the same number of people go to the black board and write the same words to see which group writes faster, better. After competition, the teacher should praise the winner as well as encourage those who lose. This is a good way to exam the vocabulary learning and it can enhance the students’ confidence. Riddle guessing is a very interesting activities, which can increase the students knowledge, develop their intelligence and enable them to memorize the words easily. While having this activity, teachers should let students guess by themselves, do not give the answer in advance. Just as J.J.Jacotot , a reformer of English teaching in the 19th century once said that each individual had a god-given ability to instruct himself, what teachers needed to do was to respond to the learners, not to direct or control him by explaining something in advance. Meanwhile, the riddles can not be too hard, because that may have a negative effect on the students’ interest in learning. For example, 1) what kind of sense has no meaning?(nonsense). 2) Which is the strongest day in the week?(Sunday) 3) What kind of nation is the goal of all travelers (destination). Good methods of vocabulary teaching are one essential factor for students to learn it well. However, it is not adequate .Teachers should apply good methods to teaching and learning. Only by connecting teaching with learning can better teaching results be resulted in. So teachers must offer efficient methods for students to learn vocabulary.
1. Combine mechanical memory and comprehensive memory. comprehensive memory is used widely in English teaching and learning. For example, if, without comprehension, students are required to learn the four words “bottom and blossom, flight and knight”, it will take them four times to memorize individually. However, if teachers help students to make an analysis of the common sound of letters of “o” “i”, students can remember them easily. Thus, comprehensive memory is pretty important. Of course, successful learning depends on both comprehensive memory and mechanical memory.
2. Do not ignore Immediate Memory. Scientists divide memory into categories based on the amount of time that the memory last: Immediate Memory, Short-Term Memory, Long-Term Memory. Emphasizing Immediate Memory can arouse students’ thinking and analyse the characteristics of words initially, which would get the students to have a deeper impression. Therefore, teachers can check the students immediately after teaching. As is called: “Strike while the iron is hot.” Immediate Memory can not exist for long, but it is the foundation of Long Term Memory, so it cannot be ignored.
3. Review in time. A common problem in English teaching and learning is that the forgetfulness rate is high. The main reason is that these words are not often reviewed and consolidated or the methods are not suitable. The regularity of forgetfulness is that one forgets something quickly at the beginning, then gradually slower. Ebbinghaus’ Forgetfulness Curve indicates that half an hour after your memorizing, you can remember 58.2%of the words, after 24 hours, the memorizing rate reduces to 33.7%, in the 24 hours between the first day and the second day, the decreasing rate is only 6%, and from the second day to the sixth day, in the four days, the decreasing rate is only 2.4%. Therefore, according to it, teachers should take some measures to help the students fight against forgetfulness in the vocabulary teaching and learning. Only when forgetfulness is overcome can words be well kept in mind. A major solution to dealing with forgetfulness is to review the words just when they are not forgotten. In the course of revision, methods should be mentioned to the students. (1)Association method. When we meet a verb, we can associate its noun, adj, adv, synonym and antonym etc. As the saying goes, “English is known and better understood by its opposite”. So it’s important to have the association of antonym.
(2)Word-formation method .Students must remember some frequently used word-formations. For example, the prefix “un- , im- in- ir- il- ”are added before adjective, it means the opposite.eg. uncertain, uncool, impossible, irregular, illegal,etc. “dis” is added before some nouns, it means the opposite. eg.disability, dishonor,etc. “re” is added before verbs, it means “again”. eg. Rebuild, retell, recycle,etc. And if suffix “-er, or, ar,ian, ist” are added after the original verbs, it means “person”, egg. Reporter, scientist, visitor, beggar, artist,etc. As for “-less, -ful” and “-ness, -ment, -tion”, the first two make the words adjective, eg. Care- careless- careful, and the latter ones make the words noun. eg. carelessness, kindness, development, dictation, production. In my opinion, this method should be popularized because students can enlarge their vocabulary and have a better understanding of the words.
(3)Humor Method. If we memorize the same thing in different situations, different effects will come to us. It is proved that people can remember things better in a relaxing situation than in a boring situation. So teachers should create some relaxing situations for students to memorize words. “Humor” has the power to make it. For example, When teachers teach plurals of the words ended with “o”, because there are two ways to change them into plurals. One way is to add “s”, the other is to add “es”.But there are only several words belonging to the latter. Thus, the teacher can sort out these words and make up a humorous sentences, “Negro and hero like eating tomatoes and potatoes”. Another example, we can memorize the words ended with “f” or “fe”, for those in which “f” or “fe” should be changed into “ies”, a humorous sentence can be given, “ The thief’s wife took a leaf-like knife from a shelf and ended a wolf’s life”. If students remember these words individually, you can imagine how long it would take.
(4)Reading and writing method. This is the best way to remember vocabulary firmly. Reading and writing belongs to the sense of motion, generally speaking, memory in motion can make a deeper impression for people than that of sense of listening and sense of sight, especially for writing, it includes reading , listening and speaking factors. Therefore, writing is a comprehensive activity of memory, which can improve the memory efficiency. Considering all of these, teachers should demand that students read materials outside class and do some writing exercises, egg. write journals, letters, shorten or lengthen articles. Doing so can make students consolidate those words learned before and enlarge their vocabulary, broaden their horizon, enrich their life and cultivate their strong interest of English study.
All the above methods can be used in teaching and learning English vocabulary. Only when they are used in accordance with the specific characteristics of the students and the need of the particular teaching goals can these methods bring about effective effects. Therefore, when a teacher is teaching English vocabulary, more attention should be paid to the application of teaching and learning methods.
As is known is us all, vocabulary is the foundation of any language. It is one of the three main factors of a language. And it is the building materials of language. People’s thinking relies on vocabulary. The communication of thoughts between people is achieved by the sentences which are made up of words. “If there is no vocabulary, it is unimaginable for any kind of language” Wilkins, a famous linguist once said, “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”.
The High School English Curriculum Standards (trial version) , established by The National Ministry of Education， requires that 2400-2500 English words and 300-400 idioms and fixed collections should be reached at level seven; 3000words and 400-500idioms and fixed collections should be reached at level eight. The increase in vocabulary put forward a higher requirement in vocabulary teaching. So we must consider how quality objectives can be completed more efficiently.
According to my teaching experience for years, I think that there are some rules that we can follow in vocabulary teaching.
1. Lay stress on phonetics. Phonetics is the material base of the existence of language. Among the three main factors in language, vocabulary and grammar are both embodied by phonetics. If phonetics is removed from a language, any kind of language would be an inactive language. Studying phonetics well contributes to not only pronunciation, intonation, but also the vocabulary learning and memorizing. When students begin to contact English, teachers must be strict on the demands and keep a firm grasp on phonetics. What a teacher needs to do is to make sure that students pronounce every syllable correctly and read every word correctly. Only in this way can students lay a good foundation for the vocabulary learning.
2. Combine the sound and form of a word, and spell it correctly. While teaching ,teachers should direct students to find the pronunciation rules of vowel and consonant letters and the students should be familiar with the combination of letters. When new words are taught , this method can be used to list the similar words that have ever been taught. For example, we can list the words in the same pronunciation: float, blow, boat. Teachers can also group the words into homographs, and homophones. For example, homographs: wind (n.风)——wind(v.蜿蜒)， lead(n.铅)——lead(v.带领). Homophones: see——sea, piece——peace. In this way, the students can have a better understanding of the words. 3. Teach new words through the ones learnt before. The best way of explaining a new word is to use what has been taught before. This is a good way to review and consolidate those words that have been learnt. For instance, we can use “not fair” to paraphrase “unfair”, we can use “not easy” to paraphrase “difficult”. When paraphrasing the word “freezing”, we can say “extremely cold”. For some words, explaining in English is more brief and exact. eg. “aunt”: parents’ sister, uncle’s wife.” It’s clearer than explained in Chinese.
4. Extend words by association. Teachers can present a word and then ask students to extend it till a whole sentence is finished. For example, movie——a wonderful movie——see a wonderful movie——We are seeing a wonderful movie——We are seeing a wonderful movie which is set in New York. Doing like this can do good to students’ thinking capability and the ability to make up sentences.
5. Teach in certain situations. Chinese students must learn to communicate in English, but it’s difficult for them to have real English occasions to practice speaking English. . It is inevitable to affect their initiative and interest for English study. Therefore, while learning English , students should be offered lifelike situations for communication so that they can be trained in an authentic language environment. Teaching new words in certain situations helps students not only to understand, but to use the words correctly in communication. For example, when teaching the word “touch”, the teacher can ask students to “touch your nose (ears, arm)”. And the students will say: “I’m touching my nose(ears, arm, etc)”.
6. Teach with audio-visual instruments. Audio-visual education program in English teaching refers to the teaching activities in which sound, light, electronic medium,such as tape-recorder, multimedia and so on. The application of instruments can involve all sense organs of the students to participate in learning and their attention is liable to be concentrated on. For example, when teaching the words “rain” “snow” “dance”, the teacher can use flash to display the vivid images. “it’s raining, it’s snowing, someone is dancing”. When teaching “smile” “cry”, the teacher can act it out himself herself or ask students to do it. In the process, sound and the meaning of a word can be finished once and a time. Besides, this method is interesting and vivid, which can improve the memory efficiency.
7. Teach in games. Middle school students are quite active, so they should be involved in something active. Games are a good way for this. In games, students’ physical organs must be more active in participation. For instance, teachers can have dictation competition. Two groups with the same number of people go to the black board and write the same words to see which group writes faster, better. After competition, the teacher should praise the winner as well as encourage those who lose. This is a good way to exam the vocabulary learning and it can enhance the students’ confidence. Riddle guessing is a very interesting activities, which can increase the students knowledge, develop their intelligence and enable them to memorize the words easily. While having this activity, teachers should let students guess by themselves, do not give the answer in advance. Just as J.J.Jacotot , a reformer of English teaching in the 19th century once said that each individual had a god-given ability to instruct himself, what teachers needed to do was to respond to the learners, not to direct or control him by explaining something in advance. Meanwhile, the riddles can not be too hard, because that may have a negative effect on the students’ interest in learning. For example, 1) what kind of sense has no meaning?(nonsense). 2) Which is the strongest day in the week?(Sunday) 3) What kind of nation is the goal of all travelers (destination). Good methods of vocabulary teaching are one essential factor for students to learn it well. However, it is not adequate .Teachers should apply good methods to teaching and learning. Only by connecting teaching with learning can better teaching results be resulted in. So teachers must offer efficient methods for students to learn vocabulary.
1. Combine mechanical memory and comprehensive memory. comprehensive memory is used widely in English teaching and learning. For example, if, without comprehension, students are required to learn the four words “bottom and blossom, flight and knight”, it will take them four times to memorize individually. However, if teachers help students to make an analysis of the common sound of letters of “o” “i”, students can remember them easily. Thus, comprehensive memory is pretty important. Of course, successful learning depends on both comprehensive memory and mechanical memory.
2. Do not ignore Immediate Memory. Scientists divide memory into categories based on the amount of time that the memory last: Immediate Memory, Short-Term Memory, Long-Term Memory. Emphasizing Immediate Memory can arouse students’ thinking and analyse the characteristics of words initially, which would get the students to have a deeper impression. Therefore, teachers can check the students immediately after teaching. As is called: “Strike while the iron is hot.” Immediate Memory can not exist for long, but it is the foundation of Long Term Memory, so it cannot be ignored.
3. Review in time. A common problem in English teaching and learning is that the forgetfulness rate is high. The main reason is that these words are not often reviewed and consolidated or the methods are not suitable. The regularity of forgetfulness is that one forgets something quickly at the beginning, then gradually slower. Ebbinghaus’ Forgetfulness Curve indicates that half an hour after your memorizing, you can remember 58.2%of the words, after 24 hours, the memorizing rate reduces to 33.7%, in the 24 hours between the first day and the second day, the decreasing rate is only 6%, and from the second day to the sixth day, in the four days, the decreasing rate is only 2.4%. Therefore, according to it, teachers should take some measures to help the students fight against forgetfulness in the vocabulary teaching and learning. Only when forgetfulness is overcome can words be well kept in mind. A major solution to dealing with forgetfulness is to review the words just when they are not forgotten. In the course of revision, methods should be mentioned to the students. (1)Association method. When we meet a verb, we can associate its noun, adj, adv, synonym and antonym etc. As the saying goes, “English is known and better understood by its opposite”. So it’s important to have the association of antonym.
(2)Word-formation method .Students must remember some frequently used word-formations. For example, the prefix “un- , im- in- ir- il- ”are added before adjective, it means the opposite.eg. uncertain, uncool, impossible, irregular, illegal,etc. “dis” is added before some nouns, it means the opposite. eg.disability, dishonor,etc. “re” is added before verbs, it means “again”. eg. Rebuild, retell, recycle,etc. And if suffix “-er, or, ar,ian, ist” are added after the original verbs, it means “person”, egg. Reporter, scientist, visitor, beggar, artist,etc. As for “-less, -ful” and “-ness, -ment, -tion”, the first two make the words adjective, eg. Care- careless- careful, and the latter ones make the words noun. eg. carelessness, kindness, development, dictation, production. In my opinion, this method should be popularized because students can enlarge their vocabulary and have a better understanding of the words.
(3)Humor Method. If we memorize the same thing in different situations, different effects will come to us. It is proved that people can remember things better in a relaxing situation than in a boring situation. So teachers should create some relaxing situations for students to memorize words. “Humor” has the power to make it. For example, When teachers teach plurals of the words ended with “o”, because there are two ways to change them into plurals. One way is to add “s”, the other is to add “es”.But there are only several words belonging to the latter. Thus, the teacher can sort out these words and make up a humorous sentences, “Negro and hero like eating tomatoes and potatoes”. Another example, we can memorize the words ended with “f” or “fe”, for those in which “f” or “fe” should be changed into “ies”, a humorous sentence can be given, “ The thief’s wife took a leaf-like knife from a shelf and ended a wolf’s life”. If students remember these words individually, you can imagine how long it would take.
(4)Reading and writing method. This is the best way to remember vocabulary firmly. Reading and writing belongs to the sense of motion, generally speaking, memory in motion can make a deeper impression for people than that of sense of listening and sense of sight, especially for writing, it includes reading , listening and speaking factors. Therefore, writing is a comprehensive activity of memory, which can improve the memory efficiency. Considering all of these, teachers should demand that students read materials outside class and do some writing exercises, egg. write journals, letters, shorten or lengthen articles. Doing so can make students consolidate those words learned before and enlarge their vocabulary, broaden their horizon, enrich their life and cultivate their strong interest of English study.
All the above methods can be used in teaching and learning English vocabulary. Only when they are used in accordance with the specific characteristics of the students and the need of the particular teaching goals can these methods bring about effective effects. Therefore, when a teacher is teaching English vocabulary, more attention should be paid to the application of teaching and learning methods.