Abstract

Much more stringent requirements on English vocabulary teaching in senior high school have been put forward by New English Curriculum Standard, demanding the English vocabulary teaching should be based on how the English vocabulary is used. However, because of the restriction of space or other possible reasons, the way of English vocabulary teaching has not been changed much. This paper takes the students of Class twenty-one and Class thirteen of Grade two in Hangtian senior high school of Chengdu as an example to do a research. And based on some relevant theories and with the help of questionnaire and interview, the author finds out the problems the teachers have when teaching vocabulary, and at the same time the author puts forth some possible strategies to solve the problems.

Key words: High school English; Vocabulary teaching; Problems; Strategies

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1  Introduction-1

 1.1 Research background-1

 1.2 Research purpose-2

 1.3 Structure of the thesis-3

2  Literature Review-4

 2.1 Vocabulary-4

 2.1.1 Definition-4

 2.1.2 Words and their forms-4

 2.1.3 Words and their meanings-5

 2.1.4 Words and their uses-7

 2.2 Vocabulary teaching methods-7

 2.2.1 Direct methods-8

 2.2.2 Indirect methods-8

2.2.2.1 Teaching vocabulary in context-8

2.2.2.2 Teaching vocabulary in vocabulary groups-10

2.2.2.3 Teaching English words with games-11

2.2.2.4 Teaching English words by making good use of morphology-12

2.2.2.5 Teaching English words by expounding cultural elements involved-13

3  Methodology-15

 3.1 Research questions-15

 3.2 Participants-15

 3.3 Research Methods-16

 3.3.1 Class observation-16

 3.3.2 Questionnaire-16

 3.3.3 Interview-16

 3.4 Data Collection and Analysis-17

4  Findings and Discussion-18

 4.1 Problems the teachers have in teaching vocabulary-18

 4.2 Possible strategies to solve the problems-20

5  Conclusion-22

 5.1 Major findings-22

 5.2 Implications of the research-23

 5.3 Limitations of the research-23

Bibliography-24

Acknowledgments-28