Increasing Middle School Students’Vocabulary through Extensive Reading

【Abstract】 This paper discusses how to increase middle school English learners’ vocabulary through reading.

Vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis of how well learners speak， listen， read， and write. Without an extensive vocabulary and strategies for acquiring new vocabulary， middle school students often feel discouraged during their study.They will lose their interests in English day by day. So it’s very important for middle school English learners to develop their vocabulary efficiently. There are many ways to enlarge vocabulary. In this article we will focus on improving middle school English learners’ vocabulary by extensive reading.

【Key words】 middle school studentsvocabularyextensive reading

1. Introduction

In China， English is a compulsory and very important course to middle school students. Learning English well or not will influence their further education. The vocabulary， an integral part of language， plays an important role in the process of language learning. The importance of vocabulary is illustrated by Wilkins who says “Without grammar very little can be conveyed， without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” To English learners， mastering vocabulary of language is a crucial aspect of improving quality of learning language. However， many students find that it’s very difficult to learn vocabulary. They often complain about that it’s very difficult to remember the new words. On the contrary， words are very easy to forget. And many of them find that even if some new words are remembered， but they don’t know how to use them correctly. They can’t understand the materials of reading and listening very well because of the limited words or the misunderstanding of the meaning of words. Therefore， learning how to expand and use vocabulary is very significant to middle school students. In this article we will focus on improving middle school English learners’ vocabulary by extensive reading.

2. How can reading improve vocabulary level?

It has been shown that reading will improve your vocabulary dramatically. When you read， your brain is forced to analyze the words that are on the page. You must scan the pages with your eyes， and your brain must interpret their meaning. As you can imagine， this is a very complex process. While you can increase your vocabulary by reading books with your favorite genre， it has been shown that you will increase your vocabulary even more by reading books that are not in your genre. If you place an emphasis on reading non-fiction books， not only can you increase your vocabulary， but you will also increase knowledge as well.

When you read a variety of books， you will naturally come across words that you don’t know. Instead of just skipping these words， you will want to make a note of them. You will want to take the time to research them， so that you can find out what they mean. The very act of taking note of a word before looking it up has been shown to greatly enhance the vocabulary of the people who do it. As a starting point for increasing recognition vocabulary I explain to my students that the most successful way to acquire a larger vocabulary is through extensive reading (Neil J. Anderson， 2003， p.23).

Most new words are learned by meeting them in use. A person who reads widely and has many interests usually has a good vocabulary simply because he is continually meeting new words in use. Each time he encounters a particular word he develops a better idea of its meaning and one day， when the need arises， he uses the word correctly himself (Jean Floyd，1984， p.33). Increasing vocabulary by extensive reading， this natural way of learning new words is better than memorizing lists of dictionary definitions.

According to (Wang Zhexi， 2010， p37)， for extensive reading to benefit vocabulary learning， it isessential to have the proper material to read. It should be neither too easy nor too difficult， containing new words whose meaning can be derived from context or the learner’s interest so that s/he will be motivated to understand the message and the unknown words in it. Besides， reading must be regarded as a pleasure or enjoyment rather than simply a learning task so that the learner will not feel anxious or lack self-confidence. The assumption is that if these conditions are met， acquisition will automatically take place.

3. Present situation of Chinese middle school students’ English extensive reading

According to the surveys done by some teachers of some middles schools (Because of space constraints， the specific data are omitted in this paper and the results may vary due to different schools and cities or areas )of several middle schools， we found that:

(1) 90% of the students think that they have no time to read，

(2) 85% of the students are not interested in reading，

(3) 88% of the students think that they can’t read the content of reading materials，

(4) 80% of the students think they couldn’t find the right after-class reading materials.

Behind the survey results， there is an indisputable fact is: A large number of teachers ignore the after-class reading requirements of new course standard for students. And they almost do nothing helpful to guide the students on extracurricular reading. Many teachers may say that they have no time to instruct their students. Because of exam-oriented education system， they have to grade lots of tests and papers everyday. Some teachers just want to use limited time to focus on the contents which would be appear in the test.They think extensive reading is not a workable way to promote their students’ scores because it costs a lot of time. Students spend most of their time doing homework and countless papers. They feel they really have don’t enough time for themselves to control.

4. Read in a scientific way to help you enlarge your vocabulary more efficiently

Wang Zexi(2010， p38) said that: ‘...estimations show that the native English-speaking children read twice as much as Chinese college students.’ From the above analysis， we find that the present situation of Chinese middle school students’ English extensive reading is still far from being satisfactory. We have a long way to improve the situation. No matter how difficult it is， our teachers should try our best to help our students and encourage them to read. Here I want to talk about some tips (For Your Reference) to help students read and learn vocabulary more efficiently.

Tip 1 Try to read at the right level. Reading content that is just right for your level. Just Right means that you come across words that you don’t know but not so often that you lose the momentum of your reading. Read something that you can (more or less) understand. If you need to stop every three words to look up in a dictionary， it is not interesting for you and you will soon be discouraged.

Tip 2 Make a note of new vocabulary. If there are four or five new words on a page， write them in your vocabulary book. But you don’t have to write them while reading. Instead， try to guess their meaning as you read， mark them with a pen and then come back when you have finished reading to check in a dictionary and add them to your vocabulary book.

Tip 3 Try to read regularly and keep to it. Reading regularly is better than forcing yourself to read 2 hours once a week， so try 10 minutes a day before you sleep， in the morning or during your break in the day.

Tip 4 Be organized. Have everything ready:

·something to read

·a marker to highlight difficult words

·a dictionary

·your vocabulary book

·a pen to write down the new words

Tip 5 Read what interests you. Choose a magazine or book about a subject that you like. If you choose something that you like to read， it can actually be interesting and enjoyable. If you enjoy it， you are more likely to keep it up. For example， if you like reading about football in your own language， why not read about football in English? You will get information about football and improve your English at the same time.

Tip 6 Try to guess the words before you look them up.Remember， the first time you see it， you just want to start to recognize it. Are you having to look up in your dictionary for every second word? Then the text you have chosen is too difficult for you. Choose something else-not too easy， though. It is good to have a bit of challenge.

5. Conclusion

In a word， vocabulary is the foundation for people to express ideas and communicate with others. Vocabulary learning is a very important English learning process. Vocabulary is a language area that needs to be further studied for middle school learners. Students need to develop independent learning strategies that help them to enlarge their vocabulary both in and out of the classroom. Reading is a good way to increase their vocabulary. Through extensive reading， students can learn English vocabulary in the real context， by which they can lay a solid foundation to improve their integrated language skills. Extensive reading can not only help students review the words which they have mastered， but also help them find the relationship between words and help them to grasp the induction and deduction meanings of the words. And because the words and phrases are learned in the specific language environment， they can improve English vocabulary and comprehensive ability at the same time. Another significant note is that we teachers should help the students master the scientific methods of reading. Only by reading in a scientific way can students acquire vocabulary effectively. Then their study interest can be generated and learning efficiency can be improved.Therefore， it’s very important for students to cultivate and form goodreading habits during their English study.

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[1] Wilkins DA. Vocabulary: Linguistic in Language Teaching[M]. London: Edward Arnold. Itd， 1972.

[2] Neil J. Anderson. Exploring Second Language Reading:Issues and Strategies[M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 2003(8).

[3] Jean Floyd， M.A. Study Skills For Higher Education [M]. Great Britain by staples Printers St Albans Limited at The Priory Press， 1984(33)

[4]王哲希. 英語閱讀中詞匯習得研究（英文版）A Study on Vocabulary Learning through English Reading[M]. 上海：上海交通大學出版社， 2010(37).