The Importance of Application of the Context to English Vocabulary Teaching

趙婉青

Abstract：Recently， with the severe development of globalization， English has been attached importance as the most widespread language. In domestic English teaching， English vocabulary occupied an indispensable position apparently. It is so important for us to learn well language， as bricks to edifice. In the traditional teaching methods， many students learn the English by cramming up， without understanding the real meanings and the usage of these words significantly. Deficiency of the context forces the students to remember the meanings just， but not the subtle differences from the concrete scene. Additionally， there is much difference in different context for a word. We need to understand and confirm the suitable meaning by the different context.

Key words： context；senior English；vocabulary teaching；appearance of word

The present situation of senior high school vocabulary teaching in China can be concluded as follows： Firstly， vocabulary teaching deviates the context. Some teachers do not pay enough attention to the teaching of vocabularies. The way that they take to teach vocabularies are majorly explaining per new words in every unit before they study the reading text. Students are forced to rotate every words pronunciation， meaning， and characteristic without concrete context， which lead to the decrease of students interests and efficiency of words studying. Secondly， the teacher always explain the meaning in Chinese. To a large extent， some teachers prefer to illustrate the meaning in Chinese rather attracting students interests to learn English vocabulary. Gradually， they may be frustrated to learn English.

Ye Lan （1999）holds that although Chinese teachers and students have paid enough attention to English curriculum， teachers neglect the importance of words teaching or take some inappropriate methods in actual teaching process， which lead to the increase of achieving the goal.

Michael Wallace （1984） once said that， “Words generally do not have one meaning.”That means that there is more than a word meaning in English. For example， “sound” has different meanings in different context. Teaching context helps students understanding the connotative meanings， varying with the concrete context. For example， “amaze” and “astound”， they have the same denotative meaning， but there subtle difference in connotative meanings， which the later is core serious than the former.Nature context help students understanding the words cultural meanings. Language show the nations special politics， economies， and religious belief as the cultural carrier， helping knowing more background about the country.endprint

In Lu Qiaoling （2001）， there is a recognized definition about the context： context means a word or a phrase exists in a specific environment of sentence or paragraph， helping confirm the words meaning.

Thus， its of vital importance for teachers to teach vocabulary in context. First， create concrete context， encourage guessing and enlarging the vocabulary amount. Second， improve comprehension ability by context and feeling experience.

Teachers， as leaders in teaching process， need keep a keen sense of seeing and hearing to society， know the requirements of society in time， master current affairs information， grasp the best opportunity to delve， search for and design the first-hand context material， as well as offer opportunity for students to perceive， recognize and remember the target words. At the same time， teachers need to employ some ways to help students master target words better， such as affix. Additionally， the process of vocabulary accumulation need be controlled well and appropriately based on solid foundation of learned words. Last but not least， all the teaching contents revolves around the teaching of vocabularies. All in all， the operation of using context to teach new words in real life is manipulable and effective， causing fantastic teaching effect.

Reference

[1]Lu Qiaoling， 2001. The matter of the context in the word teaching. Foreign Languages and T heir Teaching. System，146（6）.

[2]Ye Lan.[葉瀾]，“新世紀教師專業素養初探”，《新基礎教育探索性研究報告集》.上海：上海三聯書店.1999，239-241.endprint