Teaching English Vocabulary

Abstract：Grammar provides the overall patterns， and vocabulary is the material to put in the patterns. Without grammar we can convey a little， but without vocabulary we can convey nothing. Vocabulary teaching is an indispensable part of English curriculum. Art is a kind of creation. Teaching vocabulary artistically can make teachers and students build up created consciousness in teaching and learning vocabulary activities and teachers put their experience and emotions towards beauty into teaching activities to raise general vocabulary teaching activities to appreciation of beauty and creative activities， convert bitter into happy， tense into ease. Thus the non-intellectual factors like motive， interest， emotion， self-confidence and so on can be developed naturally and they will elaborate a great part in English vocabulary teaching. At the same time， the relationship between teachers and students can get improved fundamentally furthest and it pushes vocabulary teaching powerfully in turn.

Key words： technique；vocabulary；teaching

中图分类号：G632.0 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1992-7711（2014）05-0032

I. Introduction

To learn English well， English learners should do many things， such as listening， speaking， reading and writing， but the most important and difficult part is the vocabulary. Learning a foreign language is just like building an edifice. Grammar is like the blueprint， while the vocabulary is like building materials. A famous linguist in the west， Wilkins， said：“Without grammar little can be conveyed， without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed

Although vocabulary has its own system and inner regularity， the teaching material absolutely can’t be arranged in order of vocabulary system. So it needs teaching methods to reflect the systematic nature and regularity of vocabulary. It is an important domain that teachers can give free rein to their creativity and that also haven’t been valued so far .

II. The importance of vocabulary teaching

The vocabulary is one of three major elements of the language， and the construction material of the language. The cultivation of the ability to use language is an essential ring in the cultivation of the ability to communicate. The vocabulary is one of the key part of language ability of making communication be carried on. The ability to use vocabulary can influences directly a person’s ability in listening speaking， reading， writing， and translating. Only you have grasped the sufficient vocabularies， could you understand others’ talk and articles， could he express his own thought freely， could he do in an expert way in communication too. And academia thinks only by grasping 3500 daily vocabularies can it help and train students to use language ability to go on communication.

III. Aspects in learning English vocabulary

a. Pronunciation

First of all， pronunciation is the basis of memorizing a new word. Correct pronunciation will help the English learners remember a new word soon. For example， if we know how to pronounce the word pronunciation， we can easily spell it. To master English pronunciation well， it’s necessary to learn the 20phonetic symbols for English vowel sounds. It is not really necessary to learn the consonant symbols as they are usually not difficult to know how consonant should be pronounced. Vowels are important because the vowel let tars can be pronounced in many different ways. When English learners are not sure of a word’s phonetic symbol， don’t hesitate to consult the dictionary.

b. Synonym and antonym

（1）Synonym

Synonyms are words different in sound and spelling but most nearly alike or exactly the same in meaning. Synonyms can be classified into two major groups： absolute synonyms and relative synonyms. Lacy words are synonymous in meaning but different in usage. They form different collocations and fit into different sentence patterns. Synonyms may differ in degree of intensity. Take rich and wealthy for example. A rich man and a wealthy lady are both rich， but the weal therapy is felt to possess more money and property than a rich man. It is observed that absolute synonyms are rare in natural languages， suit is important to distinguish a word’s synonyms carefully.

（2）Antonym

Antonyms are words which are opposite in meaning. Antonyms have various practical uses and have long proved helpful and valuable in defining the meanings of words. A word which has more than one meaning can have more than one antonym. Antonyms generally differ in degree of intensity， so each has its own corresponding opposite. For example， hot and warm are synonyms. Correspondingly， they each have a different antonym. The opposite of hot is cold and that of warm is cool. Their positions cannot be exchanged. Buy a synonym & antonym dictionary and go through it from time to time. After a short time， our vocabulary will be enlarged

IV. Students’ skills of learning vocabulary

Under teachers’ artistic teaching， students can concentrate their attention in class and their spirits are relaxed， they just take activities seriously but give no thought to personal gains and losses. The activities under this kind of mood have the most artistic feature and conform with students’ learning psychology to make them adapt to the demand of vocabulary teaching easily， so as to reach harmony between teaching and learning. Students enter into the learning role that demands by vocabulary teaching artistically， thinking learning as happiness not suffering. In the course of vocabulary learning， this kind of mental satisfaction will be a kind of inherent motive power to benefit to improve learning efficiency.

Students manifestation after entering into vocabulary learning role Once students get into vocabulary learning role， under teachers’ guide， they can do activities of learning and use in artistic mood and easily bring contained potential into play. It seems that students have inspiration and creation in learning and often get satisfaction in class. They not only enjoy themselves， but also enjoy the beauty of tone， rich meaning and rhetorical change. They watch， think and find out the feature of new words to remember words by hearts and deepen under standing in specific situation to learn， in this way， the students’ position has qualitative change in English classes， they are not the container to stuff vocabulary any more， their activities are filled with artistic colors， which can improve English teaching.

V. By adopting scientific vocabulary teaching techniques， teachers can help students improve their language acquisition ability and langauge competence

With the forgoing， I don’t mean to disagree all traditional vocabulary teaching methods and take in all the new methods without discrimination. But I’m caring about the bad influence brought by some awkward traditional vocabulary teaching methods which are overused and exploited inflexibly by many teachers in middle school classroom. As far as I’m concerned， I think a teacher’s behavior and teaching methods usually have great influence toward his students， especially those in middle school； therefore， before he becomes a qualified teacher， he should possess influent professional knowledge and good teaching techniques， since vocabulary teaching is an important part of English language teaching. Whether a teacher can handle this process technically bears on the students’ language acquisition ability such as observation， analysis， creation， thinking and communication， and their language competence. If he tries to observe the rules working in the students’ learning processes， concern about their interest and psychological needs， and apply more scientific and efficient vocabulary teaching techniques which are fit for them， he will succeed in arousing the students’ motives to learn English well and learn it in a relaxing and scientific way in which the larges size of vocabulary is not the final teaching target， but the improvement of language competence. That is to say， not to let English become an accumulated knowledge， but a tool for communication.

VI.The relation between vocabulary teaching and training students’ abilities to learn

The emphasis of teaching is not merely to teach some words， the more important thing is to train the students’ ability to deal with the vocabulary and the imagination of the word. Teacher must change the old single teaching mode， in which teachers teach to read the words and students follow him （or her）， then try to recite the word. Teacher should pay attention to training students’ ability of analyzing and expanding the vocabulary independently. In order to prevent the vocabulary explaining from being dry， Teacher need not arrange special time to explain words. The vocabulary chosen might not be limited to the one that only appears in textbook either. The choice of the vocabulary can be combined to the vocabulary part used in daily. Some of them may be difficult to be found in the text， but they are very useful to the student. Explaining vocabularies like this， we can not only supplement the blank of the vocabulary which can’t be found in the textbook， but also make students feel study of words is vivid and interesting， and really make their study of words bring the notable results. In this way， we can settle a good foundation for cultivating the students’ ability of language communication.

During the teaching， we can inspire students' innovative thinking through vocabulary study. For instance， at the time of teaching the vocabulary about sports， I make student tell as many sports terms as possible， writing on the blackboard at the same time： tennis， badminton， relay race， football， basketball， swim， hiking， etc. Because students are mostly young and vivaciously， they like going in for sports， everybody uses their heads and Makes a speech actively at last， this has given the rein to their imagination， and has increased a lot of knowledge too.

VII.Conclusion

In a word， According to different situations， teacher adopts different vocabulary teaching approaches， only in this way can teacher make students be interested in study of English words， can make students work actively and raise the efficient in vocabulary teaching of English. teaching English vocabulary is a teaching method that can be used in English vocabulary classes. Teachers use solid basic abilities and some artistic accomplishment to show their expressions and behaviors， they also use the conduction in vocabulary practice of listening， speaking， reading and writing to infect students imperceptibly and make them give up bother and inertia mentality. They take advantage of lots of teaching experience and artistic teaching means to make students master the method of learning vocabulary and the learning vocabulary activities have laws and regulations to go by， thus the activities from various to simple， hard to easy.

References：

[1] 王碧霖.王碧霖英语教学经验――入门阶段[M].北京：人民教育出版社，1986.

[2] 张维友.英语词汇学[M].北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1999.

（作者单位：内蒙古包头市科技少年宫 014000）