OnTheImporanceofVocabularyTeachingInElemenaryClassroom_开题报告

Till today, many have been devoted to the study of vocabulary teaching. However most of them are focused on secondary and university English teaching, reading, writing, listening, oral speaking. Only few are about elementary English teaching. Nowadays, the students in elementary classroom can receive English education from Grade Three. Based on previous studies of some educators, in my paper, I’d like to discuss the importance of vocabulary teaching in elementary classroom. First of all, let’s see some background.  

At the beginning of 2001, the ministry of education issued the Guidance on Actively Promoting English Courses in Elementary Schools. The guidance said that English courses could be gradually opened in the elementary schools which are located in cities from the autumn semester in 2001. The elementary schools in townships could gradually open English courses from the autumn semester in the next year (2002). Beginning of English courses is in grade three. More than 10 years passed, we got some achievements, but there are still lots problems

 Professor Bao Tianren talked about four factors in English learning in detail. The factors are foreign language, teaching environments, teaching resources, teaching styles. Nowadays, there are no clear aims and requirements in elementary English teaching. Some elementary schools don’t have enough preparation for opening English courses, but they did. The blindness results in low efficiency of English teaching. In his opinion, classroom teaching is a very important channel for English learning. In china, we learn most English from English class. The quality of English courses and English teaching are tightly linked together. 

The book named vocabulary teaching and study is written by Ma Guanghui. The target readers are the teachers working on teaching English. Ma Guanghui introduced the theory, methods, options, and designs of English vocabulary teaching detailedly and systematically in the book. For elementary English vocabulary teaching, she point out that Standard of English Curriculum for Compulsory Education (2011) is 600-700 vocabularies which should be mastered by elementary students. There are about 448 vocabularies in Level 2 vocabulary list for the students in elementary school.  448 vocabularies are not only the target but also the starting points. It will impact future English learning. They are highly used and have a high percent in academic examinations. It takes about 67% of total words in   in junior high school entrance examination paper, 55-64% in college entrance examination paper, 57% in CET4 (College English Test )paper, , 50% in GRE( graduate record examination) paper. So in elementary school, the students should have good education in vocabulary teaching.  

What’s more, British linguist Wilkins (1972) said: without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed (p111-112). Lewis (1993) went further to argue, “Lexis is the core or heart of language” (p. 89). Dellar and Hocking (2000) said: if you spend most of your time learning grammar, your English will not improve very much. You will see most improvement if you learn more words and expressions. You can say little with grammar, buy you can say almost anything with words.  So vocabulary is central to English language teaching.

At the same time, experiments proved that children between the ages of 1-9, the brains reach the highest capacity in language learning. There will be less interference from mother language before 10 years old. According to current research, the ideal age for learning language is early adolescence, so about 11-13. And the more motivated the child is to learn the new language, the more successful he will be ! (://esl.fis.edu/parents/advice/myth2.htm).The student in elementary classroom is around 6-14.   

 In sum, all the above studies have put forward valuable ideas about vocabulary teaching. However, there seems to be a lack of in-depth and detailed analysis on importance of vocabulary teaching in elementary classroom. Thus my paper may hopefully make some contribution in this direction

Outline

1. Introduction

2. The importance of learning English language 

2.1. The components of English language 

2.2. The role of English 

2.3. Why we should learn English. 

3. Know more about vocabulary 

3.1. What’s a vocabulary? 

3.2. What’s the vocabulary size a student should have in elementary classroom?

3.3. The impact of vocabulary size for English learners 

4.  The significance of Elementary teaching  

4.1. The students’ character in elementary classroom

4.2. The significance of elementary education in one’s learning life 

5. The current problems in elementary classroom 

5.1. The current problems in elementary classroom from the students

Hard to remember the meaning and pronunciation of a sentence or a vocabulary

Don’t have the motivation and realization to learn English 

Don’t have learning environments

5.2. The current problems in elementary classroom from the teachers   

Not enough teaching hours

The different teaching levels of different teachers

Traditional Teaching methods

………

5. Conclusion

 References

[1] Wilkins, David A. (1972) Linguistics in Language Teaching [J]. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. 

[2] Dellar, H.& Hocking, D(2000)：Innovation. Hove: Language Teaching Publisher[J]

[3] Lewis, M. (1993). The lexical approach: The state of ELT and the way forward. Hove, England: Language Teaching Publications

[4] Nobert Schmitt &Michael McCarthy(2002): Vocabulary: Description Acquisition and Pedagogy【M】 Shang Hai Foreign Language Education Press

[5] 包天仁  中国小学英语教学的现状与反思【J】 基础教育外语教学研究  2004 

[6] 马广惠 《英语词汇教学与研究 Teaching and Researching English Vocabulary》 【M】 2016,外语教学与研究出版社 foreign language teaching and research press   

[7] 李宗宏 《英语词汇习得策略  Strategies in English Vocabulary Acquisition》 【M】 2016,外语教学与研究出版社 Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press

[8] 黄建滨 《英语词汇与词汇教学研究 English Teaching Theory : Vocabulary Teaching 》 【M】 2015, 浙江大学出版社Zhe Jiang University Press

[9] 杜诗春 《多视角下的英语词汇教学A Multidimensional Perspective of English Teaching and learning 》 【M】 2013, 上海外语教育出版社Shang Hai Foreign Language Education Press

[10] 马丽亚 《外语词汇刻意习得研究Empirical Studies on Intentional Vocabulary learning of Foreign Language Acquisition》 【M】 2013, 国防工业出版社National Defense Industry Press

[11] 林立 《小学英语教学研究》 【M】 2004, 首都师范大学出版社 

[12] 教育部关于积极推进小学开设英语课程的知道意见（2001年1月18日）教基[2001]2号 【Z】://.edu.cn/20010907/3000637.shtml