Analyses on the Current Situation of the Vocabu-lary Teaching and Learning in College English

Abstract Through the analyses on the current situation of the vocabulary teaching and learning of College English， the necessity for improvement of vocabulary teaching is explained for exploring an effective way of the vocabulary teaching and learning with the aid of modern technology.

Key words vocabulary teaching and learning; current situation; College English; necessity

中圖分類號：G424 文獻標識碼：A

0 Introduction

In China， both teachers and students of foreign language teaching and learning are so accustomed to this model that they say or hear that structure is the skeleton of language， and vocabulary is the organ and flesh. After the dominance of grammar in English teaching and learning for years， linguists and educators have increasingly realized the importance of vocabulary teaching and learning. During the 1990s interest in vocabulary teaching and research increased. After all， one word often is essential in understanding the meaning of an entire sentence， let alone the whole paragraph or passage. Students know they should master thousands of words that speakers and writers of English use.

1 Background of the vocabulary teaching and learning in College English

College English is a compulsory course in almost all colleges and universities in China. It is the single biggest university course in terms of duration—lasting for two years， totaling more than 200 classroom hours. To strengthen English language teaching， the Chinese government authorities have made several massive attempts in providing guidelines to college English teachers across the country. All these revisions were made in response to the nation’s call for more progress in English language teaching to meet its needs for large numbers of scientists， engineers and managers who can communicate with their counterparts abroad.

According to the new College English Curriculum Requirements(2004 Version)， the requirements of vocabulary as follows: 1) Words in Common Use (6，674 entries， including 2，354 active words marked “*”， 1，055 words for higher requirements marked “▲” 1081 words for intermediate requirements marked “€L堋? and 4，538 unmarked words for basic requirements); 2) phrases in Common Use (1，875 entries); compared to the requirements of vocabulary in the former syllabus， the number of words has increased by 1，000 entries to meet the needs of higher requirements (College English Curriculum Requirements，2004). The increase in word knowledge shows that the command of vocabulary has been paid much more attention to with the passing years， both in enlarged amounts and in the entire mastery of the words.

With the new requirements of vocabulary and a relatively longer period of English teaching， how to provide proper planning of vocabulary and how to input vocabulary would have a great impact on the result of the learners’ vocabulary output as well as on their interests according to the objectives on vocabulary in CECR.

2 Current situation of vocabulary teaching and learning in college English

In College English teaching and learning， vocabulary acquisition is considered of vital importance. Pronunciation and grammar are emphasized in textbooks， but there is often little or no emphasis on vocabulary. In short， vocabulary has been neglected in programs for teachers and students during much of the twentieth century (Allen， 2002).

Before entering colleges， all of students will have studied English for at least six years， having grasped approximately 2，000 words. But in no more than 2 years， they should acquire another 4，500 words (derivations excluded) and 700 phrases. To reach the newly requirement， students should now acquire 6，500 words and 1，700 phrases. The dramatic change in the quantity of vocabulary acquisition is a big headache to most college students.

The current situation has presented some problems for vocabulary teaching. First of all， words and phrases that occur in books may not have been well chosen. They are mostly decided by the topics and articles selected by the compilers. The distribution of them may not be in good balance. Secondly， we cannot expect students to learn and remember words and phrases just through occasional encounters but through a repeated process. Thirdly， the word list provided in the syllabus is not presented as a whole picture both to the teachers as well as the students， then falling on the teachers’ personal preference and judgment. Furthermore， little relevance exists between the students’ majors and the vocabulary contained in most textbooks. This fact makes vocabulary teaching hard to meet the students’ practical needs.

3 Common attitudes in practice for vocabulary teaching

After decades of neglect， vocabulary is now recognized as central to any language acquisition process， whether native or non-native. What many language teachers might have intuitively known for a long time is now being openly stated by some second language acquisition researchers. The following quotations illustrate this:

The bulk of learning a new language consists of learning new words. Grammatical knowledge does not make for great proficiency in a language. (Vermeer， 1992:147) The lexicon may be the most important component for learners. (Gass and Selinker， 1994:270) Often， vocabulary is presented via word lists， on which word form and meaning are usually the only foci.( Schmitt， 2002) Teachers and students believe that the more vocabulary that can be learned， the better the contextual meaning can be understood. Seal (1991) noticed the importance of well-planned vocabulary in teaching and learning. On the other hand， a word with higher frequency helps to be comprehended， according to the study of word frequency by Foss (1969) in a phoneme monitoring study. A number of studies have shown that frequency influences response time in the lexical decision task， with higher-frequency words having shorter durations (Rubenstein Garfield， Milliken， 1970).

Conclusion——Necessity for improvement

From real teaching experience， the author has found that the effectiveness of learning words would be enhanced by both repeated encounters and reoccurrence in various contexts. That is to say， repeating is helpful for vocabulary learning， especially meaningful repeating.

Modern method concerning with computer， based on corpus， can help teachers and learners to find out whether words and phrases are repeated enough throughout the texts. Then， efforts will be made to focus on the distribution of words and their frequencies in the textbooks， to find a well-planned manner for presenting vocabulary items and some appropriate methods for teaching them through careful planning in the teaching and learning process. It can be expected that the results from this new way will shed some light on English vocabulary teaching and learning for Chinese colleges and universities with the aid of corpus. Therefore， with the advantages of it， the corpus-based approach will benefit both the students and teachers immensely.

References

[1] Allen，V.F. 2002. Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press

[2] Foss， D.J. 1969. Decision processes during sentence comprehension: Effects of lexical item difficulty and position upon decision times. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior， 8， 457—462

[3] Gass， S. M. L. Selinker. 1994. Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 270.

[4] Nunan， D.， 2001. Second Language Teaching and Learning. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

[5] Rubenstein， H.， Garfield， L.， Milliken， J.A. 1970. Homographic entries in the internal lexicon. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior， 9，487—494. [9]

[6] Schmitt， N.2002. Vocabulary learning strategies. Vocabulary: Description， Acquisition and Pedagogy.220. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

[7] Seal， B.1991.Vocabulary learning and teaching. In M. Celce-Murcia(Ed.)， Teaching English as a foreign or second language 2d ed.(pp. 296-312). New York: Newbury House

[8] Vermeer， A. 1992. Exploring the second language learner lexicon. In L. Verhoeven and J.H.L.de Jong (Eds) The Construct of Language Proficiency: 147-62. Amsterdam: John Benjamins