Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research background
As Wilkins (1972) said ―without grammar very little can be conveyed, withoutvocabulary nothing can be conveyed. Vocabulary is a necessary prerequisite for alanguage. It plays the most important role in learning English. In the past decadesmany experts witnessed the increasing systematic and principled researches aboutvocabulary teaching, which have provided theoretical guidance and basis for practicalvocabulary teaching, which focuses on ―how vocabulary should be taught and howmany vocabularies the students can remember. But there is far more to acquiringvocabulary than the acquisition of words. Much teaching has been based on the ideathat the most frequently used words in the target language should be taught.The students of grade 9 in middle school are required to master 1,500 to 2,000vocabularies. It would be difficult for the students to acquire so many vocabularies.The teachers in middle school prefer to teach the vocabulary isolated. They launchtheir vocabulary teaching by following the vocabulary list. Furthermore, the teacherscheck the students whether they master the vocabularies or not by dictation or someother mechanical drills. The situation of vocabulary teaching in middle school is theteachers take time in vocabulary teaching; the students spend time in learning andmemorizing the vocabularies. However the students cannot understand or use thevocabulary. The students mostly focus on the spelling and the Chinese meaning. They do not understand the inner meaning of the vocabulary. Meaning acquisition in thecentral part of learning language and should be paid more attention. The students donot realize how to use the vocabulary they have acquired. They can write down thecorresponding words according to the Chinese meaning while they do not know howto use the words when the words occur in the sentences or in the passages. It isnecessary for the students of Grade 9 to face the academic examination. As a result, itis an urgent demand for the students to utilize the vocabulary they have acquired. Inthe paper of the academic examination, the tests about vocabulary can be foundeverywhere. Vocabulary is the foundation of every skill. In one word, vocabularyteaching is the major aim for language learning.
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1.2 Purpose of the Present Study
Since the importance of learning vocabulary, teachers manage to find an effectiveway to teach vocabulary. Nobody can declare which way is the best way. They believethat the better way to learn vocabulary is based on the experience which the learnershave acquired. In addition, the teachers believe that the most effective way of teachingvocabulary is based on the meaningful context. And this context is related to thelearners‘ existing experience. Actually it is linked to the theory of CognitiveLinguistics. Most linguists have done some research about the CL. But there is lack ofthe literature about the specific ways to teach vocabulary within the Frame Semantics.Frame semantics follows the tradition of empiricism, stresses the continuity of language and experienceThe purpose of this study is to do a research on finding the ways of teachingvocabulary based on Frame Semantics. This study intends to find out an effective wayto teach vocabulary in the classroom. This study is expected to aid the learners inmiddle school to impr，英语论文，英语论文
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