Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research Background
Fan (2017) said that vocabulary is the biggest obstacle for the foreign languagelearners in language learning. But the fact is that vocabulary was ignored before1980s. Many people did not pay attention to the existence of vocabulary existedeveryday in either form at that time. However, an English psycholinguist namedMeara(1980) published an article entitled The Rediscovery of Vocabulary in a journalcalled Language Teaching and Linguistics. His view on vocabulary, in this article, thatvocabulary acquisition was the ignored aspect in language study aroused greatattention and sensation. Since the 1980s, vocabulary was no longer the “Cinderalla”for linguists for decades. The learning of language must be based on the learning ofvocabulary, because the latter is the fundamental base of language. Vocabulary studyoccupies an important position in language study. It’s well known that many studies ofexperts are related with vocabulary, such as phoneticians, philologists, morphologists,applied linguists and so on. Meara (2017) again pointed out that the stage we stayed inwas more a period of vocabulary study development than that of rediscoveringvocabulary study.With time going on, more and more experts in language grow to value thesignificance of vocabulary. For example, Wilkins (1972) emphasized the importanceof vocabulary by comparing grammar and vocabulary in this way “without grammarvery little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”. Besides,Laufer(1997) also viewed lexis as central in language acquisition process, either in thenative or nonnative way.
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1.2 Research Purpose and Significance
Vocabulary occupies a great importance in five skills of English study: listening,speaking, reading, translating and writing. Among which, the last one, writing, is themost direct reflecting form in investigating vocabulary acquirement. The level ofvocabulary acquirement is significant to English writing.The syllabus of College English Test Band 4 requires students to acquire at least4,500 words. Although students who have memorized the glossary required by thesyllabus of College English Test Band 4, they still can not use them properly.Meanwhile, it’s a common phenomenon that simple words and expressions areemployed by most students to organize a writing task, with the advanced words andexpressions untouched. Not to mention the students who have a small vocabulary. Inthe process of preparing for passing College English Test Band Four, the tactics thatmost students take are to memorize and write words in their minds or on their paperonce and again. For those students, they have been dreaming of applying moreadvanced words and perfect English sentences so as to attract teachers’ eyeballs forgood grades.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Definitions of Probability and Frequency
Having discussed the fact that there exists frequency in authentic language, wefind it necessary for us to mention the way to calculate frequency in students’ Englishwritings.As we all know, vocabulary occupies a great importance in language study.Scholars begin to realize the importance of vocabulary and to conduct a study in1980s. Words are the basic linguistic units of language (Hu Zhuanglin, 1988) but notisolated units of language, they fit into many interlocking sys，英语论文，英语论文
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