English Vocabulary Acquisition by Chinese LearnersWord文档下载推荐.docx

English Vocabulary Acquisition by Chinese LearnersWord文档下载推荐.docx

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Reviewsofthetopic

2.Thestatusofproblemsexistedinvocabularyacquisition

Mechanicalmemorization

Mixedstyles

Smallquantityofvocabularyinput

3.ThedifferenceofvocabularyacquisitionbetweenL1andL2

Theaverageageoflearners

Thequantitiesoflanguageinputs

Thelanguageenvironmentandacquisitionways

4.L1transferonL2vocabularyacquisition－ChinesetransferonEnglishvocabularyacquisition

ThepositivetransferofL1

ThenegativetransferofL1

5.Thestrategiesofvocabularyacquisition

Readingandvocabularylearning

Contextsandvocabularylearning

Dictionariesandvocabularylearning

6.Conclusion

[References]

ZengShaomanAdviser:

HuMingliang

Abstract：

Vocabularyacquisitionisaneternalcognitiveprocess.SinceSecondLanguageAcquisitionisdifferentfromone’smothertongueacquisition,therearealsovariousdifferencesbetweenvocabularyacquisitionofL1andofhissecondlanguage.Theproblemofhowtodealwithvocabularyinforeignlanguageteachinghasbecomemoreandmoreobvious.Moreover,asChineseisourfirstlanguage,theremustbemanytypicalcharacteristicsofourL2vocabularyacquisitioncomparedwiththatofL1.ThispaperisgoingtodiscussseveralproblemsexistinginourChineselearnersinL2vocabularylearning,focusontheinteractionofL1andL2,includingdifferencesandtransfer,andproposethreeeffectivestrategiesonvocabularylearningforChineselearners.

KeyWords：

Vocabularyacquisition,Difference,Transfer,VocabularyLearningStrategies

I.Introduction:

WhatisVocabularyAcquisition?

VocabularyisoneofthemainhindrancesofmostL2learners.Thereasonisthatdenotativemeaninghadbeenemphasizedtoomuchintraditionalteaching,throughcontrastandtranslation,whileotheraspects,suchasconnotativemeaningandwordcollocationhadlongbeenneglectedfordecades（Hedge,2002）.Inspiteofthis,recentyearshaveseenagreaterawarenessofvocabularylearningbyresearchers,materialdesigners,andteachers.Vocabularyisnolongeravictimofdiscriminationinsecondlanguagelearningresearch,norinlanguageteaching.Afterdecadesofneglect,wordsarenowrecognizedascentraltoanylanguageacquisitionprocess,nativeornon-native.

Whatisvocabularyacquisition?

Doeslearningawordmeanyouhaverecognizedhowitisformedandgraspeditsbasicmeaning?

MostChineseL2learnershavebeenpuzzledbysuchquestionsforyears.MostresearchesonSLAaredonefromtheviewofmorphologyandgrammar,whilefewarefromvocabulary（Cook,2000）.So,itisveryimportantforourL2learnerstomakecleartheconnotativesignificanceofvocabularyacquisition.

Clearly,knowingthewordisonething,buthowthatknowledgeisacquiredisanother.Inlearningtheirfirstlanguage,thefirstwordsthatchildrenlearnaretypicallythoseusedforlabeling,thatis,mappingwordsontoconcepts（Cook,2000）,sothattheconcept,e.g.,ofdoghasaname,dog,ordoggieinEnglish,and狗inChinese.Butdodogand狗indicatethesamething?

Areallfour-leggedanimalsdogs?

Somemaybecats.So,thechildthenhastolearnhowfartoextendtheconceptofdog,soasnottoincludecats,buttoincludeotherpeople’sdogs,toydogs,andevenpicturesofdogs.Inotherwords,acquiringavocabularyrequiresnotonlylabelingbutcategorizingskills.

Finally,thechildneedstorealizethatcommonwordslikeappleanddogcanbereplacedbysuperordinatetermslikefruitandanimal.Andthatanimalcanaccommodateotherlowerorderwordssuchascat,horseandelephant.Thisinvolvesaprocessofnetworkbuilding--constructingacomplexwebofwords（SchmittandMcCarthy,2002）,sothat,itemslikeblackandwhite,orfingersandtoes,orfamilyandbrotherareinterconnected.Networkbuildingservestolinkallthelabelsandpackages,andlaysthegroundworkforaprocessthatcontinuesforaslongasweareexposedtonewwords（andnewmeaningsforoldwords）,thatis,fortherestofourlives.

ReviewsoftheTopic

Theresearchofvocabularyacquisitionbeganinthe1980s,whichattractsmoreandmoreattentionthroughouttheworldasyearsgoby.Byfar,thesystemofvocabularyacquisitionhasbecomeevenmorematurethaneverbefore.

Inrecenttenyears,theresearchandinvestigationsinourowncountryincreaseinasteadyway.Gu（1994）tookresearchinthevocabularylearningstrategiesof850non-English-majorstudentsinBeijingNormalUniversitybyusingquestionnaires.Also,hegenerallydepictedtheirmemorizationstrategies.Wang（1998）,whoinvestigated50undergraduatestudentsinNanjingUniversity,madeamorecomprehensiveresearchinthevocabularylearningstrategies,especiallymemorizationstrategies.Eveninourowncollege,Prof.Liu（2002）proposedareportonword-guessingstrategiesaftertheexperimentof50studentsinGuangdongForeignLanguageUniversity.Allthesementionedaboveshowedustherelationsbetweenvocabularylearningstrategies,orwemaysaytheacquisitionwaysandtheresultofvocabularylearning.

Forourstudents,itmustgreatlyhelpourChineseinL2learningifwefindoutthefeaturesofL2vocabularyacquisition.

II.ProblemsExistinginVocabularyAcquisition

2.1MechanicalMemorization

Inthenormalacquisitionprocess,moststudentsareinfavorof“mechanicalmemorization”accordingtomyownexperienceandtheresearchwhichhasbeendone.Thestrategiesofmechanicalmemorizationincludere-reading,re-spellingandreadingwhilewriting.SuchphenomenoniscausednotonlybytheeffectofthetheoriesandpracticesofChinesetraditionallanguage-learning,butalsobythebackwardconditionsoflearningEnglish,suchasthelimitednumberofEnglishreadingmaterialsformostofthestudents.

2.2MisusedStyles

Asmostofwhatisreadisinwrittenform,itisdifficultforstudentstowellgraspthedifferenceofvocabularystylesandtherelationshipbetweenlanguageformsandcontextfeatures.Asaresultofthis,itiscommontofindmisusedstylesinvocabularyapplication.Forexample,informalstylesmaybeusedinaformalsituation.Inanapplicationletter,youmayfindsuchasentence:

IamsendingyouthisletterbecauseIwantyoutomeetwithmeandgivemesomeinfoaboutthejobyoudo.

Obviously,itisnotsuitabletowritethissentenceinsuchaformalsituationlikeanapplicationletter,asthewordswantandinfoareoralones.Thus,itshouldbewrittenlikethis:

Iamwritingtoinquireaboutthepossibilityofaninterview.

Oneofthesereasonsofstylemixingisthat,whenteachingaword,itisseldomfortheteachertoillustratetheculturalbackgroundandthepragmaticprinciplesoftheword.Studentsfindithardtounderstandandusethelanguageexactly.

Languagehasrichandabundantconnotation.Althoughwewillfindawordinaccordancewithwhattheauthorintendstoexpress,studentsmaynotbeabletograspthesemanticmeaningandtheauthor’sidea,duetotheconnotativedifferencecausedbydifferentsocialandculturalbackgroundanddifferentthinkingways.

2.3SmallQuantityofVocabularyInput

Itmaynotbedifficulttofindoutinresearchthat,vocabularylearningtoagreatextentwillimproveone’sEnglish.Manyscholarsconsiderthatthedifficultiesinwritingarecausedbytheinsufficiencyofvocabularyaccumulation.However,thetimeforteachingatargetlanguageinclassistoolimited.Forexample,thevocabularyteachinginintensive-readingclassisconfinedtothetime,onlyincludingtheteacher’s“shortandintensive”instructionandthestudents’vocabularyexerciseafterclass.Itiscleartoseethatvocabularyinputinclassteachingisinalimitedamount.

III.TheRelationsofVocabularyAcquisitionBetweenL1andL2

Differences

Inwhatwaysisthedevelopmentofasecondlanguagelexiconanydifferentfromthatofthefirstlanguage?

Perhapsthemostobviousdifferenceisthefactthat,bydefinition,secondlanguagelearnersalreadyhaveafirstlanguage.Andnotonlydotheyhavetheconceptualsystemthatthesewordsencode,buttheyalsolearnedthecomplexnetworkofassociationsthatlinkthesewordsonewithanother.Learningasecondlanguageinvolvesbothlearninganewconceptualsystem,andconstructinganewvocabularynetwork--asecondmentallexicon（SchmittandMcCarthy,2002）.However,thereisadownsidetohavingaready-madeconceptualsystemwithitsassociatedlexicon.Facedwithlearninganewword,thesecondlanguagelearnerislikelytoshort-cuttheprocessofconstructinganetworkofassociations–andsimplymaptheworddirectlyontothemothertongueequivalent.Thus,ifaChinese-speakinglearnerlearnstheEnglishwordtaxi,ratherthancreatingadirectlinkfromtaxitotheconceptof“taxi”,heismorelikelytocreatealinktohisL1equivalent的士.TheL1wordactsasasteppingstonetothetargetconcept.

Thedifferencesincludeseveralaspects:

Firstly,thelearnersofL1differfromthoseofL2.Asforone’smothertongue,thelearnersarechildren,whocannotunderstandthevocabularybecauseoftheirintelligenceandlimitedabilities.Intheprocedureofacquiringvocabulary,thereseemtobefewpossibilitiesforthemtoprocessandcategorizetheinputmaterialsintheirmind.Thus,thewayoftheiracquisitionissimply“naturalacquisition”（Thornbury,2003）.Thelexiconmaterialsarestoredintheirbrainaswordforms.ButmostL2learnersaregrown-ups,whosecognitionabilitiesarequitecompleteandareabletoanalyzeandsummarizewhattheylearna