论文总字数：28371字

摘 要

本文研究语义场理论在初中英语词汇教学中的运用。本文首先探讨了本课题研究的背景，意义与目的,而后论述了词汇的重要性。然后介绍了语义场方面的相关内容，即语义场强调词义之间的联系，这些联系能够让不同的词存在在一个相同的语义场中。语义场又可以分为上下义，同义，反义等语义场。本论文主要讨论三个问题，即：(1)教师们如何运用语义场理论来构建初中英语词汇教学模型?(2)语义场理论应用于初中英语词汇教学对于提高初中生英语词汇学习效果如何?(3)学生在自主学习英语词汇的过程中通过构建语义场的方式进行英语词汇学习的情况如何?

关键词：英语词汇；语义场理论；初中英语；词汇教学

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Vocabulary 2

2.2 Foreign Vocabulary Teaching Overview 2

2.3 Domestic Vocabulary Teaching Overview 3

2.4 Semantic Field Theory....................................................................................4

3. Theoretical Framework 4

4. Applications of Semantic Field Theory to the English Vocabulary Teaching in Junior Middle School 6

4.1 Set up the synonymous relations of semantic field 6

4.2 Set up antonymy 6

4.3 Set up hyponymy semantic field 7

4.4 Teaching inspiration

5. Conclusion 8

Works Cited 9

1. Introduction

Wilkins once said:“Without grammar, we will express insufficient, but without words, we can express nothing .’’ Krashen also said:“In a foreign language environment, vocabulary should be concerned firstly because it plays a vital in the success of the foreign language classroom teaching.’’Thus it can be seen that vocabulary learning directly impacts their language learning for language learners. However, Most students find it very difficult when they learn vocabulary. On the one hand, most of the students don’t master the suitable method in the English vocabulary memory part. On the other hand, many English teachers also failed to use a high effective vocabulary teaching model that allows students to understand each new word.

Taking these various factors into consideration, at present it is important to set up an efficient English vocabulary teaching model in the junior middle school. We usually use the common English teaching method such as the communicative approach, the interactive and task-based English Teaching methods and so on. To some extent, these methods have failed to achieve practical effectiveness. Many students still can not use the appropriate vocabulary in a certain context . In addition, there are many English teachers who pay more attention to pronunciation and meaning of vocabulary. For students, English vocabulary learning is not only words meaning learning, but also pronunciation, spelling, and usages learning. As a result, students learn English vocabulary is not simply read, write and remember the meaning of the vocabulary. It requires students to use those words flexibility that have learned .The traditional vocabulary teaching method ignores the initiative of students in the English vocabulary learning.It makes students lose interest and confidence in English vocabulary learning.

Semantic field theory is an important theory in semantics. It can provide important theoretical foundation for English vocabulary learning. From the perspective of semantic field theory, it is not enough to explain the meaning of the English vocabulary or require students to remember words in English books. In theory, collecting English vocabulary into the suitable semantic field can guide students to understand vocabulary autonomously and remember meaningfully. Moreover, the theory can improve the efficiency of teaching and the ability of using words. In this study, the semantic field theory is the theoretical framework and can help us set up a new teaching model.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Vocabulary

What is vocabulary? Nobody can give us a fixed answer in linguistic. In the 19th century ,western linguists put forward a very famous definition:words are a kind of free organization form .In this form, there is no less than its own freedom organization form.In short,the word is the smallest free form. Vocabulary is significant in the language learning. Lewis thinks that a foreign language learners" foreign language level directly affected by the level of vocabulary learning. Based on the theory of philosophy, cognitive linguistics put forward the meaning of the words is closely related to people’s cognitive experience. Therefore, both in the English vocabulary teaching and learning English vocabulary, teachers must pay more attention to comply with the laws of vocabulary itself exists and on this basis to choose a simple and high efficiency in English vocabulary teaching mode.

The key of English vocabulary learning is memorization. About English vocabulary memory, domestic and foreign scholars have done a lot of researches. Liu Qihui points out that the learners of English have some problems in vocabulary memory: English learners tend to focus on the meaning of vocabulary.The memory of words is non-single cognitive activity, but the overall learning process with the participation of a variety of cognitive activities. In addition, the vocabulary memory activities are usually in the “psychological space’’ and “physical space’’. From the point of contact and development to explore the whole memory activities, people are likely to show the nature of human memory activities and complex process. Thus people can invent the scientific and effective vocabulary mnemonic system which promotes the development of English or other language teaching research. Only the learners use a variety of methods such as the image, or the association into the vocabulary to analysis and thus they are easy to remember English vocabulary. In other words, it is easy to remember vocabulary through meaning. Therefore, this study will integrate a variety of factors from multiple angles and explore the junior middle school English vocabulary teaching mode under the guidance of the semantic field theory.

2.2 Foreign Vocabulary Teaching Overview

The teaching method of foreign language that appeared at first in the west is the grammar translation method and this method also dominated for a long time. In vocabulary teaching, the teachers often read the words firstly and then translate it into the native language, and then make a sentence with the word or do translation exercises to encourage learners in the learning process. The grammar translation method lays particular stress on reading and writing, so it is not high efficient to improve learners’ oral communication ability. To the end of 19th century, “direct method’’ was born. In the direct method of vocabulary teaching, material object, pictures, models and presentations are introduced into the specific vocabulary. The teachers usually teach abstract words through association of meaning. “Direct method’’ is helpful to enhance the language sense, to improve language practice ability, especially listening and speaking ability. Direct method has its own shortcomings, however, especially in the area of English vocabulary teaching, it is difficult to teach complex and abstract concepts. So the teaching contents are limited to daily vocabulary and it is not conducive to the improvement of learners’ vocabulary.

To the 1940s, the aural oral method appeared in the United States. The method stresses “sentence drills’’ . Vocabulary teaching is teaching for syntax. Therefore, words that learners get access to are generally simple, familiar words. To the 1960s, scholars in the theoretical basis of cognitive linguistics proposed cognitive approach. Cognitive Approach emphasis on intellectual factor in the development of learners and motivate learners thinking actively. It pays more attention to mobilize the enthusiasm of learners. It also helps learners to master the scientific method of learning and develop good study habits. The Lexical Approach is a relatively broad teaching methods. And no one is designed for the teaching of English vocabulary. Thus, the teaching of English vocabulary does not receive enough attention.

2.3 Domestic Vocabulary Teaching Overview

Domestic scholars has also carried out many studies. To a certain extent, they also have obtained certain achievements. In general English vocabulary teaching in China, researches are on the rise. It shows that the English vocabulary teaching in our country gradually got the attention of scholars.They come up with some highly effective of vocabulary teaching methods and strategies. Researchers at the selection of English vocabulary teaching has become increasingly diverse and they gradually know from psychology, linguistics, semantics, stylistic school, pragmatics, intercultural communication and Corpus multiple perspectives on the teaching of English vocabulary conduct research traitor. However, at present most of the studies on English vocabulary teaching are still largely speculative theoretical research, lacking rigorous empirical research. Zhong Xueqin (2013) summarizes the teaching of English vocabulary the problems from students and teachers. In terms of student , with the growth of grades, the interest in learning English words will gradually weaken .On the other hand, many students failed to develop the habit of consolidating word timely . From the point of view of teaching, teachers’ teaching allows students to difficult to adapt. Sometimes teachers neglect to teach students the strategies of learning English vocabulary and enable them to develop good study habits .Teachers are not able to clear out the primary and the secondary during the teaching vocabulary clearly, so that students fell overburdened.

It is reported that the main problem of our English vocabulary teaching is reproduction rate of learning. The teaching of English words are short of grade teaching. Teaching of English vocabulary studies also lack of “cultural infiltration’’. The semantic field theory can improve these problems.

2.4 Semantic Field Theory

Semantic field theory reveals that between word and word senses is an interrelated and mutually distinct systems. It also reflects the aggregation semantics. Using semantic field theory in vocabulary teaching is to help students understand and use the English word. This is a new way.When a word into the semantic field, it is interrelated with other words or different from each other. This prompts teachers to help students to consolidate vocabulary and improve and expand the existing semantic network, or create a new semantic network, to achieve the effect of replication. As a result, teachers in the use of the semantic field theory in vocabulary teaching is capable of teaching new vocabulary. At the same time,they can help students review the vocabulary learned in the past. More importantly, such a meaningful semantic field also can help students understand the relationship between whole semantic field which contains more than the meaning of words and each word. It will help the students to distinguish individual words and help them to use these words in the specific context of the exact.

Theoretical Framework

Semantic field theory was first proposed by German scholar Terrell that language lexical semantics are linked with each other and form a complete vocabulary system.He thinks that by analyzing, comparing the semantic relationships between words, we can determine its true meaning. Semantic field is the full meaning of the word on the interrelated system of vocabulary . Semantic field theory is an important theoretical linguistics. If it is applied to English vocabulary teaching in junior middle school, we must first define what is the semantic field and distinguish it from the common vocabulary network. Secondly, we are able to induce English vocabulary to different types of semantic field.“Field’’ was originally a term from physics. It refers to a kind of scope, such as magnetic field, electric field, gravitational field and so on. The semantic field borrowed the concept of “field’’ to study the relationships between semantics. Semantic field theory contains aggregation semantic field and sense combination relations semantic field. In other words, the semantic system mixed two kinds of relations which is “aggregation’’ and“combination’’. Aggregation semantic field can be divided into hyponymy ,meronomy, synonym and antonymy. Hyponymy refers to a semantic field where the meaning of a word is contained in another word. A word whose meaning is included in other word called“subordinate’’ and the other word is called“hypernym’’.It can be shown in the following graph.

It shows that “living”is the superordinate which contains the other words’ meaning. So “plant” and “animal” are the hyponyms.

Meronomy means that the meaning of a word is part of another. Depending on the way the arrangement of the whole and the part of the justice field can be divided into sequential justice field and dispersion justice field.

Synonym refers to a field where meanings of the words are similar or close to each other. There is no exactly the same language in the sense of the word. So synonymous here refers to two or more than two words are close or similar in meaning.Synonyms can be divided into the following categories:

Dialect Synonyms: words from different dialect but similar meaning.Such as:

Stylistic synonyms: words are applied to the different problems but similar sense of word. Such as start, begin,commence ,Kid, child, offspring.

Different emotional synonyms: words have a different meaning closer emotionally. Such as: statesman ~ political collaborator ~ accomplice

Different collocation synonyms: meaning similar but the collocation of words with different words. As synonymous with the term“group’’ said:

A pride of lions.

A flock of lions,

A herd of cows.

A school of whales

Different semantic synonyms: They have similar meanings but different words semantically. Such as: amaze, astound, surprise .They all express surprise. But amaze focuses on vague and astound focuses on just unbelievable.

Antonymy refers to two words that their meanings are opposite. Antonymy can be divided into the following categories:

Level Anti-sense field: the meanings are opposite to each other and also have different degrees of antonym. Such as: old young.Old and young are two antonyms, but they represent two extremes.Among them there are representatives of “old’’ and “young’’ with varying degrees of words, such as middle-aged, mature, elderly and so on. Therefore these words associated with the “"age’’ constitute a group of anti-sense justice field. They are ancient, old, middle-aged, mature, adolescent, young, infantile.

Complementary anti-sense justice field: the opposite of composition has the following characteristics, that is certainly a negative one implies the other. Such as: male female alive dead

The relationship between anti-sense field: the reverse relationship in the meaning of a word. Such as: wife husband Father son

Sense combination relations semantic field also called“Semantic Collocation semantic field.’’ That is to say, the meanings of words in the field are combination relationships, and this combination collocation is necessary to be limited by the syntactic relations, but also by lexical-semantic constraints. Some of the teachers are recruited from foreign countries. Their way of living is different from ours. Yet they know their respective fields well, and their courses are well planned and efficiently taught. In these sentences, teachers, fields, courses, plan and teach form a semantic chain.

The relevant concepts of semantic field theory is helpful to deeply understand the semantic field theory.Clearing up all sorts of different categories of semantic field , the semantic field theory is applied in English vocabulary teaching better. On the basis of predecessors’ research, it is summed up that the semantic field theory which is applied to English vocabulary teaching for students of English vocabulary learning has certain help.

Implications for the English Vocabulary Teaching in Junior Middle School

Psychologists believe that word in memory is characterized through an extensive network. The concept of each word is characterized as a unique network node and this is consistent with the essence of the theory of semantic field. Therefore, we can apply semantic field theory to guide English vocabulary teaching in junior middle school. In English vocabulary teaching, we should put vocabulary into the appropriate semantic field and guide students to understand and digest.Then it is easy for students to remember vocabulary. This is good for enhancing the capacity of using words and the effectiveness of teaching students English. According to this theory and different types of semantic field, we can set up different semantic field relationships to vocabulary teaching.

4.1 Set up the synonymous relations of semantic field

English vocabulary teaching tend to choose general vocabularies that are easy to understand. Students are used to applying the general vocabulary to speaking and writing.But the general vocabulary is short of diversity and not accurate enough. In view of this situation, synonymous which can provide more detailed description is a good choice relatively. In teaching, teachers can pay more attention to the comparison of the synonyms and enable the students to form each concept of synonymous semantic field and have the ability to select synonyms. At the same time, their expression is more diversified and accurate . As bold, brave, courageous, daring, heroic, fearless all contain brave meaning; Laugh, smile, giggle, grin, beam, sneer all contain laugh meaning. Teachers use synonymy semantic field to organize the similar words and compare them. This can help students avoid using generic words frequently and increase the flexibility of language use.

4.2 Set up antonymy

Using anti-sense semantic field of teaching vocabulary can make more efficient. Some words appear in pairs and exist opposite. If you just grasp one, it is difficult to systematize vocabulary and expression there will be missing. In teaching, teachers explaining a word may take a long time to make our students fully understand. But if teachers introduce anti-sense semantic field, it can improve the efficiency of learning and do not have to spend time explaining the word’s antonyms. For example, symmetrical, the opposite is asymmetrical. Students master the symmetrical, they can easily learn asymmetrical. The introduction of anti-sense semantic field can improve the efficiency of vocabulary learning.

4.3 Set up hyponymy semantic field

Hyponymy semantic field has been applied in the teaching of English vocabulary, but need to improve the frequency of use. In the native language acquisition process, people have formed a clear hyponymy semantic field. In the process of learning another language, the semantic field of hyponymy’s establishment should be relatively easy, just find the word corresponding to the mother tongue. The formation of Hyponymy semantic field is based on the first language of the world, but in the English vocabulary teaching, teachers should introduce hyponym as much as possible and encourage students to use hyponym in expression. Hyponymy semantic field contains the concepts of the genus and species. In language, some words express the concept of the genus and some words express species concept. Both are containment relationship. In the semantics,that is called Hyponymy,representing the concept of genus called superordinate, representing the concept of species concept called subordinate .As we all know, any language contains a large number of semantic fields. These semantic field due to the significance of each other are different, the relationship is not the same meaning. The meanings of superordinate and subordinate are obvious relative.Such as “animal’’, you can come out of the series at its disposal under the meaning of the word “bird, beast’’ and so on. And “animal’’ and “plant’’ can be controlled by the “living’’.Thus student can express language more specific and vivid, accurate and concise.

Compared with traditional English vocabulary teaching in junior middle school ,English vocabulary teaching process guided by the theory of semantic field can not only improve the efficiency of English vocabulary teaching and learning.At the same time,it enlarges the students’ English vocabulary.It also enables English vocabulary in a meaningful way is stored in the student"s cognitive structure and avoids forgetting by irregular memorization vocabulary. Because of the vague different usages for English vocabulary,the use of words will be more and more difficult. To a large extent, it will stimulate students autonomous learning English vocabulary .

4.4 Teaching inspiration

Given the importance of the issue for a variety of English vocabulary learning and there are many problems in domestic English vocabulary teaching. Teachers in designing lesson plans should focus on English vocabulary input way. Teachers should train students to learn English vocabulary based on various semantic field theory of learning strategies so as to vocabulary teaching directly and indirectly ,develop their applications with the ability to create words. The semantic field theory about vocabulary teaching will undoubtedly provide a meaningful way to English teachers. At the same time, it will provide many useful lessons for building a junior middle school English vocabulary teaching and learning strategy. First, the English teachers will teach the semantic field of linguistics which is relatively theoretical knowledge in a simple and understandable way to teach students. For junior high school students, it is relatively difficult to understand the semantic field theory, so English teachers in the application of this theory should focus on cultivating students" ability to apply. Second, the use of the semantic field should focus on the current situation of vocabulary teaching . English teachers in designing lesson plans will not be able to arbitrarily constructed lexical semantic field. According to the vocabulary teaching objectives and students" existing vocabulary,we can choose to build semantic field. Finally, give students enough time to independent study. At the same time, teachers can encourage students through cooperative learning to establish all learned English words into the most meaningful and easy to remember and understand the semantic field. In addition, the English teacher can also let students design a variety of different types of mutual semantic field, and then let the other fill in the blank after hollowing out the way vocabulary exercises.Teachers should make good use of the semantic field theory to enrich students’ vocabulary, seize the opportunity to guide students to activate the brain vocabulary semantic field .

5. Conclusion

The semantic field theory can guide the junior middle school English vocabulary teaching.It can help students understand when a word into the semantic field, how it is interrelated with other words. Teachers’ classroom activities should help students build new semantic network or consolidate, improve and expand the existing semantic network, which not only enables students to expand vocabulary, but also helps students fully understand the semantics of the vocabulary.It is helpful for students to master the vocabulary of correct usage and avoid misusing words. This puts a higher demand to the teachers who are accustomed to using the traditional methods of teaching vocabulary .On the one hand, teachers need to understand linguistic knowledge deeply, to improve the depth and breadth of vocabulary cognitive ability. On the other hand, teachers also need careful preparation and make full use of network resources and books on vocabulary association, classification and induction. At the same time ,teachers should combine writing on the blackboard. Then ultimately we will achieve a satisfactory vocabulary teaching effect. According to the above method, the semantic field theory helps to expand students’ vocabulary and grasp the exact meaning of vocabulary. Semantic Field Theory is valuable for building vocabulary system to English learners, so teachers can consciously apply semantic field theory to vocabulary teaching, help students develop the habit of constructing semantic field and improve vocabulary learning efficiency.

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