Abstract
This paper mainly explores the impacts of presenting new words in semantically-related (SR) sets on vocabulary learning. 38 students from two classes of Grade 2 in Taiyuan Foreign Language School (Senior High School Section) participate in the whole process. The same vocabulary items unknown to all students are taught to them in 4 lessons. The difference between the experimental group and control group is that words are taught in SR sets in the former and in the latter words belonging to the same SR sets are taught in different lessons. Independent Samples T-test is employed to see if there would be a significant difference between the two groups’ performance in the English-Chinese translation tests of those words. The result shows that there doesn’t exit a significant difference between the two groups in SHT test, but in the LT test two weeks later, SU group performs significantly better than SR group. The research findings may provide some enlightenment for foreign language researchers. Keywords: Semantically-related (SR) sets, Senior high school students, Semantic field theory, Interference theory
Highlights
1.1 Importance of the ProblemVocabulary learning is important in Second Language Acquisition (SLA)
Some provided different words to the experimental and control groups. Few studies in this area have taken senior high school students as subjects; in the present study, whose purpose is similar to the previous ones, 38 senior high school students were chosen as the subjects and the same new English words were presented to both groups in different manners
The present study investigated the impacts of presenting new words in SR sets on vocabulary learning
Summary
Vocabulary learning is important in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). As the famous linguist Wilkins once said, “Without grammar, very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed” (1972, p. 111). Many researchers found that presenting vocabulary in SU sets led to the best outcome of students, while a minority of them found the contrary was better. Some of these studies used artificial words rather than words from a natural second language. Some provided different words to the experimental and control groups. Few studies in this area have taken senior high school students as subjects; in the present study, whose purpose is similar to the previous ones, 38 senior high school students were chosen as the subjects and the same new English words were presented to both groups in different manners
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