1. Introduction
Vocabulary teaching is an important part of English teaching, and mastering a certain amount of vocabulary is the basis of learning English well. Canal and Swain (1980) [1] pointed out that the cultivation of language ability is a crucial link in the cultivation of communication ability, and vocabulary is one of the core parts of language ability that makes communication possible. Vocabulary ability directly affects a person’s ability to listen, speak, read, write and translate. Only by mastering sufficient vocabulary can we understand and read other people’s words and articles, express our thoughts freely and be at ease in communication. On the contrary, people’s difficulties and obstacles in communication are mostly caused by the lack of vocabulary. In a sense, vocabulary level is one of the parameters to measure a person’s language level. Therefore, vocabulary teaching should play an important role in English teaching, especially in the college stage. Students have learned basic English grammar rules in senior high school, and vocabulary begins to restrict the further improvement of students’ English level. Therefore, strengthening vocabulary learning should be one of the characteristics of college English teaching different from senior high school English teaching. Vocabulary teaching is one aspect of English teaching that is worth our time and energy to study and explore. This is not only the requirement of reality, but also the need of development. The foreign language teaching syllabus and all kinds of language examination syllabus take the vocabulary as the important assessment goal and the basis of the proposition and material selection. For example, the difficulty of the short passages in the reading comprehension test is mainly based on the amount of vocabulary, and the proportion of the reading part is very large. The lack of vocabulary greatly restricts the accuracy of the reading comprehension of the examinees, which is a major reason why most examinees lose marks. The composition part more prominently shows that most of the examinees have poor ability to use vocabulary, use words inappropriately, and cannot express their thoughts accurately in English. Therefore, vocabulary learning and vocabulary teaching play an important role in college English teaching.
1.1. The Research Background
In practical teaching, many teachers often pay too much attention to the explanation and practice of grammar and sentence patterns, thus neglect vocabulary teaching. They think that word learning is their own business, and let them recite it after class, which makes vocabulary teaching a weak point. Students lack vocabulary knowledge, which not only makes it very inefficient to remember words, but also makes the basic meaning of commonly used words inaccurate and incomplete, so they can’t understand it if they change the occasion or the collocation. When listening and speaking, they often “get stuck” because they don’t know the words. When reading, they can’t do anything about new words. They can’t use vocabulary knowledge to identify and guess. They often can’t understand the words even after looking up the dictionary for a long time, which affects both reading speed and understanding and writing. Because they don’t know the usage characteristics and collocation of commonly used words, they write Chinese style English on paper. In fact, the size of vocabulary represents a person’s English level, and represents a person’s foreign language ability. At present, the efficiency of college English vocabulary teaching is low. The relatively single teaching mode leaves a weak impression on students, and students’ vocabulary learning efficiency is low. They often complain that they cannot remember words. In college students’ English learning, the lack of vocabulary on the plaque seriously affects the improvement of English scores and the passing rate of CET-4 and CET-6. A considerable number of students are extremely poor in vocabulary. They know very little about some vocabulary that should be mastered in middle school and use it less. They can’t speak, understand or write in English class. Students lose their interest in English learning, have a high rejection and no sense of achievement. The focus on teaching is not enough, and there is a lack of necessary guidance and practice for students. Some teachers emphasize the explanation of words, but lack practice, and have no suitable context to let students use.
1.2. Research Objective
The objective of this study is to explore the problems in college English vocabulary teaching and discuss corresponding teaching strategies to deal with the problems.
2. Literature Review
2.1. Related Theories
2.1.1. Processing Hierarchy Theory
Craik and Lockhart’s (1972) [2] theory of processing levels is closely related to Atkinson’s and Shiffrin’s three-tier processing model of memory information. To understand the theory of processing levels, we must first understand the three-tier processing model of memory information. According to this theory, memory is divided into three stages, namely: sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory. If information is to be transferred from short-term memory to long-term memory, it should be realized through retelling. The longer the retelling time is, the better the retention effect of memory is. However, the theory of processing levels believes that the key to memory retention is not the length of retelling time, but the difference in processing methods, that is, the deeper the processing level, the better the memory retention. Therefore, it is proposed that there are two different levels of cognitive processing. The first level is the level of formal processing, which is equivalent to what Atkinson and Shiffrin call retelling; The second level is the semantic processing level, which refers to the connection between a word and other words. According to the theory of processing level, the level of information processing determines the memory effect. The deeper the processing level is, the more skillful the memory effect is. Craik and Tulving (1975) [3] further proposed that semantic coding is not enough, but also needs to be refined, including grammatical categories, contextual meanings, etc. On the basis of fine processing, Wrttrock (1974) [4] proposed productive processing, emphasizing that students should actively construct information in their original knowledge, experience and ability, so as to strengthen the memory effect.
2.1.2. Lexical Chunk Theory
Becker (1975) [5] called lexical chunks prefabricated language, which can be completely or easily processed into fluent language, such as let alone, as long as and strictly speaking. He believed that such fixed structures should be specially accumulated and mastered in English learning. Wray (2002) [6] defined lexical chunks as “a series of prefabricated coherent or incoherent words or other meaning units, which are stored in memory as a whole, and can be extracted directly when used without grammar generation and analysis”.
2.1.3. Theory of English Vocabulary Learning Strategies
There is no universally accepted and unified definition of English vocabulary learning strategies. Nation (1990) [7] classified vocabulary learning strategies into three categories: 1) guessing the meaning of words according to the context (context); 2) use mnemonics to remember words; 3) understand words according to roots and affixes. Cohen (1998) [8] believed that the strategies for learning words can be classified into blue categories: strategies for memorizing words, strategies for assaulting words, and strategies for practicing words.
2.2. Research on English Vocabulary Teaching Abroad
Allen, V. F.’s (1972) [9] “Vocabulary Teaching Skills” discusses vocabulary teaching skills in non-native English courses. Based on years of successful experience in English teaching, the author expounds vocabulary teaching skills in detail, and provides rich examples and suggestions for classroom activities. The first chapter of the book reviews the changes in the status of vocabulary teaching, which was once ignored until the 1980s and has become the focus of linguistic research and language teaching. Chapters 2 to 9 respectively discuss vocabulary teaching for beginners, intermediate learners and advanced learners, pointing out that beginners should pay attention to word meaning understanding and its communicative role, and intermediate learners with increasingly obvious degree differences should be taught in accordance with their aptitude and pay attention to teaching the social meaning of vocabulary in the target language The emphasis of vocabulary teaching for advanced learners is to cultivate students’ ability to learn vocabulary independently, and the teaching of advanced vocabulary is discussed from the aspects of the use of dictionaries and the learning of word formation. The book Vocabulary Teaching and Acquisition by Nation systematically discusses vocabulary teaching, learning, evaluation and many other issues. The vocabulary teaching introduced in the book Vocabulary, Semantics and Language Education by James Coady and Thomas Huckin is divided into planned and unplanned vocabulary teaching, and focuses on planned vocabulary teaching. The author puts forward two criteria to distinguish vocabulary teaching and training: one is time efficiency, the other is the content learned. The author discusses two common vocabulary learning methods in detail, one is to use vocabulary, the other is to classify words according to semantic field. And in N Schmitt and M McCarthy’s book Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition mainly discusses the problems of vocabulary teaching in second language teaching. In the first part, the author makes a historical review and in-depth discussion on the methods of vocabulary teaching in the second language. By analyzing the problems that hinder the second language reading comprehension, such as insufficient vocabulary, confusing misunderstanding of word meaning, and weak ability to guess word meaning, the author puts forward a minimum vocabulary standard for smooth reading, and points out the necessity of elaborately arranging vocabulary teaching in the classroom by comparing the effects of the morphological differences between the mother tongue and the second language on vocabulary understanding. The fourth part focuses on the methodology of vocabulary teaching. In the fifth part, the author reviews the reasons for neglecting vocabulary teaching in the past and the remedies, discusses the problems in the empirical research fields such as context acquisition, individual learning strategies, direct guidance, vocabulary scale, dictionary use and conventional learning theories, and finally concludes the basic principles of the second language vocabulary teaching theory.
2.3. Research on English Vocabulary Teaching in China
Since 1980s, vocabulary and vocabulary teaching have received unprecedented attention. The topic of English vocabulary teaching has been extensively discussed in the domestic educational circles. The treatise on English lexicology teaching is Zhang Jiying’s [10] English Lexicology Teaching and Research. The first part of the book analyzes the current situation of English vocabulary learning and teaching. The second part discusses the relationship between vocabulary teaching and the development of various language skills such as listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation. The third part discusses the research on vocabulary learning and vocabulary teaching, introduces a variety of vocabulary learning strategies and vocabulary teaching methods, The fifth part analyzes the cultural differences of vocabulary in English teaching in detail. In addition, the fifth chapter of Xiao Liquan’s [11] English Teaching Methodology specifically talks about English vocabulary teaching methodology, involving the positioning, objectives, contents, methods and strategies of vocabulary teaching, vocabulary learning and memory, etc. Chapter 6 of Wang Duqin’s [12] Theory of English Teaching Strategies specifically discusses various strategies of vocabulary teaching, involving the content, principles, strategies and other issues of vocabulary teaching. In the part of teaching strategies, various teaching strategies in the stages of exhibition, application and evaluation are discussed respectively.
Researchers have explored all aspects of English vocabulary teaching theoretically and practically, which can be summarized as follows: the presentation of English vocabulary teaching; how to cultivate interest in learning English vocabulary; the study of teaching vocabulary in context; how do students remember words; research on cultural differences and vocabulary teaching; research on the problems and countermeasures in English vocabulary teaching; the study on how students use vocabulary learning strategies.
These studies are of great help for us to understand the current situation of English vocabulary teaching in China, and put forward many suggestions on solving the problem of vocabulary learning and teaching. However, most of them only investigate and analyze from the perspective of learners. At present, there are few researches on how college teachers view and carry out English vocabulary teaching, especially on the combination of students’ vocabulary learning and teachers’ vocabulary teaching.
3. Research Methodology
3.1. Subject
The participants for this study are the teachers from the Department of College English and the Japanese majors from Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages. Because the researcher only conducted four classes in the last semester, in total only two classes with a number of 72 students were investigated. They are in Grade Two with ages ranging from 19 to 20. They have been learning English as a compulsory course for 6 to 9 years, with an average of 7 years. All of them are interested in the study, because they want to know their English vocabulary level and also hope to find ways to increase vocabulary and use it effectively.
3.2. Instruments
3.2.1. Research Tools
The study adopted questionnaire and interview methods. The tools are questionnaires and interview outlines. The questionnaire was adapted by the author according to the questionnaire of Chen Luoyu [13], another researcher in the same research field. The reason for this adaption is that her questionnaire covers most of the items that the researcher wanted to cover and they are suitable for collecting the data in the teaching and studying context. It is divided into two questionnaires, namely, the “Questionnaire on Teachers’ Vocabulary Teaching” and the “Questionnaire on Students’ English Vocabulary Learning”. The teacher questionnaire is composed of questions, respectively involving college teachers’ vocabulary teaching concepts, contents, methods, means and evaluation. The student questionnaire is composed of questions, respectively involving college students’ vocabulary learning concepts Strategy. After the questionnaire survey, teachers were further interviewed. The outline of the teacher interview involved teachers’ vocabulary teaching concepts, contents, methods, means and evaluation.
3.2.2. Evaluating Reliability
Reliability, also known as reliability or consistency, refers to the stability and consistency of the results measured by measuring tools. The greater the consistency and stability of the measurement tool, the higher the reliability. In this study, Cronbach Alpha coefficient of the student questionnaire is 86.6% and the teacher questionnaire is 87.9%, which is acceptable as long as it is above 0.6, was used to test the internal consistency reliability of the questionnaire, providing empirical support for the use of the second language awareness questionnaire.
3.2.3. Evaluating Validity
After reviewing the literature related to this study, the researcher chose the questionnaire and items. They were judged and revised by professionals in the academic field.
4. Results
4.1. The Data Collection and Analysis of Questionnaire for the Students
This questionnaire is mainly to investigate the current situation of students’ vocabulary learning and relevant strategies taught by teachers. Through the distribution and collection of questionnaires, the survey results are obtained. Data collection and statistical analysis are shown in Table 1. Each question offers
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Table 1. The data collection for the students.
(A = 3 points, B = 2 points, C = 1 point).
three different choices equal to three grade points. The scores are 3 points for A, 2 points for B, and 1 point for C. For each question, the number and proportion of different answers from all students are calculated and tabulated. In the last column, the scores are added up and divided by 72 to get the average. The average represents a student’s tendency to choose a project, or attitude towards the issue. For example, in the first question, the average score was 2.2. As can be seen from the average score, students tend to choose B (2 marks) as the answer to the first question. That is to say, most students think vocabulary learning is not that important in English learning. Vocabulary learning has not been given enough attention and emphasis by students. In traditional college English teaching, teachers tend to emphasize text interpretation and completion exercises, but pay little attention to vocabulary teaching, because reciting words is considered to be students’ own business.
4.2. The Data Collection and Analysis of Questionnaire for the Teachers
This analysis of this questionnaire (Table 2) can be summarized as follows:
1) The necessity of bridging vocabulary teaching from high school to college
According to the questionnaire, when asked about the attitude of high school and college English vocabulary teaching, 86.2% of the surveyed teachers think it is necessary to improve the cohesion of English vocabulary teaching. This indicates that most college teachers have a high level of identification with the link between high school and college vocabulary teaching.
2) Methods of vocabulary teaching
The results showed that 36.1% of teachers still explained vocabulary in the order of the vocabulary list. To some extent, this reflects that these teachers’ methods of dealing with vocabulary in vocabulary teaching practice are relatively simple. The teaching method of explaining vocabulary in a word list takes vocabulary learning away from the support of context. The use of vocabulary is difficult to reflect in the context, and the continuous explanation of vocabulary is easy to make students feel boring. The proportion of teachers explaining vocabulary and sentences reached 26.4 percent. This method affects students’ overall cognition of the article and is not conducive to improving students’ reading ability.
3) The cultivation of independent learning ability
As can be seen from the fourth question, 40.2% of the surveyed teachers only occasionally require students to conduct independent learning, indicating that teachers do not pay attention to the cultivation of students’ independent learning ability.
4) Learning strategy training
Since the teacher thought that the students mainly had difficulty in memorizing and using vocabulary, the author set questions about vocabulary memory and strategy use to check whether the teacher provided relevant strategic guidance. In the teaching of memory strategies, 84.8% of teachers emphasized the use
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Table 2. The data collection for the teachers.
of memory strategies, indicating that teachers pay more attention to memory strategies. In terms of the use of vocabulary strategies, only 27.8% of teachers pay more attention to the teaching of vocabulary strategies, indicating that teachers ignore the use of vocabulary strategies.
4.3. The Data Collection and Analysis of the Interview
The author investigated and analyzed teachers and students through interviews, and found that the current problems in vocabulary teaching cohesion mainly include the following aspects: from the comparative analysis of the vocabulary requirements of the syllabus and the vocabulary presentation of the textbooks, it can be seen that the syllabus and textbooks have indeed considered cohesion, but there is a certain degree of disjunction. First, as far as the syllabus is concerned, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the three levels of vocabulary requirements, which reflects the gradualness. However, the vocabulary requirements of the first level vary greatly. Those students who have difficulties in vocabulary learning in high school may be difficult to adapt to the rapidly increasing learning pressure. Second, as far as the textbooks are concerned, the proportion of old words should be controlled within a reasonable range, which is conducive to students’ vocabulary learning step by step. However, some new meanings of old words lack the support of context, and they still repeat students’ usage in high school, with poor cohesion. Third, from the survey of teachers and students in middle schools and colleges and universities, we can see that there is a gap in the cohesion of English vocabulary teaching in senior high school. From the perspective of teachers, most teachers have not formed the awareness of vocabulary cohesion teaching, and the teaching methods of the two learning stages are out of touch: the teaching methods of senior high schools tend to be exam oriented, and the teaching methods of universities tend to develop students’ autonomous learning ability. At the same time, university teachers also put more emphasis on the cultural awareness of vocabulary. Therefore, students must pay a certain amount of time for self-adjustment. In just two years of college English learning, if students spend a long time to adapt, then the effect of English learning is bound to be greatly reduced. On the other hand, from the perspective of students, many high school students still cannot effectively use vocabulary learning strategies, especially classification strategies and other memory strategies and use strategies, which leads most students to believe that vocabulary memory and use are the main problems in vocabulary learning. Some students are easy to lose heart when they face learning difficulties, which will greatly dampen their English learning motivation in college. At the same time, many high school students do not have the ability to learn independently, and it is difficult to adapt to the situation that students accumulate vocabulary independently in universities, and the language foundation is poor. They also have poor pronunciation skills, because their high school learning was exam-oriented neglecting speaking. As a result, they couldn’t memorize new words according to pronunciation. To sum up, the vocabulary requirements of the syllabus, the vocabulary presentation of the teaching materials, and the factors of both teachers and students together lead to the fault of vocabulary teaching.
5. Problems of English Vocabulary Teaching
5.1. Large Gap in Vocabulary Requirements of the First Level of the Outline
The vocabulary requirement of the first level of the syllabus is basically twice that of the senior high school. Some students who feel learning difficulties in the senior high school may be more difficult to adapt to the increasing learning pressure. At the same time, college English has the characteristics of less class hours, fast rhythm and large amount of information, which makes it more difficult for students to adapt to the vocabulary requirements of college English.
5.2. Unreasonable Vocabulary Presentation in College Textbooks
In the presentation of some polysemy words, the context in the college textbooks does not reflect the new meaning of the vocabulary, and is still repeating the knowledge of senior high school, without good cohesion.
5.3. Students’ Poor Command of Vocabulary Learning Strategies
It can be seen from the teacher questionnaire that although most college teachers provide guidance on vocabulary learning strategies in teaching, but college students, cannot effectively use vocabulary learning strategies, which indicates that students still have some difficulties in mastering learning strategies, especially classification strategies. To some extent, it is difficult for students to remember and use flexibly. If students do not master the learning strategies well, a series of problems will arise in college English learning. The effect of vocabulary usage or vocabulary memory is poor, and it is difficult to adapt to the fast pace, less class hours, and the more difficult language courses.
5.4. Students’ Low Autonomous Learning Ability
From previous study, it can be seen that high school teachers neglect to cultivate the autonomous learning ability of high school students. In the interview, college teachers believe that the pressure of entering a higher school is one of the factors that hinder teachers from cultivating students’ autonomous learning ability. At the same time, some college teachers pointed out the problem of freshmen’s ability to learn independently, which is mainly manifested in the students’ lack of self-control, planning and self-regulation. If students do not have a certain ability to learn independently, they may even neglect English learning in the colorful campus life of the university, which greatly affects the further improvement of their language ability.
5.5. Students’ Weak Basic Pronunciation Skills
From the student interview, we can see that most college students are still unable to remember words according to spelling rules. It can be seen from the questionnaire of college teachers that teachers all believe that spelling is one of the main problems for students in vocabulary learning, which shows that the problem of vocabulary spelling that students should solve in senior high school or even junior high school has not been solved, but also brought to the next learning stage, causing a vicious circle and affecting the effect of students’ vocabulary learning in college.
6. Corresponding Strategies of English Vocabulary Teaching
6.1. Implementing Graded Teaching
Grading teaching mode refers to that students are divided into two groups according to their English scores from high to low or from low to high level, set different learning objectives, adopt different teaching contents, and hierarchical teaching is conducive to students’ playing their potential on different platforms. Due to the large gap in vocabulary requirements of the syllabus, some students with difficulties in vocabulary learning may be difficult to adapt to the learning pressure. In view of this situation, the hierarchical teaching model can take into account the learning needs of these students, and carry out differentiated hierarchical teaching on the basis of considering the weak vocabulary level of some students. In the actual teaching, some students have forgotten the vocabulary knowledge in high school, so teachers need to help students review, improve students’ learning confidence, and lay a foundation for college vocabulary learning; In addition, we should make use of the overlap between college vocabulary and high school vocabulary, step by step, and give students a certain buffer space. In vocabulary teaching, we can use word formation knowledge to guide students to review the vocabulary they learned skillfully in high school, and then introduce new words. At the same time, teachers should also pay attention to the timely induction and review of vocabulary knowledge in each lesson, so as to achieve practical results and improve teaching effectiveness, so as to help students adapt to college English learning. For some students who have a good foundation of foreign language and can spare no effort in learning, teachers should pay attention to the expansion of vocabulary knowledge and the cultivation of comprehensive ability.
6.2. Using the Teaching Materials Flexibly and the Context to Present the Vocabulary
6.2.1. Optimizing Vocabulary Presentation
Teachers should establish an inclusive view of textbooks, which requires teachers not only to have the awareness and ability to judge textbooks, but also to have the ability to integrate curriculum resources inside and outside textbooks. When dealing with polysemy, the presentation of polysemy should be supported by the context, which is conducive to students’ understanding and mastering. First of all, teachers should eliminate some unreasonable ways of vocabulary presentation in the textbooks, and use the textbooks flexibly and creatively according to the actual needs. At the same time, teachers must base on the principle of “teaching materials and use flexible teaching materials”. They can not only design language materials themselves, but also select language materials from other language materials, such as newspapers and magazines, classic masterpieces, popular songs, movies and TV works. Such language materials are often authentic, close to students’ lives, or trapped in hot topics in the current society. They show the use of target words well, and can often stimulate the emotional resonance of learning and sitting, Good teaching effect has been achieved. At the same time, teachers should also have some knowledge of the textbooks of the previous and subsequent learning periods, and pay special attention to the vocabulary, such as those words that appear repeatedly in the textbooks of the previous and subsequent learning periods, and whether these words have new meanings of familiar words. Therefore, college teachers should not only have a thorough understanding of college English textbooks, but also be familiar with senior high school English textbooks and communicate with senior high school teachers more to create conditions for the connection of senior high school college English textbooks.
6.2.2. Creative Using of Teaching Material Exercises
Teachers should also use the exercises in the textbooks creatively. Teachers should have certain choices and integration of exercises. If teachers do not start from the actual level of students and explain each exercise in the textbooks one by one, they will waste valuable teaching time and cannot mobilize students’ interest in learning. At the same time, teachers can also appropriately delete and supplement the exercises in the textbooks. If the topics in the textbooks are lagging behind and contexts in the exercises are outdated, teachers can delete language practice activities that lack the background of the times and are out of context, and develop supporting resources related to the topics in the textbooks with a sense of the times. Teachers can look for teaching materials, or develop network resources, add flexible exercises that emphasize language communication functions, and avoid excessive practice.
6.2.3. Strengthening Vocabulary Learning Strategy Training to Improve Students’ Vocabulary Learning Effect
Hierarchical processing theory holds that the more semantic levels are processed, the better the vocabulary is remembered. Therefore, teachers should guide students to process vocabulary from the semantic level when learning vocabulary. The processing of semantic level includes semantic changes, semantic relations, etc. The use of vocabulary classification strategies is the process of such processing. Classification is an important way to help recall. It seems that people will naturally classify words without any prompts. Classifying and sorting out learned English vocabulary can make new words embedded in the vocabulary network formed by the past, expand and enrich the connection between old information and new information, which greatly enhances the effect of vocabulary memory. There are many ways to classify, and the more commonly used are classified according to semantic ingenuity and usage.
The use of vocabulary also belongs to the processing of semantic level. In the oral and written vocabulary practice, students will enhance their memory of vocabulary. The strategy of using vocabulary refers to the process in which language learners actively create conditions to produce the vocabulary they have learned. In order to make vocabulary information available in long-term memory to maintain, we need to constantly activate and extract the word information that has been stored in the thesaurus. For most students, the lack of foreign language environment is an important factor for students to extract less words they have learned. Therefore, teachers are responsible for helping students extract and produce the vocabulary they have learned. It is a good way to creatively use the learned vocabulary to write stories, and it also plays a role in consolidating vocabulary learning. At the end of a unit, the teacher should encourage students to use the target vocabulary of the unit to create stories in a group way. After being screened by the teacher, one or two groups of students should be invited to give a performance. Through creation, rehearsal and performance, students actually have a good grasp of the use of target words. In this process, the student’s learning interest and motivation will be aroused. The students may make full use of reference books, online resources or help others and other learning strategies to improve the language expression of stories, while the performance process is equivalent to the internalization process of language, which not only solidifies the memory of the learned word form, but also turns receptive words into productive words.
7. Conclusion
By using the tools of questionnaires and surveys, the researcher has identified the five problems existing in College English vocabulary teaching which have seriously interfered with students’ learning and also affected teachers’ teaching efficiency. According to these findings, the researcher put forward some practical strategies for both students and teachers to overcome these problems.