English Vocabulary Learning Strategies in Senior High School Based on College Entrance Examination

University of Bohai,Jinzhou,China Email:386620659@qq.com

[Abstract]Vocabulary learning is an important part for high school English learners.Vocabulary learning based on the College Entrance Examination(CEE)can save time,improve efficiency,and meet the strong expectations from both the students and their parents.An active study on English vocabulary learning strategies is to enhance the positive washback effect of CEE on high school English learning.In this paper,to acquire the word formation rules,master the word meaning extension principles and accumulate English cultural knowledge are put forward.

[Keywords]College Entrance Examination;test questions;English Vocabulary

Introduction

As one of the three major elements of language(pronunciation,vocabulary and grammar),vocabulary is the most basic element of a language.Without vocabulary,language learning will lose its meaning.As D.A.Wilkins,a famous English linguist,once said,“Without grammar very little can be conveyed,without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”(Wilkins,1972,p.111).Therefore,language learning must be inseparable from vocabulary learning.Generally speaking,one’s vocabulary usually reflects his or her English level.At present,in the face of the great pressure from college entrance examination,high school teachers,students and even their parents attach great importance to test scores.Their English vocabulary often determines how many scores they get on English tests.Therefore,under such background,the teaching and learning of English vocabulary is not only an educational and teaching problem,but also a social problem.

At present,the vocabulary in high school English textbooks,no matter which version,is increasing.According to the Syllabus of College Entrance Examination(2018),high school students are required to master at least 3500 English words.Vocabulary learning has become an important part of English learning for most high school students.Therefore,vocabulary teaching runs through the whole process of high school English teaching,which is a heavy and arduous task in the process of high school English teaching.In English teaching,how to cultivate students’interest in learning words,explore efficient memory methods and achieve the goal of flexible use have become urgent problems which are to be solved in senior high school English teaching and learning.

Vocabulary learning based on CEE to achieve multiple objectives

Vocabulary learning based on CEE improves learning efficiency and meets social expectations

In China,the vast majority of senior high school students will take part in the College Entrance Examination.Schools,students and parents attach much importance to the English scores in the college entrance examination and students usually work very hard for the college entrance examination to a certain extent.The effective integration of English vocabulary learning and English learning aimed to improve the scores in College Entrance Examination can save students’time and energy,improve their learning efficiency,and meet the expectations from their parents.

The study of the test questions in CEE makes the backwash effect on English learning in senior high schools

In China,as the most important national large-scale test,college entrance examination has a great positive or negative effect on high school English teaching and learning,with its strong and far-reaching washback effect,thus leading high school teaching and learning to a certain extent.Therefore,it is one of the most important tasks for senior high school English teachers to study the test questions in CEE,clarify the core idea of the examination syllabus,actively change the educational concept and dynamically adjust their teaching methods and means.Only in this way can the positive backwash effect of CEE on senior high school English teaching and learning be improved and its negative backwash effect is reduced.

Authentic language materials in CEE help to stimulate students’learning interest

It has been shown that full contact with real language materials and integration into the real language world is an effective means to improve English learners’understanding and communicative competence,and also an effective way to cultivate their sense of language.The language materials from the test questions in CEE are all selected from books,newspapers and magazines published by native English speaking countries,and they are the most authentic.Coming from all aspects of life,those language materials are used in reality every day.They have the characteristics of novelty,diversity and practicability in content and form.By reading real language materials,students can experience the charms of English in a harmonious and natural language situation,grasp the application context of English vocabulary and finally reach the purpose of understanding the connotation and denotation meaning of the word.Authentic language materials can also provide students with a lively real language world,so that students can get the real experience of understanding the world and communicating with the world in English,which is the same way as the native speakers do.Students will realize the value and practical significance of language.Therefore,it will both greatly stimulate students'learning motivation and enhance their interest in learning and learning efficiency.

Vocabulary learning strategies developed on the basis of the test questions of CEE

We put forward the following specific strategies of vocabulary learning on the basis of the particularity of CEE and the effectiveness of its language materials.

Mastering word formation and drawing inferences from one instance

Although the number of English words is huge,there are rules to follow in the formation of English words.Mastering the formation rules of English words can help students correctly identify the word form,part of speech and understand the meaning of the word.Therefore,the effective use of word formation is one of the important means to solve the problem of memorizing words.According to the Syllabus of College Entrance Examination,students are supposed to master the four word formations,that is,derivation,compounding,conversion and abbreviation.Taking Volume I of CEE in 2020 as an example,there are more than 100 words in four word formation methods,of which 18 are compound words and 91 are derivative words.The affixes involved in derivative words include prefix un-/im-and re-,noun suffixes(-ee/-ity/-ion/-Ian/-ship/-ful/-ce/se/-ance/ence/-son-cy/sy/-ess-er),adjective suffixes(-al/-ic/-ive/-ed/ing/-ous/-able/-free/-ful/-some/-ant)and adverb suffix(-ly).

From the above statistics,it can be seen that mastering the basic rules of word formation and understanding the lexical meaning and grammatical functions of the words will greatly improve the efficiency of memorizing words and enhance the ability of reading comprehension.

Compounding

It is the method of making a new word from two or more free words.Compound words include compound nouns,verbs,adjectives,adverbs,pronouns and prepositions which are respectively made in the following ways:

Compound nouns:noun + noun(classroom),adjective + noun(highway),adverb + noun(outside,underground)and noun+prepositional phrase(mother-in-law).

Compound verbs:adverb+verb(update)and noun+verb(sightsee,sunbath).

Compound adjectives:noun + adjective(world famous),adverb + adjective(over sensitive),noun + participle(hand-made),adjective + participle(good-looking),adverb + participle(well-mannered),adjective + noun +- ed(ill-tempered),numeral+noun+-ed(three-legged),noun+noun+-ed(iron-willed).

Compound adverbs:noun+noun(sideways),noun+adverb(headfirst),adjective+noun(mean while),preposition+noun(beforehand),adjective+preposition(moreover)

Compound pronouns:pronoun object case or possessive pronoun + self/ self(ourselves,itself),some indefinite pronouns+body/one/thing(some body,nothing,anyone)

Compound prepositions:preposition+noun(alongside),adverb+adverb(throughout)

Semantically,there is a certain degree of logical syntactic relationship between the components of compound words.It is good to understand or guess the meaning of words.The common syntactic relations among the components are as follows:sunrise,sightsee,boy friend,side by side,etc.

Derivation

In English word formation,adding a prefix before the root or a suffix after the root to make a new word with similar or opposite meaning to the original one is called derivation.Derivation is the major method of word formation in English,accounting for about 70% of the total vocabulary.From the semantic point of view,word is not the smallest language unit.It can be decomposed into smaller language unit,namely,morphemes.Morphemes include:root,prefix and suffix.Root is the core of a word,which embodies the basic meaning of a word.Since a large amount of English words are derived from root words,memorizing words has become a matter with many rules to follow if one masters the word formation method of roots and affixes.The advantage of this memorizing method is that it can make full use of the relationship between the form and meaning of words and carry out fuzzy memory of a large number of words,that is,as long as you know the root and affix contained in a word,you can roughly know the meaning or part of speech of the word,thus greatly reducing the number of words to be memorized and improving the ability of reading comprehension.

Root is the basis of derivative words.The same root with different affixes can express different meanings or different parts of speech.Most prefixes do not change the part of speech of the root,and generally only change the meaning of the word to indicate negation,opposite,derogatory,backward,degree,time,location,etc.Only a few English prefixes,such as be-(belittle),en/ em-(enable/ empower),a-(asleep),do not change the basic meaning of the root,but cause the change of part of speech.English suffixes have a strong grammatical function.Adding suffixes to a word root can’t change the basic meaning of the root,but cause the change of part of speech.

Being familiar with polysemy to make an accurate comprehension

Polysemy is a common and important linguistic phenomenon and a major feature of English vocabulary.In English,there are few words with single meaning.On the contrary,most words are polysemy,that is,a word with two or more meanings.Polysemy is very common in CEE.

Mastering polysemy is the first prerequisite for accurate understanding and correct test questions.Based on the college entrance examination questions,teachers should consciously guide students to memorize words and pay attention to polysemy.To understand the methods and paths of polysemy,when we encounter polysemy in reading comprehension,it is easier to infer the meaning of a word combined with the context.From the perspective of cognitive linguistics,metaphor and metonymy are the main ways to extend the meaning of polysemy.The meaning of extension and expansion is often closely related to the original meaning of a word in a certain way.For example,the original meaning of mouth is“mouth”,while mouth in mouth of a river is the metaphorical extension of the meaning of mouth.There is a close relationship between the two meanings,so month belongs to the category of polysemy.There are many reasons for polysemy,but according to the cognitive level of senior high school students,we can introduce the following common methods of word meaning expansion.

Figurative expansion of word meaning

There are many ways to produce polysemy because of rhetoric,but metaphor and metonymy are two main ones among them.

Metaphor is not only an important way of word meaning transferring,but also the main means of word meaning extension.Because there is a certain similarity between the two things in terms of their features,the word used to refer to one thing means another.This way a word extends in its meaning is called metaphor(Wang,2008).The basis of metaphor is“likeness”and“association”.As long as any two things have external,internal or spatial similarities,they can produce metaphorical meanings.For example:a forest of chimneys is similar to forest in shape; the fruit of one’s research is similar to a fruit in function; and a lazy person is similar to pig(literally“pig”)in commendatory and derogatory sense.Metaphor plays a very important role in word meaning extension.There are many English words of this kind in senior high school English learning,such as:arms,eye of a need,teeth of a comb,neck of a bottle,bridge of a pair of glasses,lip of a cup,etc.They are all figurative meanings,sharing the similarity in appearance to their original meanings.

Metonymy is another important means to expand word meanings in English.Borrowing the name of one thing to replace another related thing or one concept to replace another related concept is called metonymy(Wang,2008).For example:She sets a good table.The word“table”in the sentence means supply of food and"table"refers to"food".

Shift in application

The word meaning change in its use scope is the main way of its meaning evolution.It often appears that the meaning of a word changes from specific to general,from concrete to abstract,from one scope of use to another,finally extending its meaning.For example,“handsome”was originally only used to describe the appearance of men,meaning“attractive,good-looking”.In“a handsome woman”,it means“attractive,with large strong features rather than small delicate ones”.In“a handsome profit”,it means“large in amount or quantity”.

Some words have different meanings in different situations,such as sharp.(Of knives)it means“pointed”,(of speech)harsh,(of action)direct,(of sense)violent and(of intelligence)agile.It can be seen that a word can be used in different semantic fields and has different meanings due to the transfer of its scope of use.

In addition,social reasons and loans can also lead to the extension of word meanings.

In short,in high school English teaching and learning,based on the polysemy in college entrance examination,teachers should guide students to pay attention to polysemy,understand the causes and background,analyze the cognitive path of polysemy development,and finally achieve the goal of understanding and using vocabulary.Through such process,the teaching and learning of English vocabulary in senior high school is not only full of fun,but also has a profound comprehension,and achieves better results.

Understanding cultural differences and breaking through cultural barriers

The idea has been widely accepted in foreign language teaching that language,as both the carrier of culture and a part of culture,is inseparable from culture and therefore language teaching should be included in foreign language teaching.Robert Lado(Lado,1957)showed in his work Linguistics across Culture in 1957 that culture of target language should arouse special attention in the process of foreign language education.H.H.Stern(Stern,1983)puts forward a foreign language education model including four components which are forms,social language,social culture,and experiences and social culture is listed as an independent factor in foreign language education.

Cultural differences often lead to the deviation of reading comprehension of senior high school students,which leads to wrong decisions when making college entrance examination questions.For example,many students can’t make correct decisions because of“gap year”.Therefore,teachers should timely introduce relevant language and cultural knowledge and develop students’awareness of accumulating cultural knowledge,so as to truly understand the meaning of the article and achieve the purpose of communication.

Implications and Conclusion

In short,vocabulary learning is an important part for high school English learners.High school English vocabulary teaching based on the test questions of College Entrance Examination(CEE)can save time,improve efficiency,and meet the strong expectations of both the students and their parents.An active study on English vocabulary learning strategies is the concrete embodiment of enhancing the positive washback effect of CEE on high school English learning.Based on the test questions of CEE,it is also an important way for senior high school English learners to acquire word formation rules,master the polysemy of English words and accumulate English cultural knowledge.

Acknowledgements

This paper is the result of the research project(No.2019ZXXJG19)“On Vocabulary Learning in High School Based on the Corpus of the National College Entrance Examination”,which is named and supported by Bohai University and focused on elementary education and reform.