Abstract

With the acceleration of economic globalization, we have witnessed the growing importance of English. However, teaching effects on children’s English learning in China are far from satisfaction. Many researches have suggested that the limitation of lexical resources is a “bottle-neck”, which prevents Chinese children from improving their English level. Hereby, lexicon plays a crucial role in children’s English learning.
Based on previous studies, this thesis intends to apply some countermeasures on vocabulary teaching and learning on the basis of memory theory after an empirical study and two key questions are put forward: 1. What kinds of vocabulary obstacles are young English learners facing with? 2. What methods can children adopt in English vocabulary acquisition within the framework of memory theory?
In this study the author carries out an empirical study about the teaching effects in view of different teaching methods (general methods & methods based on memory theory). Those being tested are twenty children who were at similar cognitive level of English vocabulary and data were collected by two tests. The result of data analysis indicates that young English learner do face some vocabulary obstacles, such as difficulties in spelling or word formation, word selection, memorizing lengthy words and pronunciation. Meanwhile, the teaching effects of teaching method based on memory theory excel that of general teaching method.
Based on the result of this study, the thesis generalizes three practical countermeasures children can apply in English vocabulary acquisition, that is, revolving memory law, logical memory law and gaming memory law.

Keywords: children; English vocabulary obstacle; teaching countermeasure

摘要

    随着世界经济全球化进程的加快，英语的重要性日益凸显。然而，在中国，儿童英语学习效果并不令人满意。诸多研究表明，词汇已成为阻碍儿童英语等级提高的一个瓶颈。由此看出，词汇在儿童英语学习过程中至关重要。
基于以前的研究，本文以记忆理论为理论框架对词汇教学与学习进行了实证研究，并提出两个主要问题：1. 儿童在英语学习中所面临的词汇障碍有哪些？2. 从记忆理论范畴看，儿童在英语词汇学习中可应用什么方法？
本文采用实证研究法，分析在不同教学方法（常规方法、基于记忆理论的方法）下的不同教学成果。研究对象为二十个具有相似英语词汇认知水平的儿童，研究数据由两次听写测试中获取。数据分析结果显示年幼英语学习者的确面临着词汇障碍，例如拼写错误、选词错误、记忆复杂词汇或较长词汇困难、发音不准确等。同时，该结果反映出基于记忆理论的教学方法下的教学成果明显优于普通教法下的教学成果。
通过本次研究，本文提出了三种基于记忆理论框架的儿童英语词汇学习对策，即循环记忆法、逻辑记忆法和游戏记忆法。

关键词：儿童；英语词汇障碍；教学对策