The Vocabulary Requirement

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Vocabulary is one of the main obstacles for second language learners to study foreign language. According to the requirements of the new curriculum standards (refers to Table1), students will complete five compulsory modules in high school English learning. Based on this, there are six modules in the order of elective teaching materials for students to learn. Compulsory part has five modules, a total of five books; each module is arranged with three to four units. In terms of vocabulary, the new high school curriculum standards improve requirements for high school students and propose three levels on vocabulary learning requirements in the list of language knowledge target table. The Seventh-level vocabulary requirements (basic requirements for high school graduates): understanding what are the expressions the vocabulary with different functions, intentions and attitudes in conversations; using words to name things, to allege, to describe behaviors and characteristics, to explain concept, etc.; learning to use 2400 - 2500 words and 300-400 phrases and regular collocations; Understanding the change of meaning of the English words and new vocabulary of everyday life. On the basis of the requirements of the seventh-level, the vocabulary request of eighth-level not only promote the difficulty of words but also increase the number of vocabulary to 3300 and phrases and regular collocations to 400-500. Besides, the ninth-level vocabulary requirements (requirements for high school excellent graduates): learning to use approximately 4500 words and a certain number of phrases and regular collocations, selecting proper words to make conversations or express yourself according to some related factors about communicative topic, occasions and interpersonal relationship.(New curriculum standards,2003)

As can be seen from above, high school students should master a large amount of vocabulary and use them flexibly, the accumulation of numerous vocabularies has brought new challenges to the teachers and students. Teacher is the instructor of vocabulary teaching. That is the teacher who has utilized correct and effective vocabulary teaching method will enhance students’ vocabulary learning ability and achieve the qualitative leap in vocabulary learning.

Table 1 new curriculum standards of vocabulary

1.1.2 Great Changes Brought to English Education by the Development of the Multimedia

At the beginning of 21st century, computer technology and network communication technology as the main sign of the arrival of the era of information technology promoted education mode from traditional education to modern education. Using information technology to reform the traditional teaching mode and introducing the scientific concept of education and advanced teaching methods into the classroom is the inevitable trend of the development of education. The new curriculum standards (2003) made by Ministry of Education illustrated that: "Positive development and rational utilization of curriculum resources is an important part of the English curriculum implementation." In English teaching, in addition to the reasonable and effective utilization of textbooks, teachers should also use other curriculum resources actively, especially the radio, film and television programs, sound recording or video recording, visual aids and aids in kind, multimedia CD-ROM, various forms of network resources, etc.

Modern teaching technology is mainly related to the recorder, projector, and video, TV, movies, computer and other electronic teaching equipment. In English teaching, teachers have to use computer multimedia teaching system timely and reasonably to create English learning context for students to address the problem, to make students get awareness of English language materials through audio-visual and develop the audio-visual capabilities of students. In addition, give full play to the teacher's leading role as well as students' subjectivity and creativity at the same time, so as to guide the student to the quantities and good quality of the comprehensive training of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Besides, make students to obtain basic knowledge of English in the limited class and the get basic language skills training as well. Moreover, cultivate the students’ ability of thinking and expressing in English directly to lay a solid foundation of communicating in English. Ultimately, reach the real purpose of the introduction of modern teaching methods - multimedia computer assisted instruction system in English classroom.

1.2 Significance of Research

Vocabulary is of major significance in the process of English language learning. As we all know, it is difficult for people to listen, speak, read, write and translate without a certain amount of vocabulary. The famous linguist Wilkins has confirmed in Linguistics and Language Teaching that "Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed." Since foreign language teaching requires a great deal of language environments and teachers find that vocabulary is the weakest and the most important point in English teaching in high school. What’s more, teachers determine the method they use to teach vocabulary. Then there comes the vital problem to English teachers: what is the best effective way to improve vocabulary teaching and promote students’ mastery of vocabulary? Multimedia technology, which is characterized by a combination of graphic, textual, audio and video functions, is superior to any other medium in its devastatingly huge mass of information and can impulse the development of vocabulary teaching technique. Multimedia assisted teaching approach naturally becoming the best choice of promoting the effect of vocabulary teaching.

In the field of high school English vocabulary teaching, a majority of teachers still teach vocabulary with traditional approach. For centuries, traditional teacher-centered instruction has been dominating classroom in Chinese high school. The emphasis is usually on the definition of words rather than on how to use word appropriately in different situations. Under the traditional vocabulary teaching mode, students’ mastery of vocabulary is of inefficiency and amount of students complain that they have difficulty in recalling words and cannot use words appropriately and accurately. In English teaching, if vocabulary is centered and emphasized, the problem of "time-consuming and poorly-efficient" English teaching will be addressed because qualified acquisition of the vocabulary of students absolutely wipe off the biggest obstacle -vocabulary. So how to make boring English vocabulary teaching stimulating, vivid and make words easy for students to memory to promote students' English comprehensive level, improve students’ English scores and the ability of learning English is a new topic for high school English teachers to do researches.

1.3 The Purpose of Research

Based on the related modern foreign language teaching and learning theories, multimedia technology has shown its vast advantages in assisting and facilitating vocabulary teaching. Many researchers consider that multimedia technologies have been an integral part of language teaching, and led an effective way in foreign language teaching. But few relevant quantitative researches can be found to prove the superiority of multimedia technology in vocabulary teaching, and the results of few studies are not as satisfactory as expected to demonstrate multimedia technology is beneficial to vocabulary teaching. Is it a more effective approach to integrate the multimedia with vocabulary teaching than traditional classroom approach? Do teachers need utilize modern information technology rationally to promote vocabulary teaching effect?

Therefore, the author believes that it is necessary to testify the superiority of the multimedia assisted teaching method theoretically and practically. And the author is going to explore that how the multimedia assisted teaching method can affect the vocabulary forgetting rate. The research also aims to explore the effective way to teach vocabulary to students, and to explore some principles for applying multimedia to vocabulary teaching in Chinese high school.

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Definitions of Multimedia Teaching

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (2003) defines the multimedia technology as "the transmission that combines media of communication or human-computer interaction involving text, graphics, voice and video, often includes concepts from hypertext", or "a collection of computer controlled or computer mediated technologies that enable people to access and use data in a variety of forms: text, sound and still and moving images" (Richards,Schmidt&Kendrick, 2005). "Multimedia is the latest form of technology which allows information to be relayed by two or more media in a mufti-textual environment using texts, graphics, sound, animation and video, capable of producing an output that appeals to the different sensory. The output provides a rich and fascinating learning environment much needed in low motivating language classes to make learning more attractive and effective, complementary to the routine conventional instruction. This is because multimedia is able to create and manipulate creatively the otherwise separate multiple media of video, audio, texts and graphics into a single, unified, computer-controlled entity (Lockard&Jamalleah, 1994).

In this paper, multimedia technology refers to a collection of teaching and learning materials including CD-ROMs, videotapes, projector, PowerPoint, study prints, textbooks, which are deliberately organized around a single topic.

2.2 Traditional Vocabulary Teaching

Traditional vocabulary teaching concentrates on the teacher's role, regarding the teacher as the center of the class with the teacher as the subject of the teaching activity and students as the object. The teacher uses "force-feed" method to "force" knowledge to students, and students have few opportunities to digest and practice what is instilled to them. As a result, students, after certain years of studies, are still far from expectations in their listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating skills. Vocabulary has always been the most essential issues among these five skills.

The present practice in ELT (English Language Teaching) classroom in China could not provide satisfactory conditions for both teachers and students to achieve the goal. In China, most of the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms are still teacher-centered, i.e. Teacher takes most of the class time lecturing while students still are the passive learners receiving what the teacher has taught. And influenced by the present ELT, the traditional vocabulary teaching approach is mainly stick to these following steps: (1) introducing a new word; (2) modeling its pronunciation; (3) explaining its meaning; (4) consolidating and reviewing the word by verbal repetition or written repetition (Xu Hong, 2004).It would not take long time for the teachers to find themselves out of words, ideas and enthusiasm. The long-term practice of teacher-centeredness in education has actually lessened the opportunities for students to analyze and judge things by themselves, they always act according to what their teacher wants them to accomplish and not what they themselves want to accomplish.

In terms of the problems in VLT (Vocabulary Language Teaching), the author considers it crucial to make a change in the current teaching approach in order to stimulate the students' learning interest and promote their abilities in using English.

2.3 Multimedia Assisted Vocabulary Teaching

Given the issue mentioned above, a question may be easily raised concerning on the unique advantages of using Multimedia assisted vocabulary teaching method to teaching vocabulary. There are features of the multimedia assisted vocabulary teaching:

(1). Multimedia teaching stresses the role of students, and enhances the importance of "interaction" between teachers and students. English teaching itself must focus on the guidance of teachers and be student-centered (Holec, 1981:112), which we believe is one of the principles for language teaching. A major feature of multimedia teaching is to train and improve students’ ability to listen and speak, and to develop their communicative competence. In this way, teachers in the classroom no longer blindly input information and force students to receive it in a passive way. It is evident that multimedia assisted vocabulary teaching improves teaching efficiency and quality.

(2). Multimedia teaching creates a context for English teaching. This method makes the class lively and interesting, as well as optimizing the organization of the class. Multimedia teaching has its own features such as visibility and liveliness. During the process of multimedia English vocabulary teaching, sounds and pictures can be set together, which enhances the initiative of both teachers and students. Through the whole interactive process, it is apparent that using multimedia in vocabulary teaching is effective in nurturing students’ interest in learning English words, as well as enhancing teachers’ interest in English teaching.

(3). In addition, multimedia teaching is also flexible. It is obvious that the English learning circumstance can be created not only in the classroom, but also after class. Multimedia language teaching can also create a multimedia language environment for the purpose of conducting language teaching. In such circumstances, students can use the new technology to their advantage, such as manipulating the network to contact teachers, and receiving answers by email. As Zhang (2006: 112) also points out: "Multimedia and network-based language teaching provides students with learning flexibility as far as learning materials, learning time, learning place and learning pace are concerned".

(4). Through this method of language teaching, teachers can also bring in cultural content and other topics in English teaching, such as education in Britain and the United States, as well as Western festivals and customs. Students will get better awareness and understanding of a word when they have some related knowledge about the word. Instilling western culture to students through PPT also can motivate students to learn more about English.

Furthermore，on the basis of Zhang Zuohong’s research, he makes a conclusion about the advantages of multimedia assisted vocabulary teaching compared with traditional vocabulary teaching. (2005:12). Vocabulary teaching via multimedia technology is superior in these eight aspects: 1. intuitionism, it can break through the Visual limits; 2. integration of images, texts, audios and videos can mobilize emotion, attention and interest of students in different way; 3. dynamism, it helps to express concepts and process; 4. Interactivity, students will have more opportunity to participate in the activities in the class; 5. substitution and extension of real experiment; 6. Repeatability, it is beneficial to overcome forgetfulness; 7. Targeted teaching, it makes it possible to teach students at different levels; 8. large capacity, it saves space and time and improves the teaching efficiency.

2.4 Constructivist Theories in Multimedia Assisted Vocabulary Teaching

Constructivism originates from the theoretical views of a number of psychologists. Since its appearance in late 1970's, constructivism has been getting more and more prevalence in western countries and has brought about a revolution to learning theories. Constructivism is a theory about knowledge and learning (Brooks&Brooks, 1993). The theory asserts that each of us learns constructively, building our personal understanding of the world in which we live. Thus, from the constructivist viewpoint, knowledge is described as temporary, developmental, internally constructed, and socially and culturally mediated (Fosnot, 1996:8-33). Jean Piaget, Swiss developmental psychologist, is regarded as the father of constructivism, who provided the foundation for modern constructivism. Piaget (1972) holds the view that organism can adapt to its environment instinctively, which he describes as intelligence. The individual constructs their knowledge about the external world gradually via interaction with its environment, resulting in the development of its cognitive structure. The factors determining cognitive development are neither external factors nor internal ones, but the interaction between the individual and his or her environment.

Educationists have reacted with much imagination and enthusiasm in exploiting the capabilities of modern technology. Some teachers believe that using media in the teaching of English foreign language in the classroom is certain to bring about a superior result. It helps to simplify the teaching or learning process and can help to perfect it. What’s more, it can bring in vocabulary input a clear and realistic way as compared with traditional media-free instruction (Yon Jinglan, 2001). Alongside the increasing attention of constructivism in instructional field, more Chinese researches focused on its application to vocabulary teaching. He Kekang has done much pioneering work related to multimedia teaching and has always been trying to better his theoretical study. For example, from the constructivist viewpoint, he (1996:16-19) points out that multimedia computer, as a cognitive device, can provide the most ideal teaching environment. On the basis of constructivism, moreover, Zhang Xiaoying & Li Tianxian (2002:18) and Wang Xiang ling & Ning Chunyan (2002) carried out researches on multimedia-aided vocabulary teaching courses. Song Jing (2003:6) illustrated the rationale of multimedia instruction- constructivism. In addition, some researchers (Cheng Dongyuan & Shen Caifen, 1999) tried to improve some courses such as Visual-audio-oral English, Integrated English, and English Newspaper Reading from a constructivist perspective.

When applying constructivism to multimedia vocabulary teaching method, the following teaching principles should be observed (Song Puling, 2002). (l). Student-centered environment. In teaching, situation can be designed by epidiascope apart from various courseware, or by using movies, records, videos, VCD programs and net resources like original English films to inspire students' interest in English learning. (2). Guidance of teachers in learning. Though constructivism regards students as the center of learning, and it asserts that teachers are the tutors, helpers and promoters of students. (3). Collaboration. Under the multimedia teaching environment, learners will modify, supplement and discuss various concepts through argumentation, communication and cooperation to get a deeper understanding for current problems.

The multimedia approach is different from the traditional chalk and blackboard method, which are widely welcome due to their vivid presentation in the pronunciation, morphology, function, usage of a new word based on interesting circumstance. In a word, the theories of constructivism make the multimedia instruction possible and at the same provide the theoretical basis for multimedia instruction. In turn, Multimedia technology has offered the ideal conditions for the fulfillment of teaching environment of constructivism. So the approach of vocabulary teaching via multimedia is to meet the need of the goal. Therefore, we may use multimedia technology in vocabulary teaching with the aim of improving the learners' vocabulary power and vocabulary proficiency.

Chapter three Research Methodology

3.1 Participants

This research was implemented from September to November in 2012 and the period of time was in the first semester in senior one. The research includes a vocabulary teaching experiment, two vocabulary test experiments and a questionnaire survey.

Due to the fact that this research should be done with two classes at the same English level and the English levels of parallel class students do not meet the requirement of this experiment, class (6) and class (8) in senior one of No.2 Ying De Senior High School (The author’s internship school) were chosen to be the experimental participants of this research. Class (6) and class (8) are excellent classes, and the English grades of two classes were at the same level according to the observation of English admission diagnostic tests of two classes (refers to Table 2). In the teaching experiment, the traditional vocabulary teaching approach is used in class (6) which is considered as control class, while the multimedia assisted vocabulary teaching approach is used in class (8) which is considered as experimental class. There are 53 students in the control class and 56 students in the experimental class.

Table 2 English admission diagnostic test average score

Initially, the vocabulary teaching experiment is planned to finish module one including 3 units and 12 lessons of Senior High school English Textbook one (The Beijing normal university press) in month. Besides, two experiments of vocabulary test are done during process of the teaching experiment. Furthermore, at the end of the teaching experiment, 8 English teachers in senior one and 109 students from class (6) and class (8) participate in the questionnaire survey. Finally, collect useful data of test experiments and questionnaire, use SPSS20.0 to analyze data and find the result of the research.

3.2 Research Tools

In this research, Senior High school English Textbook One of The Beijing normal university press, four vocabulary test papers, questionnaire of multimedia teaching and traditional teaching effectiveness(student edition) and questionnaire of multimedia teaching and traditional teaching effectiveness(teacher edition) were mainly utilized as literal materials. In the experiments of this research, multimedia courseware making mainly uses PowerPoint and Flash.

3.3 Procedures of Research

3.3.1 Strategies of Multimedia Assisted Vocabulary Teaching Approach

As for vocabulary, classification of vocabulary is an effective way to indicate the internal relationship between words. A senior professor divided vocabulary into 5 categories-synonymy; antonym; homophony; homomorphism; conjugate.(Long Yunfei 2005) Using vocabulary classification method to teach can avoid students to memory avoid students memorizing words by rote and students also can get more regularity of words’ pronunciations to reach the goal—high effectiveness of learning vocabulary. Based on the English curriculum standards, teaching experience and students' English learning level, the author makes multimedia courseware by herself and tries her best to explore the way to implement multimedia vocabulary approach in experimental class. Having thought about the textbook we used is (Senior High school English Textbook of The Beijing normal university press), the author implements multimedia assisted vocabulary teaching method mainly according to the features and functions of multimedia. Therefore, in the experiment of multimedia assisted vocabulary teaching adopts home-made multimedia courseware to implement vocabulary teaching.

The vocabulary teaching mode is mainly based on the function of the multimedia, integrating text, sound, graphics, images, animation, video and other multimedia material, to explore and build a new vocabulary teaching mode. Seven methods of multimedia courseware are used in teaching vocabulary in this experiment: 1.Image visual teaching, 2.Text practice teaching, 3 .Graphical representations, 4.The game competition, 5.The audio playing, 6.The video playing, and 7.The flash playing. (The specific strategies and steps of multimedia assisted vocabulary teaching refer to Appendix I.)

In view of the actual situation of vocabulary teaching, the author does not teach vocabulary with fixed multimedia teaching method. During the whole process of vocabulary teaching, the author adopts a flexible vocabulary teaching approach integrating some of practical methods according to the importance of vocabulary and the mastery degree of vocabulary.

3.3.2 Procedures of Traditional Vocabulary Teaching Approach

In this treatment the author does not have access to multimedia materials. Instead, the traditional teaching approach is used in the control class and the words are presented through traditional teaching approach:

First of all, the students read the printed materials about the background of Text A, which contains the target words. The teacher let students have a discussion of the reading passage and asks some questions about this passage. The teacher writes down the words on the board which are underlined in the reading passage and directs students to look up the words in the dictionary. Then students are given some minutes to discuss the meaning of each word with partner.

Besides, the teacher explains the meaning of each new word by her interpretation and asks students to write the meaning down on the notebook beside the word. Teacher guides students to make some sentences and has several volunteers to share some sentences they make in speaking way. Students are asked to explain the contextual meaning of each target word, after the definition of the target words were reviewed. To some extent, students should try hard to listen to the oral interpretation of teacher and take notes of important points. The process of listening to the teacher’s oral interpretation may give the improvement of students ‘stenography, while students will feel tired and bored after long-time listening.

In addition, the teacher read illustrative sentences containing the target words first and students follow the teacher reading aloud and discuss the meaning of the words used in the illustrative sentences.

Finally, the exercises are given to students, which aim at the goal of producing the target vocabulary in real communication and internalize this new word in the learners' mental lexicon.

As the time in class is fixed and regulated, teacher cannot spend much time in writing, so most of important information (e.g. surrounding context, semantic meaning, grammar behavior and word structure, etc.) should be spoken to the students instead of writing. The learners might forget their goal of learning vocabulary only making clear what instructor is talking about during the process of traditional vocabulary teaching. These activities were repeated the next time with other target words.

3.3.3 Vocabulary Test Paper

There are two vocabulary test experiment of this research: Experiment One is composed of 3 tests, Experiment Two is composed of 1 test. Experiment One is composed of the first 3 tests, of which testing time are according to Ebbinghaus forgetting curve. (refers to Figure 1)

Figure 1 Ebbinghaus forgetting curve

We can learn from Table 3, the First test is taken in the class immediately after having learning new words, which is seen as Day1 Test to check the students’ mastery degree of the new vocabulary. Day1 Test must be taken in the middle of the experimental time when a large proportion of students have adapted to multimedia vocabulary teaching approach. The second test is taken 3 days later after Day1 Test, which is considered as Day3 Test; the third test is taken 6 days later after Day1 Test, which is considered as Day6 Test.

Table 3 The schedule of tests

The first three test papers have the same form, similar contents and there are slight differences in the vocabulary selection. The three tests mainly focus on the students’ mastery of vocabulary as well as forgetting rate of vocabulary. Experiment Two is composed of the fourth test, which is the module one vocabulary test. The fourth test is taken in the end of the module one. Moreover the fourth test paper has the same form with the other three test papers, what is the difference is the wider vocabulary selection. The content of the fourth test paper includes all of the words of module one. These four tests are in the form of pop quiz, here are two principles of these tests making the results of tests more factual and accurate: First of all, do not inform the students of testing time in order to prevent students from preparing memorizing words; secondly, do not comment any test paper and do not return test paper to students.

In addition, there are the principles of vocabulary test. The test paper consists of Dictation (20 points), multiple choices (30 points), Word match (20 points), Fill in the blank (10 points), Translation (20 points). All the vocabulary test papers are designed by the teacher to avoid any student having done the test before, so that the test scores can reflect students’ vocabulary learning level factually. In addition, 90% of words in the test paper are selected from textbook in order to test students’ memory of vocabulary and mastery of vocabulary.

3.3.4 The Design of the Questionnaire of Multimedia Teaching and Traditional Teaching Effect.

The questionnaire is designed according to the relevant literature and actual teaching situations. The questionnaire has two editions—the student edition and the teacher edition.

The student edition is divided into 3 parts and 15 items. Part one including question1-5, which should be answered by both classes. Part two of question 6-10 is designed for students learnt by multimedia assisted vocabulary teaching method (students in the control class do not need answer). Part three of question10-15 is made for students learnt by traditional vocabulary teaching method (experimental class students do not need answer). The teacher edition has 5 questions, which covers the multimedia and traditional vocabulary teaching. Questionnaire for students involves 56 students from the experimental class and 53 students from the control class; the total number is 109 people. 8 teachers involved in teachers Questionnaire.

Chapter four Findings and Discussion

4.1 Result and Analysis of Vocabulary Test

4.1.1 Experiment One

The summary of Experiment One refers to Table 4.

Table 4 Test result of Experiment One

The data of Experiment One matched repeated measurement data, so the author chooses Repeated Measures of General Linear Model. First of all, the author runs the test of normality of the test score from Experiment One (refers to appendixâ…¡), the p value of all the test score are more than 0.05, so all the test score can be considered normal distribution.

Then Mauchly's Test of Sphericity is done, test result refers to Table 5. In this case, p value is 0.003, which is less than 0.05; showing that data does not meet the assumption of Mauchly's Test of Sphericity, which indicates the repeated measurement data are highly relevant.

Subsequently, the author runs the Multivariate Tests; the test result refers to Table 6. SPSS uses 4 multivariate testing methods; in this case Pillai's Trace results shall prevail. The p value of both day and day*Group are less than 0.05, which indicates following conclusions: (1).The difference of test scores of same class in different day is statistically significant.(2).The two teaching methods of both classes have main effects on the test scores, and the main effects on different day is statistically significant.

Table 6 Multivariate Tests

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects refers to Table 7, p<0.05 indicating that the difference between two class is statistically significant.

Test score of Experiment One plotted as Figure 2.

Figure 2 Test result of Experiment One

In the condition of differences between different group and different day are both statistically significant, the author runs Pair wise comparisons in model of multivariate, test result refers to Table 8. Except the Day 1 test p=0.084>0.05, other tests’ difference between two class are statistically significant.

Test score of Experiment One plotted as Figure 3.

Figure 3 Test score of Experiment One

Summary of all the test and analysis reach the conclusion as followings:

(1). Caused by two different vocabularies teaching methods there is a statistically significant difference between two classes, meaning the group design of Experiment One is successful.

(2). There is a statistically significant main effect on the test score from both classes, which demonstrates that the both different vocabulary teaching methods have influence on students’ test score.

(3). According to Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, the decline of score match the theory, however, the experimental class have the drop rate of 2.46% and 0.89% from test day1 to test day6, while the drop rate of the control class are 4.71% and 2.35%, the drop rate of the experimental class is less than the control class. In another word, leaning through multimedia assisted English vocabulary teaching method, students of the experimental class can have a solid memory of vocabulary to slow down the drop rate of forgetting words.

(4). According to Graph 2, the difference between two class in test day1 is not statistically significant, but in test day3 is statistically significant and in day6 is strongly statistically significant, which illustrate that along with the passage of time, the effects of different teaching methods on vocabulary forgetting rate become more apparent.

(5). According to Graph 1, the experimental class’s performance in 3 tests is better than that in the control class, which indicates that multimedia assisted English vocabulary teaching approach is superior to the traditional English vocabulary teaching approach.

4.1.2 Experiment Two

The summary of Experiment Two refers to Table 8.

Table 8 Test result of module 1 vocabulary test

Initially, the author runs the test of normality of the test score from Experiment Two(refers to appendix II), the p value of all the test score are less than 0.05,so all the test scores can be considered as normal distribution.

Then independent-samples T Test is run, test result refers to Table 9, p value is less than 0.01, which pointed that the difference between two tests is strongly statistically significant.

Test score of Experiment Two plotted as Figure 4.

Figure 4 Test score of Experiment Two

Summary of all the tests and analysis reach the conclusion: after 1 month, the experimental class’ vocabulary test score is higher than the control class’s, which demonstrates that multimedia assisted English vocabulary teaching method has promoted the English vocabulary level in the experimental class, which is superior to the traditional teaching method.

4.1.3 Summary

On the basis of the analyses of Experiment One and Experiment Two, it can be learnt that these two different vocabulary teaching approaches caused a great difference between the teaching effects. In terms of revving down the decline rate of forgetting words and the test scores of students, the multimedia vocabulary teaching is superior to the traditional one. Leaning through multimedia assisted English vocabulary teaching method, students of the experimental class can have a solid memory of vocabulary to slow down the drop rate of forgetting words and boost the efficiency of memorizing and mastering vocabulary.

4.2 Result and Analysis of the Questionnaire

4.2.1 Student Edition

The summary of questionnaire (student edition) refers to Table 10.

Table 10 Result of questionnaire of multimedia teaching and traditional teaching effectiveness (student edition)

There are some analyses about the student edition of questionnaire.

(1). According to item 1, 59% of students believe that their English vocabulary level has been promoted after 1-month learning, especially80% of students in the experimental class think their English vocabulary level has been enhanced, while only 38% of students support this viewpoint in the control class.

(2). In the issue of the English vocabulary teaching methods, according to item4, 63% of students prefer learning in phrases and sentences, particularly54% of students in the experimental class prefer learning in the situation.

(3). Based on the item6, majority of the students in the experimental class enjoy the interests in the class and they think it is easier for them to memorize points of knowledge, only 7% of the students think that the advantage of multimedia class is having larger teaching content than traditional class.

(4). It can be learnt from item7, proportions of the 3 options are almost the same, which shows that different student have different standpoint about the effect of multimedia assisted English vocabulary teaching on their own.

(5). 81% of the students in the experimental class think atmosphere is lively, and students’ participation is positive, showing the highly recognition of multimedia assisted English vocabulary teaching according to item 8.

(6). In the view of item11, the majority of students in the control class think that the traditional English vocabulary teaching can emphasize the key points of knowledge; others think the traditional English vocabulary teaching content is moderate and acceptable, so they can master the words.

(7). According to item 12, 90% of the students in the control class think it is very useful to play video, audio and pictures in the class.

(8). We can see from item 13, more than 80% of the control class students feel that atmosphere in the traditional teaching classroom is not interesting enough; students lack enthusiasm and participation.

(9). According to item15, 87% of the students in the control class are willing to study in the multimedia assisted teaching classroom, none of the chose "I don’ want to have a try ",a very small portion of students do not mind.

Based on these data and analyses, here come some discussions and conclusions of the student edition.

(1). Both of the experimental class and control class reach agreements about the contrast between the two teaching methods. They agree teachers should instruct the class by explanations and guide students to participate in class activities properly. Students think it is a more effective way to learn words in phrases and sentences or in the situation. Most importantly, all of the students have a preference for multimedia assisted teaching method.

(2). During 1-month teaching, it is apparent to see that students in the experimental class are accustomed with the multimedia assisted teaching well, and they participate in the class actively, which shows their attitude toward vocabulary study having changed. The control class has an agreement on that there should be more video, audio or pictures in the class, while they don’t have the experience of learning in multimedia assisted teaching. Without knowing the advantages of multimedia assisted teaching, they believe that the only method can help them make a better understanding of words and master the key point of knowledge is traditional teaching method. Readers should pay more attention to the conclusion that all the students think that the contents overload in the courseware, which requires teachers to design the courseware with a moderate amount of content and control the proportion of courseware using in the class.

(3). In the issue of classroom atmosphere, compared with the control class, the atmosphere in the experimental class is significantly lively. The participations of students are more in this atmosphere and students are motivated to study hard. And according to question 10, students in the experimental class hope they can continue this teaching method, which indicates that they prefer this teaching method and shows their recognition of it. Even the students in the control class are willing to learn English through the multimedia assisted teaching method.

(4).What is the most important is all the students think their English vocabulary level has been promoted. 80% of students in the experimental class assert that their English vocabulary level has been enhanced, which is much higher than the control class’ percentage of 38%, that is, through the multimedia assisted teaching, the students in the experimental class has realized that they benefit a lot from this teaching method.

4.2.2 Teacher Edition

The summary of questionnaire (teacher edition) refers to Table 11.

Table 11 Result of questionnaire of multimedia teaching and traditional teaching effectiveness (teacher sedition)

There are several analyses about the teacher edition of questionnaire.

(1). 62% of teachers teach English with multimedia assisted teaching method very often, 26% of the teachers occasionally use the method, 12% of teachers merely use the method, which point that many teachers have adapted to teach with multimedia assisted teaching method.

(2). 88% of courseware resources come from English teaching and research group, which means teachers work in cooperation with a due division of labor to make the courseware and then share the courseware. A very small proportion of teachers make multimedia courseware by their own.

(3). In terms of vocabulary teaching effect, half of the teachers recognize multimedia assisted teaching has more advantages than traditional teaching and students' mastery of vocabulary is more efficient through multimedia assisted teaching. 25% of teachers think there is little difference between the two teaching methods, 25% of teachers think traditional teaching is superior to multimedia assisted teaching.

(4). A large number of teachers approve that the atmosphere in the multimedia assisted teaching classroom is significantly more active than the atmosphere in the traditional teaching classroom, and students’ participations are more. And 25% of teachers consider there is no difference between the atmospheres in two classes

(5). Most of the teachers will make more use of the multimedia assisted teaching and explore the potential of multimedia in the future; however 25% of teachers will reduce the use of multimedia to avoid the abuse of multimedia.

On the basis of these data and analyses, here come some discussions and conclusions of the teacher edition.

(1). The frequency of using multimedia courseware of English teachers is often, majority of them make the use of courseware almost in every class especially when the class is about teaching vocabulary and grammar. According to the frequency we can see the usage of multimedia courseware is popular with most of teachers.

(2). On the one hand some of teachers assert that the multimedia assisted vocabulary teaching can really stimulate students’ motivation to study new words and it also can consolidate the memory of function of those words that students are familiar with. On the other hand, the strategies used in making courseware can make the English class more interesting and students like to participate in the class which has active atmosphere.

(3). Several teachers give suggestions for the multimedia courseware making, they thinks that the resources they can get to make multimedia courseware are limited and hope the Education Ministry to give more free educational resources to teachers or to establish some website of English courseware.

Chapter Five Conclusion

5.1 Summary

Based on a large number of teaching experiments, data of vocabulary tests and the analysis of the questionnaire (students and teachers edition), the author draws the conclusion of this research. The advantages of the multimedia assisted teaching are fully reflected in the experiment: it is the intuitionism and dynamism of multimedia courseware that increase students’ interest in learning English vocabulary and stimulate students’ enthusiasm for learning English, fully mobilize the enthusiasm of the students to achieve good interactions between teachers and students in class. It is the interaction of multimedia courseware that generates opportunities for students to participate in teaching activities on their own initiative. It is the repeatability, reproducibility of Multimedia courseware help students to review vocabulary in an effective way to promote the memory effect of vocabulary. It is the large content of multimedia courseware that enhances the amount of "input" of knowledge to students, and raises students' comprehensive ability on the basis of the good memory effect.

The improvement of English level in the experimental class further confirmed the advantages of multimedia vocabulary teaching, which are stimulating the students’ enthusiasm in learning English and learning vocabulary and exploring the English learning potential of students. From the perspective of the four grades of words tests, the experimental class students’ results are higher than that in the control class with absolute advantages. It can prove that multimedia assisted vocabulary teaching approach can enlarge students’ vocabulary effectively, improve the learning ability of vocabulary, and help students to master the English vocabulary learning rule to equip students with a better skill of vocabulary comprehension.

It can be indicated from the survey of questionnaires; no matter it is in experimental class or control class, majority of students in the class are willing to have multimedia teaching in the class, and most of them have an agreement on combining audio, video with images to teach is an effective and efficient way of teaching vocabulary. Most of English teachers also think it is beneficial for both of teachers and students to implement multimedia vocabulary teaching. It can clearly be seen, multimedia teaching has a high degree of popularity and recognition from teachers and students in senior high school. And then it proves that it is feasible to carry out multimedia assisted vocabulary teaching in senior high school and also reflects the broad prospects for development of multimedia teaching.

5.2 Limitations and Suggestions.

In spite of the advantages of application of multimedia technology to English class teaching as to improve teaching effect and students’ overall capacities, there are many problems existing in practical teaching, such as: (1). Major Means Replaced by the Assisting One. (2). Loss of Speaking Communication. (3). The Shrinking of Students’ Thinking Potential. (4). Abstract Thinking Replaced by Imaginable Thinking.

As can be seen from the limitations of multimedia teaching, it is improper to duplicate the textual material simply to the screen so that the teacher’s position is ignored in practical teaching. In order to ensure the function of multimedia in teaching, it should be noted the following suggestions:

(1).The beauty of courseware is not the sole pursuit. Some teachers mainly focus on the forms of media courseware and add something special in it with colorful pictures and sounds. The over complication of courseware may distract students’ attention from learning English. When making courseware, teachers should make sure the content and form of courseware are concise and clean.

(2).Computer screen cannot substitute the blackboard. Some teachers take the computer screen as the blackboard. They have input exercises, questions, answers and teaching plans into the computer and display them piece by piece. Traditional writing on blackboard is concise and teachers can make adjustment and amendment to it if necessary. Furthermore, teachers need to enrich the content on the blackboard with emerging of new questions raised by the students.

(3). PowerPoint cannot take the place of Student’s thinking and practices. At present, most of multimedia courseware mainly features on image and animation of teaching materials in order to cause audio and visual effect, which displays the content of textual materials lively and helps the students understand the texts deeply. PPT cannot take the place of students’ thinking or English communication in the practical circumstance. When working on and utilizing the courseware, we need to encourage the students to use their own mind and speak more, actively join in class practice.

(4). Multimedia Technology should not be Overused. Several teachers may possess the improper concept that they would totally apply multimedia technology in their teaching. During multimedia assisting teaching, teachers still play the leading role that their position could never be replaced by the computer. So teachers determine whether to adopt multimedia technology and use it properly. Otherwise, the teachers were acting as the projectionist, clicking the screen.

In practice, if multimedia technology would be properly implemented in English teaching, it will lead to systematic training on students’ listening, speaking, reading and writing, makes teachers’ instructions come into great play, helps the student gain basic knowledge as well as language training at class, promotes their expression ability in English and lays a fundamental basis for their English communication.