Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1Backgrounds

We can see that our country has a long history of English teaching and we try toexplore many methods to teach English well. However, the results are disappointing.Our government and related departments do their best to help schools to explorea way of teaching English that can solve problems in our own foreign languagelearning. At the beginning we study on how teachers teach better，but the results arenot satisfactory. With the rise of constructivism, humanism, education reform paid more attention to students learning. So we began to research on how students leambetter. Vocabulary learning is not an exception. We should also change our methods toteach vocabulary.On September 2013, the author made a survey about vocabulary learningproblems of students in the junior high school. This questionnaire will be shown inappendix I. The students are from Tianjin No. 55 Middle School, Grade 8. 258students took part in this survey. The results go as follows We can see from the table that 39.9% of the students problems come from thefact that they cant use words accurately. For junior high school students, memorizingis not the biggest problem. The real problem is that they dont know how to use wordsaccurately. Though students spend a long time memorizing them, they dont knowwhen to use them properly. Another problem is that they forget them quickly. Studentsin this survey who have this problem occupied 34.5%.

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1.2 The Significance of the Study

We are now living in the Zpt century in which people need to have moreknowledge and get information more easily. It means that we are now entering aknowledge time. The quantity of knowledge is less important than how to masterknowledge. Education is the main way to help people get knowledge. In the past timewe only teach students knowledge. In the modem society, we not only teach studentsknowledge, but also ways of learning. In such circumstances, education reform isinevitable. English teaching reform is a part of education reform.The general objective of the New English Curriculum Standard is to cultivatestudents linguistic competence including knowledge, attitude, strategy and culturalconsciousness. In the respect of language teaching, it requires that teachers shouldtrain students listening, speaking, reading and writing skills comprehensively. Interms of language skills, it requires students to get information quickly, express theirown thoughts and attitude fluently and master some basic skills of socialcommunication in English. As for learning strategies, the New English CurriculumStandard points out that teachers should pay more attention to how to guide studentsto leam better and find their own learning way. The New English CurriculumStandard advocates maximizing students talking time and minimizing teachers talking time. In other words, teachers should teach students how to leam and traintheir learning ability. In the process of learning a teacher is a guide, a supporter and afacilitator. Students should be responsible for their own learning. More importantly，students should have a certain comprehensive language competence. Teachers shouldinspire and cultivate students，interests, help students build up confidence, and makestudents form good learning habits. Inquiry-based vocabulary teaching can meet thedemands of New English Curriculum Standard and should be widely used.

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Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 Definition of Inquiry Learning and Vocabulary Teaching.

In a broad sense, inquiry learning refers to a study method like a scientificresearch. It is opposite to the absorptive study. It can be used by both students andothers in many fields. In a narrow sense, Inquiry learning is an active way to dealwith subject research which is chosen from nature, society and life under the directionof the teachers (Cao2003; 16). In this paper, inquiry learning goes in accord with thelatter definition. The National Science Education Standards (NSES) in 1996 describedinquiry learning as active learning. It involves many activities such as scientificresearch. The process is also similar to scientific research: students ask questions,collect materials, make hypothesis, and prove findings. In a word, Inquiry Learningemphasizes autonomous learning and independent construction of knowledge. Inquirylearning encourages students to solve problems and complete tasks consciously andactively. Some famous researchers at home and aboard have given the definition ofInquiry Learning. They are shown in the following:Short et al (1996) thinks that inquiry is a procedure by which students use theiracquired experience to explore the unknown world. So Inquiry Learning should bebased on students former experience. The whole process of Inquiry Learning isdynamic, and students are not a passive receiver but an active participant.

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2.2 Theories on Inquiry Learning

The constructivism theory is one of the fundamental theories for InquiryLearning. It is based on the premise that one person is able to form his or her ownunderstanding of the world where he or she lives in, by thinking about, reflecting onother peoples experiences. In respect to the learning theory, it mainly includes fourviews which are knowledge, learners, learning and teaching.For the learners role, constructivism thinks that students ’ are not blank in mindwhen they are ready to learn a new experience. Their daily life and previous learningexperience have already made them form a very fixed learning style. While learningthrough interaction with other students, students will form a whole understanding ofthe questions their teacher asked (Zhang 2001). Thus the constructivist theory insiststhat traditional teaching put so much attention on teaching. It was just a mechanicalteaching model that neglects students previous experience and knowledge. Avoidingthe disadvantages of traditional teaching, constructivists teaching pays more attentionto students’ learning than teachers teaching. It is students who directly interact withwhat they are going to learn. Furthermore the constructivist theory encourageslearners autonomy and innovation in learning.

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Chapter 3 Components in Inquiry-based VocabularyTeaching.......... 18

3.1 Role of Teachers in Inquiry-Based Vocabulary Teaching.......... 18

3.2 Role of Students in Inquiry-Based Vocabulary Teaching..........20

3.3 Form of Inquiry-Based Vocabulary Teaching ..........21

3.4 Teaching Strategies of Inquiry-Based Vocabulary Teaching.......... 23

Chapter 4 Samples of Teaching Design Based on Inquiry Learning.......... 31

4.1 Teaching Design of Sample One ..........31

4.2 Teaching Design of Sample Two.......... 33

4.3 Teaching Design of Sample Three..........37

4.4 Analysis of the Questionnaire and Reflections.......... 40

Chapter 5 Conclusions ..........44

5.1 Major findings.......... 44

5.2 Implications of this Research.......... 45

5.3 Limitations of the Study.......... 46

5.4 Suggestions for Further Research.......... 46

Chapter 4 Samples of Teaching Design Based on Inquiry Learning.

4.1 Teaching Design of Sample One

Textbook: Published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press Book 3Module 6 Unit 2 The WWF is working hard to save them all.In this teaching process, the teacher should cultivate the students habit ofinquiring to improve their language proficiency. Emotion aim; to raise students consciousness of protecting animals, to helpstudents realize that wild animals are in great danger, we need to help them at once.Besides teachers should activate students motivation in learning English.Teaching difficult and important: students can understand new words clearly and usethem to express their own ideas fluently Before this activity, the author has assigned students the task to find someinformation about this topic, so they can talk freely in class. While students show theiropinions, the author gives them an active response to encourage them to saysomething in English.

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Conclusion

This study adopts the qualitative method to investigate inquiry-based vocabularyteaching. At the beginning of the experiment, students had a lot of problems in usingInquiry Learning to leam vocabulary. Problems go as follows:First, students couldnt understand what inquiry vocabulary learning was andhow to carry out it.Second, students couldnt find proper answers for the expletory questions. Theymight fear to answer questions. They lacked confidence to show their opinions inpublic.Third, students sometimes were unable to collect and select useful information.Fourth, students couldnt cooperate with each other efficiently. They didnt knowhow to negotiate with each other when they had different ideas. Thus, based on thedifficulties that the participants held, this study was set out to help the students to useinquiry-based vocabulary learning. After the 16 weeks instruction, most of problemsstudents had reported were solved.

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Reference (omitted)