The Application of Lexical Approach in Teaching College English: An Empirical Study

Abstract

In China, College English is a required basic course for undergraduate students, and the objective of College English teaching is to improve students’ ability to use English in an all-round way. The author maintains that in order for students to exchange information effectively, they must be first of all equipped with the right tools for communication—vocabulary. The author observes that vocabulary is the biggest obstacle for most college students, who have learned the basic patterns and structures of English in their middle school, but their vocabulary size is very limited. It follows that greater importance should be attached to vocabulary in College English teaching.

The author believes that, in the current Chinese EFL teaching context, adopting the Lexical Approach to College English teaching is a practicable and effective way to improve students’ ability in using English. In order to verify this idea, the author conducted an empirical study, which lasted 16 weeks. The findings support the author’s hypotheses that college students do need explicit and systematic instructions on vocabulary learning, and that adopting the Lexical Approach to College English teaching is effective in enhancing students’ lexical knowledge and improving their ability in using English. It is hoped that the study will shed some light on the question of how to teach College English effectively to meet the previously mentioned objective.