The Educational Review, USA, 2023, 7(5), 643-646

https://www.hillpublisher.com/journals/er/
ISSN Online: 2575-7946
ISSN Print: 2575-7938

English Vocabulary Teaching in High Schools

from the Embodiment Perspective on Language

Jingwen Yang

China West Normal University, Nanchong, Sichuan, China.

How to cite this paper: Jingwen Yang.

(2023). English Vocabulary Teaching in
Abstract
High Schools from the Embodiment Pers- Vocabulary knowledge is the foundation of English learning, and the teaching of
pective on Language. The Educational
Review, USA, 7(5), 643-646. it affects students' interest about English and efficiency in English learning. Fur-
DOI: 10.26855/er.2023.05.019 thermore, it may affect students’ English language ability. Different from other
language learning theories, the Embodiment Perspective on Language advocates
Received: May 10, 2023 humanism, learner-centered, attaches importance to students' experience and the
Accepted: June 8, 2023
Published: July 6, 2023 characteristics of human cognitive development at various stages, emphasizing a
series of mental activities such as judgment, comparison, and deduction to guide
Corresponding author: Jingwen Yang, students to recognize of the target object. This view of language is quite an im-
China West Normal University, Nanchong, portant result of the localization of language views in foreign countries. There-
Sichuan, China.
fore, based on language views advocates by the Embodiment Perspective on
Language, this paper will discuss the teaching of high school English vocabulary
from the aspects of teaching strategies and teaching principles, combined with
the cognitive development characteristics of high school students and the current
problems in high school vocabulary teaching.

Keywords
Vocabulary teaching, Embodiment Perspective on Language, cognitive develop-
ment

1. Introduction
The General High School English Curriculum Standards (revised in 2020, and later is called the New Curriculum
Standards) point out that words are the construction materials of language and are the smallest unit of language that can
be used independently. It can be seen that vocabulary is a major foundation in English learning, but vocabulary teaching
in China has always been uneven, and there are problems such as single teaching form, detachment from context, and
ignoring the status of students' main body (Chen Ling, 2022; Dong Fangran, 2022). Ultimately, the reason for this phe-
nomenon is English teachers’ views on language.
The view of language refers to people's perception of language, and this perception determines people's perception of
language teaching. For example, the structural view of language sees language as an ideographic system composed of
structurally interconnected units. Therefore, the content of language teaching is the various components of the language
system, namely phonetics, vocabulary and grammar. The emergence of the listening and speaking pedagogy came into
being; The Transformation Generative Language Concept attributes the key of acquisition to language ability, high-
lights the exclusivity and autonomy of language learning mechanism, and advocates implicit learning. The Communica-
tive Language Teaching believes that the main goal of language learning is to master the methods of expressing mean-
ing through language. Also, the language learning model is based on social activities rather than individual cognition,
and its development promotes the emergence and development of Communicative Language Teaching Method, focus-
ing on cultivating the ability of foreign language learners to use the target language appropriately in a social environ-
ment through communicative tasks.

DOI: 10.26855/er.2023.05.019 643 The Educational Review, USA

Jingwen Yang

In the process of development, China's foreign language teaching methods have absorbed many foreign classic lan-
guage teaching and learning theories, such as Structural View and Communicative View. At present, the Task-based
Lanuguge Teaching derived from the Communicative View on Language is the mainstream of English teaching in Chi-
na. At the same time, according to Wang Qiang (2018), the revision of New Curriculum Standard refers to the devel-
opment of Cognitive Linguistics, which re-recognizes the relationship between language and thinking. Embodiment
Perspective on Language is a new development in Cognitive Linguistics in recent years, proposed by Wang Yin (2014),
as an attempt to theorize indigenous Chinese languages. The core principle of Embodiment Perspective on Language is
"reality-cognition-language". Here, "body" refers to learners’ interactive experience with the real world, "recognition"
refers to cognitive processing on the basis of perceptual experience. Reality and language are not directly connected,
which must go through the cognitive processing of learners, during which a series of mental activities such as reasoning,
generalization, deduction and so on. Therefore, according to Xu Jian and Yuan Hui (2022), Embodiment Perspective on
Language is recognized in the New Curriculum Standard as an English learning activity view, both of which are learn-
er-centered and focus on students' perception and experience of real situations.
According to the Embodiment Perspective on Language, the cognitive ability and characteristics of the subject are
important factors affecting language learning, so English teaching under this perspective needs to be phased. At the
primary level, it is necessary to pay attention to the experiential nature of teaching content and methods, perceive the
form and meaning of language, and acquire perceptual knowledge of language ontology and language use. In junior
high school, teaching should focus on cultivating students’ ability to abstract and generalize, helping students acquire
language knowledge and experience language use. In senior high school, with the increase of students' language learn-
ing, they begin to gradually strengthen the cultivation of students' abstract and generalization ability, teaching should
focus on improving students' language use ability, strengthen students' rational thinking and using about language on-
tology on the basis of experience, and let students learn to use language appropriately. Vocabulary is one aspect of stu-
dents' perception of the world and an important foundation for English learning, so the discussion of vocabulary teach-
ing strategies under Embodiment Perspective on Language is an aspect that can’t be ignored in English teaching. This
article will explore the strategies of English vocabulary teaching in high schools from the teaching.
2. Vocabulary Teaching in High Schools from the Embodiment Perspective on Language
2.1 Teaching strategies
According to surveys (Chen Ling, 2022; Dong Fangran, 2022), the current problems in high school English vocabu-
lary teaching mainly exist in vocabulary presentation and students’ output. Therefore, based on Embodiment Perspec-
tive on Language, the author proposes the following strategies for high school English vocabulary teaching from the
aspects of vocabulary presentation and students’ output:
2.1.1 Present vocabulary using multi-model and authentic situations
Embodiment Perspective on Language believes that language comes from learners' interactive experiences and cog-
nitive processing with the real world. Therefore, teachers should pay attention to the introduction of authentic situations
when presenting words, create situations based on students' life experience and existing knowledge, and be good at dis-
covering and leading in authentic situations. The way of leading in situations should be multimodal, because multimod-
al provide learners with rich experience tools. Compared with texts of single forms, pictures, charts, videos, audio, live
storytelling, etc. can better present the target vocabulary. For example, awkward has the four meanings of embarrassed,
cramped, clumsy, and difficult. Teachers can use existing videos, movies and other tools to find some materials that
represent cramped, clumsy, difficult, and embarrassed, which can be expressions of features, human body movements,
or a short video. The above multimodal materials can be used when presenting vocabulary and giving meaning to words.
Similarly, teachers can verbally narrate an awkward life scene and then ask students to describe the scene with an adjec-
tive, thus introducing the teaching of awkward.
2.1.2 Guide students to infer vocabulary through the semantic field
Embodiment Perspective on Language believes that people transmit perceptual experience to brains through the
nervous system in their interaction with the real world, and then form various conceptual and semantic structures
through cognitive processing of the brain (Lin Zhengjun & Zhang Yu, 2020). Each word does not exist in isolation in
meaning, and each word has synonyms, antonyms, upper and lower meanings and other words. Therefore, teachers can
use the semantic field to guide students to do a series of mental activities, such as reasoning, comparing, generalizing,
summarizing and summarize, and then infer the target vocabulary. For example, there is a passage in the textbook: “I
know you value your friendship and want your friend to value it equally. However, if your friend ignores your feelings

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 Jingwen Yang

or makes you suffer, it's time to rethink your relationship. Cherish "inferred the meaning of the birth word ignore”, here,
“ignore” and “suffer” are the target words, and teachers can use the inflection meaning of “but” to guide students to
infer the opposite semantic relationship between “value” and “ignore”, so that students can infer the meaning of the new
word “ignore” through the antonymic semantics of "value".
2.1.3 Use vocabulary in tasks through vocabulary memorizing of chunks
Tasks can create real situations or a virtual world, integrate target vocabulary into tasks, make the use of vocabulary
closer to real life and more contextual, and bring life experiences to students, which fully reflects the physical nature of
language. Tasks can be varied, and teachers should set reasonable output-oriented tasks based on their teaching goals.
For example, if the emphasis of vocabulary teaching is on students' writing, then students can draw mind maps, posters
or writing essays; If the emphasis is on listening and speaking, then students can record videos, conduct interviews, or-
ganize debates, etc., and give full play to their listening and speaking skills. In this process, students are encouraged to
memorize vocabulary in chunks. The New Curriculum Standard mentions that the chunks is a kind of construction, and
Bybee (2013) believes that the construction is the most suitable unit for using the language, guiding students to store
chunks as a whole and call it in whole, which can effectively improve the accuracy and fluency of language use.
2.2 Teaching principles
In the actual vocabulary teaching of high school, teachers need to follow some teaching principles in addition to us-
ing the above teaching strategies. The cognitive ability of high school students has been well developed. Many empiri-
cal studies have shown that the development of their cognition reaches a peak at the age of 16-19 (Li Deming et al.,
2004), and they have relatively complete logical thinking ability and stronger cognitive processing ability to obtain in-
formation through experience. Therefore, in the process of English vocabulary teaching, teachers should pay attention
to experience-based and cognition-oriented method, and follow the following principles:
2.2.1 Teachers should ensure that the teaching content is in line with the cognitive features of high school stu-
dents.
Vocabulary appears in junior high school still appears in senior high school, and the main reason for this is not to re-
view and consolidate certain vocabulary, but to provide new and deeper learning content of some vocabulary for high
school students with higher cognitive levels. For example, the requirements of the mastery of some words in junior high
and high school requirements are different at the part of speech. For example, Unit 5 in Compulsory 1 of English text-
book (the new version of FLTRP) mentions "brave the elements", and most students in junior high school have mas-
tered the adjective usage of “brave”, but here, teachers need to teach “brave” as a verb. So, as we can see, teachers
should carefully grasp the depth of teaching when preparing lessons based on students' cognitive characteristics. Of
course, different students may have differences in cognition, and it is necessary for teachers to understand situations of
each student in their class in depth, taking into account the development of all students in the class as much as possible.
2.2.2 Teachers should pay attention to the construction of vocabulary systems.
In the context of classroom teaching, the knowledge that students acquire is basically the knowledge taught by teach-
ers. If the teacher does not integrate the vocabulary knowledge into a system, the knowledge received and formed by
students will most likely be unsystematic; On the other hand, this lack of systematics is also likely to affect the teaching
progress of teachers. During the teaching process, if students ask for something that the teacher has not prepared, how
far should the teacher answer for the student? Is this knowledge an important point that has been missed? This situation
affects the progress of the teacher's teaching. Therefore, before the start of each semester, teachers should have a macro
control over the vocabulary knowledge that students will learn this semester, specify the vocabulary to each unit with its
teaching depth, and then assign the vocabulary learning durance of each unit. In this process, teachers should leave ap-
propriate free time to prevent emergencies from affecting the teaching progress. At the end of each unit, teachers can
share their unit vocabulary with students so that they can learn more efficiently. However, the author believes that a
more effective method is for teachers to guide students to summarize their own unit vocabulary system. In this way,
students' thinking ability and vocabulary learning efficiency can be improved. Due to the individual differences of stu-
dents and the habits they have formed in the process of prior learning, this method may be difficult at the beginning, but
it is still a topic worth exploring for English teachers.
2.2.3 Teachers should focus on mobilizing students' learning initiative.
In the process of English learning for high school students, most students do not get satisfying grades because of their
learning enthusiasm for English learning, one of which is reflected in the learning of vocabulary. Many students think
that vocabulary knowledge is boring and can’t be remembered over time. Therefore, it is particularly important for

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Jingwen Yang

teachers to mobilize students' enthusiasm for vocabulary learning, and one of the important methods is to change "pas-
sive learning" to "active learning". Teachers should not only impart knowledge in the classroom, but also cultivate stu-
dents' ability to actively learn, analyze and solve problems. Vocabulary teaching should also pay attention to the culti-
vation of students' enthusiasm, presenting words and carrying out activities in novel ways, so as to enhance students'
interest in learning and promote students to have a shift from "passive learning" to "active practice".
3. Conclusion
Vocabulary knowledge is the foundation of English language learning, so its teaching can’t be ignored. Experiences
and cognition advocated by the Embodiment Perspective on language are the processes that people go through when
they understand something. What teachers need to do is to enable students to have a better experience in the stage of
perceiving the target vocabulary, guide students to do a series of mental activities, such as reasoning, judging, compar-
ing, deducing, so that students can achieve real application of what they have learned in the output stage, and then
achieve vocabulary acquisition. In this process, teachers should fully consider the cognitive features and individual dif-
ferences of high school students, avoid single and boring forms of activities, and follow the cognitive developing
process from perception to cognition, and then to realization.

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