Investigating sociolinguistic and historical linguistic approaches to vocabulary teaching and learning in the English language classrooms of Wales

该项目汇集了历史和社会语言学理论，以研究将词源学和形态学的明确教学纳入识字教育是否以及如何影响儿童使用和理解复杂词汇的能力。在经历了17到21个月的“词汇爆炸”之后，小学生应该继续平均每个月学习27.9个新单词（Dale和Fenson 1996）。尽管出现了这种自然的“爆炸式增长”，但国家扫盲信托基金（2018年）的统计数据显示，到11岁（关键阶段2结束）时，四分之一的儿童在阅读或写作方面达不到预期标准。这个项目及时地调查了语言意识和深入的词汇知识是如何随着孩子的学校生涯而成长的。在阅读、写作、拼写和口语中处理不同程度的复杂词汇的能力不仅是学业成功的基础，也是理解社会关系和教育后生活中语义细微差别的基础。在最初的词汇量爆炸之后，Mitchell和McMurray（2008:1919）认为，为了继续加速词汇习得，儿童必须广泛阅读，持续接触“难”词，以扩大词汇量。威尔士国家课程单词表建议让孩子们接触到学业和日常生活成功所需的单词。然而，社会语言学研究表明，儿童的语言使用与与年龄相关的同龄人的互动更密切相关（Nardy et al. 2014）。在最近的GCSE考试期间（StatsWales 2019），只有59.2%的威尔士中学生的英语成绩达到了A* - C，孩子们应该掌握的单词和他们实际掌握的单词之间存在差异。这个项目将通过调查儿童在社会环境中使用的单词的复杂性与政府规定的单词表的差异来解决这些不一致。对这些单词表的分析表明，儿童应该知道的大多数单词都包含根植于拉丁语的术语。然而，威尔士课程没有解决教育工作者应该如何处理教学单词的含义或词汇组成；重点完全在于词汇量的大小。过去的研究表明，学习拉丁语与提高元语言意识之间存在联系（Hill 2006; Hunt etal . 2005; Sparks etal . 1995），但传统上，拉丁语一直是私立和文法学校教育的主题。此外，这些研究将拉丁语作为一个独立的学术学科来研究。他们没有探索将多种语言的词源和词形（不仅仅是拉丁语）作为英语语言课程的综合主题进行教学的影响。这项研究有可能让每个人都能享受到古典语言教育的好处。因此，本项目将探讨通过明确教授拉丁语、古希腊语、法语和本地前缀、词根和后缀，为儿童提供形态学基础是否会影响语言意识与课堂和社会互动中使用和理解陌生单词的能力之间的关系。它质疑单词组成的知识是否能帮助孩子们理解构成现代语言的复杂的阅读、写作和拼写习惯。因此，本博士研究项目的问题是：将词源和词法融入英语教学如何影响威尔士小学儿童的词汇使用？

This project draws together historical and socio-linguistic theories to examine if and how integrating explicit teaching of word etymology and morphology into literacy education could impact children's ability to use and comprehend complex vocabulary. Having experienced a 'vocabulary explosion' between seventeen to twenty-one months of age, primary school children should continue gaining an average of 27.9 new words every month thereafter (Dale and Fenson 1996). Despite this natural 'explosion', National Literacy Trust (2018) statistics show that 1 in 4 children do not reach the expected standard in reading or writing by the age of eleven (end of Key Stage 2). This project is a timely investigation into how linguistic awareness and in-depth word knowledge can grow with a child through their school career. The ability to cope with different levels of lexical complexity when reading, writing, spelling and speaking is not only fundamental to broader academic success, but to understanding semantic nuances in social relationships and life post-education. Following the initial vocabulary explosion, Mitchell and McMurray (2008:1919) suggest that for word-acquisition acceleration to continue, children must read widely to be consistently exposed to 'difficult' words to expand vocabulary sizes. The Welsh National Curriculum word-lists propose to expose children to words required for both academic and everyday-life success. However, socio-linguistic studies have revealed that a child's linguistic usage is more closely related to interactions with age-related peers (Nardy et al. 2014). With just 59.2% of Welsh secondary school children achieving A* - C in English Language in the last GCSE examination period (StatsWales 2019), there is a discrepancy between the words children shouldhave acquired and what they have actuallyacquired. This project will address these inconsistencies by investigating how the complexity of the words children use in social contexts differs from the government-prescribed word-lists. Analysis of these word-lists shows the majority of words children are supposed to know comprise terms rooted in the Latin language. However, the Welsh Curriculum does not address how educators should approach teaching word-meaning or lexical composition; the focus is entirely on vocabulary size. Past studies have shown a connection between learning Latin and increased metalinguistic awareness (Hill 2006; Hunt et al. 2005; Sparks et al. 1995), but traditionally, Latin has been a subject reserved for private and grammar school education. Furthermore, these studies investigate Latin as a standalone academic subject. They do not explore the impact of teaching multiple language etymologies and morphologies (not just Latin) as integrated topics in the English Language curriculum. This research has scope to make the proven benefits of classical language education accessible to everyone. This project, therefore, will explore whether providing children with morphological building blocks-through explicit teaching of Latinate, Classical Greek, French and native prefixes, root words and suffixes-impacts the relationship between linguistic awareness and ability to use and comprehend unfamiliar words in the classroom and social interactions. It questions whether knowledge of word components could help children understand the complex reading, writing and spelling conventions that comprise our modern language. As such, this doctoral research project asks: How does integrating word etymology and morphology into English Language teaching impact Welsh primary school children's vocabulary usage?