Application of Context Theory in English Vocabulary Teaching in the Secondary Vocational School

This paper conducts a study of English vocabulary teaching in the secondary vocational school based on context theory. Through the quantitative research method, results of the study indicate that it is effective for the secondary vocational school students to improve their vocabulary mnemonic ability, English proficiency and words guessing ability through English vocabulary teaching based on context.

Translation of News Headlines Under Contextual Theory

With the coming of all kinds of information,the world is becoming one indivisible planet.People not only pay attention to major events in their own countries,but also gradually pay attention to international news and learn about the world situation.As one of the world’s common languages,English news accounts for a large proportion of the news market.Usually when people choose to read current events,they will look at the headlines first,and then at the content of the article.Therefore,whether the translated news headlines can accurately convey information and catch readers’attention in a short time plays a very important role in the dissemination of news.Based on the context theory,this paper studies and analyzes the translation of some news headlines,expecting to provide some suggestions for news translation.

Translating Chinese Public Signs into English from Context of the Adaptation Theory

Translation of public signs is related to the image of a city. It has aroused more and more concerns in recent years, for translations of these public signs are often totally wrong or inappropriate. Although many translators have pointed out all kind of mistakes, there is no guiding theory in translating public signs. According to the adaptation theory by Jef. Verschuren, the use of language is just to make continuous choices in order to adapt to the needs of communications. This scientific new research angle can explain and guide translation of public signs. The argument of this paper is how to translate Chinese public signs into English from different context. And it will be analyzed from three different ways： linguistic, communicative, dynamic dimensions.

Appraisal of the Production-Oriented Approach： An Introduction

The production-oriented approach （POA） has been developed over a decade. It is driven by the need to improve English classroom instruction for university students in China （Wen, 2016）. It is also motivated by the aspiration to enhance the quality of foreign language education in other similar pedagogical contexts outside China. A volume of research has been done by Wen Qiufang and her research team, to formulate the theory of POA and to test its effectiveness in classroom pedagogy （e.g. Wen, 2016, 2015; Yang, 2015; Zhang, 2015）. At the moment, the POA is still at an early stage of theory building and almost all empirical research is done in the Chinese context. In order to improve the quality of this theory and to make it intelligible to the international academic community, a one-day symposium was held in Beijing Foreign Studies University on May 15, 2017. The symposium was entitled ＇The first international forum on innovative foreign language education in China： Appraisal of the POA＇. In the forum, leading experts in applied linguistics were invited to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the POA and the directions for its future development. The symposium was the first attempt for the POA research team to discuss its latest work with international scholars. This Viewpoint section collects the responses of four experts who participated in the symposium, listed in alphabetical order. The collection of articles covers three topics related to the POA： its pedagogical application, its use for teacher training, and its research. Alister Cumming is Professor Emeritus and the former Head of the Centre for Educational Research on Languages and Literacies, University of Toronto, Canada. His article focuses primarily on POA research as an exemplary case of design-based research. Rod Ellis is Research Professor in the School of Education at Curtin University, Australia. He discusses POA in terms of pedagogy, teacher training and research, with both critiques and constructive suggestions. Paul Kei Matsuda is Professor of English and Director of Second Language Writing at Arizona State University, the writed states. He responds to POA from the perspective of an expert researcher and teacher of L2 writing. Charlene Polio is Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Linguistics ＆ Germanic, Slavic, Asian ＆ African Languages atMichigan State University, the writed states. She conceptualises POA as a useful method to address some issues in pre-service teacher development. Overall, the articles in this section are insightful and reader-friendly. They are not only useful for the development of POA in particular, but may also be valuable to a broad range of researchers as they touch upon pertaining issues, as well as emerging topics, in the field of applied linguistics. We therefore find it necessary to make them accessible to a wide readership.