“I’m not 100% convinced that memorizing the dictionary is the best way of improving your vocabulary,”says the character played by Hugh Grant in Woody Allen’s film Small Time Crooks.Yet why not?If you could memorize the dictionary -or even the 5,000 most words in that dictionary - wouldn’t that give you a huge advantage?1.Researchers estimate that a core vocabulary of between 2,000 3,000 high-frequency words is probably enough to push learners over the intermedisate plateau(停滞阶段).So why don’t we insist on them memorizing these words,form day one,as quickly as possible?

2.As an example,a New Zealfriend of mine who studied Maori（毛利语）asked me recently what I,as a language teacher,would make of his teacher’s method:”We just do masses of words around theme,for example,family pf food.We have to learn these words before the next lesson,the we come back have a conversation about family of food ect,using these words.The teacher feeds in the grammar that we need to stick the words together.”He added that he thought the method worked a treat.

Neverthless,3.for most teachers learners the sheer spadework involved in memorizing lists of words doesn’t make for very exciting teaching.More importantly,knowing a word invovles much more than simply having memorized.It is readily accessible?Is it there when you need to say it?As Hotspur says (in response to Glendower’s boast that he “can call spirits from the vasty deep”),”why ,so can I.or so can any man,but will they come when you do call for them?”

4.Memorization of words without frequently opportunities to access them is probably time misspent.

Yet memory is important - perhaps the most important task facing the learner.5.therefore knowing how memory works,how to make it work to learner’s advantage,is a major responsibility for teacher’s.So how does memory work,what implications might these working have on the teaching of vocabulary?(20分)