A Study of Student-Centered English Vocabulary Teaching I. Introduction A. Vocabulary If language structures make up the skeleton of language, it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh. Vocabulary is one of the most important essentials of language, and it is also the basis of language communication. In vocabulary researches, vocabulary refers to not only the single words, but also the “chunks” such as phrases and idioms (1). And in Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary, the definition of the vocabulary is a total number of the words that make up a language .It is the basic meaningful unit in language communication. B. English vocabulary teaching English vocabulary teaching is the primary and essential part of English teaching. This is because we cannot express anything perfect without vocabulary; we cannot carry on the basic language communication such as listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation if there has no vocabulary. We need to have a store of vocabulary, which we can select from freely when we wish to express our thoughts. For students, mastering a certain number of vocabularies is the key to learning English. As everyone knows, the greater vocabulary one masters, the stronger skill in applying language he/she will have. But to our Chinese students, the vocabulary learning is a great difficulty in English learning. What is more, many of the students always consider that “vocabulary learning” is to recite the words which are appeared in the text. They think that if they can remember all those words, they will finish their vocabulary learning. As a matter of fact, their vocabulary learning still stays in the combination of “pronunciation, spelling and meaning”, and almost all their time and energy are used in these three parts. This will bring failures to them in learning and communication. Thus, the teachers vocabulary teaching becomes especially important. C. Purpose of teaching vocabulary The purpose of teaching vocabulary is to make the students master the vocabulary, use the vocabulary freely and lay the base for their English learning. In order to achieve this purpose, educators from home and abroad have been researching the approaches of English teaching. No matter what kind of approach they adopt, they must make sure that their teaching is based on the students. Because the student is the body of the teaching, the teacher just plays a leading role. All teaching activities must focus on the students. II. The student-centered vocabulary teaching A. Some factors which affect the students vocabulary learning There is a fact that the students should take notice. That is, some students are successful in vocabulary learning while others are not. If we know the reason, the job of teaching vocabulary would be easy. We dont, of course. But we can point out a number of factors which seem to have some effect on the students success in vocabulary learning. Firstly, it is motivation in learning vocabulary. People involved in English teaching often say that students who really want to learn will succeed. This is their motivation. Motivation refers to the intensity of intention regarding the students learning behavior (2). In other words, motivation stands for how much effort the students are ready to put into the learning activity. It is some kind of the internal drive that encourages students to study. The internal drive here may be the parents hope, the teachers appreciation or the students eager for study, and so on. Such phenomenon suggests that the motivation the students bring to class is the biggest factor affecting their success.Secondly, method for learning vocabulary is an extremely important factor. We know that if a teachers method for teaching vocabulary is deadly boring, the students will probably become uninterested in learning. Therefore, teachers must adjust themselves so as to meet the various situations. Teaching method also has some effect on the students learning motivation. Good method can easily rouse students learning interests. Finally, the factor affect the students vocabulary learning is the teacher himself/herself. Whether the students like the teacher or not may be a problem. Almost all people in their students time had this kind of feelings. So, this requires the teacher is not only a deliver of the knowledge, but also a good friend of the students. B. The traditional teaching The traditional English vocabulary teaching is a “Duck-stuffing” way. It only needs teachers mouths and pieces of chalk. The students just act as receivers of knowledge. This kind of teaching greatly prevents the students initiative in learning. And this is not what the teaching aims. What the teacher should do is try his/her best to wake up the students initiative and interests in learning. First, a teacher should know his/her role in teaching. He/she is not only the deliver of the knowledge, but also the director, conductor and organizer. He