Vocabulary is of critical importance to language learning. Vocabulary instruction in English language teaching (ELT) can provide the teachers and the students with systematic vocabulary guidance and help learners learn vocabulary more effectively and independently. However, not all teachers in senior middle schools in China have realized the necessity of vocabulary instruction and most of them tend to skip it in practice, even though it is a section included in the course book. This article contributes to conducting an empirical study by investigating the impact of vocabulary instruction on the teaching and learning of vocabulary in senior middle schools in China based upon a one-semester experiment with participants from two schools. The differences between before and after vocabulary instruction were discussed to evaluate its impact. Data were collected from the Teacher Log, the Student Questionnaire and the Follow-up Teacher Interview, it has been found: (1) vocabulary instruction could work more effectively than a word list in stimulating the students’ interest in vocabulary learning and in developing their vocabulary; (2) National College Entrance Examination System in China and institutional resistance to change are the main reasons that vocabulary instruction is neglected in ELT.
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