A Research On Vocabulary Learning Strategy Use And Training Of Self-Taught English Majors

Vocabulary is the basic part of a language. The depth and width of vocabulary knowledge can definitely bear powerful influence on the comprehension and application of the language. Up to now, many scholars have made great effort in their language teaching and research to find out the most effective vocabulary learning strategies with which learners can acquire more words with less effort and energy. Among others, O'Malley and Chamot categorize learning strategies into three groups:metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, and social/affective strategies. Metacognitive strategies'role is to evaluate, monitor, and manage the application of cognitive strategies, so it ranks a higher level than the other two groups; cognitive strategies are directly utilized in language learning process; social/affective strategies are used for cooperation with others and control of learners'own affective factors during learning.Theoretical foundation of this research was based on O'Malley and Chomat's approach to learning strategies. The research was carried out in two parallel classes:one for experiment, the other one for control, with a view to find out the subjects'vocabulary learning strategy using situation before the training and potential changes elicited by the training. At the beginning of this research, the author administered the pre questionnaire and the pre test, and SPSS 16.0 shows no obvious gap between the two classes in vocabulary learning strategies and vocabulary knowledge before the training. The questionnaire shows that self-taught English majors utilize many learning strategies in their vocabulary learning, and the use frequency of cognitive strategies rank the highest. In light of the pre questionnaire, the author identified four least used vocabulary learning strategies for later training in his research. The four strategies are:1. guessing word meaning in its context; 2. association strategy; 3. word formation strategy; 4. planning &implementing strategy.The training for each strategy included four steps:warming up, demonstration, practice, and evaluation. By the end of each strategy training session, a middle test followed to check the training effectiveness. At the end of the whole research, the final test and the post questionnaire were carried out. All the data underwent the analysis by SPSS 16.0, which shows that the strategy training has improved the subjects'awareness of applying vocabulary learning strategies and increased the actual use of the trained strategies. However, guessing strategy has not shown significant difference between the experimental class and the control class in the middle test, and neither of the two classes has got high grades in this test on the whole. Word formation strategy, association strategy as well as planning &implementing strategy all have seen significant gap between the two classes, and these strategies are correlated to the subjects'grades to different extent. Data have shown the active role of these learning strategies to improve vocabulary learning efficiency; teachers may get some insight from this research, and it is rewarding for teachers and learners to make further researches in the field of vocabulary learning strategies.