Gender Differences In The Use Of English Vocabulary Learning Strategies By Non-English Majors

In the past few decades, as the researching focus in second language acquisition has gradually shifted from the teacher-centered practice to the student-centered one, studies on learning strategies have become a popular topic in this field. Because of vocabulary's important role in language learning, how learners learn new words in target language effectively has also aroused researchers' interest. In recent years, the awareness of individual differences in second language acquisition has successfully given birth to another topic—gender differences in language learning. This paper chooses the intersecting point of these researches, and conducts an empirical study on gender differences in the use of English vocabulary learning strategies.The present research attempts to bridge the gap in the previous study by finding out gender differences in the use of English vocabulary learning strategies by non-English majors and the effects of these strategies on vocabulary learning outcomes (i.e. L2 word use competence), in the hope that it may give some implications both for the language teachers and learners. The present study is based on three hypotheses: (1) There are some gender differences in L2 word use competence. (2) There are some gender differences in the use of vocabulary learning strategies. (3) There are some correlation between learners' use of vocabulary learning strategies and their L2 word use competence.In this research, 100 second-year non-English majors from Huazhong Normal University were selected randomly as the participants. A vocabulary test and two structured questionnaires were used to collect data. The present research adopted the vocabulary test used in the "Survey on Chinese Undergraduates' Vocabulary Acquisition of English Written Words with Self-study Model under Internet Circumstances", which is a project on pedagogical researches at provincial level. In the compilation of Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire, the author followed Gu & Johnson's questionnaire (1996) and葛蕴鲜's framework(2005). Questionnaire to Investigate Factors Influencing L2 Word Use Competence was designed by the author. In the investigation, the vocabulary test and the two questionnaires were distributed to 100 participants who had been divided into two groups according to the difference of genders. All the participants were asked to finish the test and the two questionnaires in a fixed time. By using SPSS 11.5 for Windows, all the data had been processed. It was found that: (1) Gender differences did exist in L2 word use competence. Female students were proved to be better vocabulary learners. (2) Although male students and female students did not differentiate from each other significantly in the general categories, namely, metacognitive dimension, cognitive dimension and social/affective dimension, they did have significant differences in some specific learning strategies, such as planning, learner autonomy, guessing in general, guessing from wider context and contextualization. (3) More than half of the strategies correlated with L2 word use competence positively. The two general categories—metacognitive strategies and cognitive strategies were closely related to L2 word use competence. And six specific strategies—learner autonomy, dictionary use, grouping, elaborate use as well as look-up strategies in dictionary use and usage-oriented note-taking also closely correlated with learning outcomes. (4) Among the strategies that closely correlated with learning outcomes, the general category—metacognitive strategies and the specific strategy—grouping, were not frequently used by both genders. (5)Although gender differences existed both in some specific strategies at the metacognitive dimension and the cognitive dimension, it could be inferred from (2) and (3) that the different L2 word use competence was mainly caused by the strategies involved in the metacognitive dimension. (6)Both male and female students held a similar opinion that learning strategies were the most important factor which was likely to affect vocabulary learning.It is suggested that English teachers should bear the positive effects of vocabulary learning strategies in mind and teach their students some vocabulary learning strategies on purpose. Further more, they should also take gender differences into consideration in teaching and help male and female students to learn from each other. For the less-favored strategies that closely correlate with learning outcomes, teachers ought to encourage students to use them more often. Meanwhile, vocabulary learners should know something about vocabulary learning strategies and learn to use them appropriately to optimize their vocabulary learning.