| Vocabulary learning plays an important role in the process of English learning, and it is a key step to learning English well. As far as senior high school students are concerned, a good master of vocabulary required by teaching syllabus is able to lay a solid foundation on learning English well. However, it is a large obstacle for them to memorize such a large quantity of vocabulary. What’s more, it is a quite difficult task for many English teachers to cultivate students employing diverse effective vocabulary learning strategies. Mastering effective vocabulary learning strategies can not only improve students’efficiency of learning vocabulary, but also be beneficial to foster their ability of autonomous learning. Recently, although many scholars and English teachers have conducted researches on the relationship between the employment of vocabulary learning strategies and students’ English achievement, the vocabulary learning strategies used by students with learning difficulties and so on, yet there have been few researches on vocabulary learning strategies especially between achievers and underachievers in Senior two. In accordance with the investigating and interviewing with the vocabulary learning strategies used by achievers and underachievers in Senior two, this study attempt to answer the below three questions.(1) What is the general characteristic of English vocabulary learning strategies used by achievers? What is the general characteristic of English vocabulary learning strategies used by underachievers?(2) What are the differences of English vocabulary learning strategies employed by achievers and by underachievers?(3) What are the reasons for these differences existing in these two groups of students?The questionnaire is designed based on the scale of Gu & Johnson (1996) and supplemented according to some actual phenomenon of senior high students. The purpose of interviews is to explore in-depth reasons of the differences of vocabulary learning strategies between achievers and underachievers. The investigated subjects including 50 achievers and 43 underachievers in senior two are selected from the No.1 Middle School Affiliated to Central China Normal University in Wu Han. In addition, 6 achievers and 6 underachievers are chosen to be interviewed from the samples.The research findings are presented as follows:1. On the whole, the frequency of vocabulary learning strategies used by achievers is higher than that used by underachievers. Among the four strategies, both of achievers and underachievers employ metacognitive strategies and cognitive strategies more than other two strategies, which may be related to that teachers put more emphasis on instructing these two strategies in the teaching process. The frequency of social strategies used by achievers and underachievers is the lowest. In other word, both of them are not good at communicating with their classmates about vocabulary learning experiences or consulting others for help; 2. There exist the greatest differences of resourse and management strategies between achievers and underachievers, especially shown in the following three aspects:reading English newspapers and magazines, watching English program and making use of fragmentary time.3. Based on the results of interviews, students’determined belief, good habit and positive attitude to vocabulary learning will have a great impact on their employment of vocabulary learning strategies. Besides, achievers are more active than underachievers to make use of environments or even create favorable environments for the purpose of involving themselves in English communication and interaction. The motivation of achievers is more intense, and they are better than underachievers at setting some short-term and concrete or long-term objectives in the process of English learning.Eventually, the author provides some suggestions and implications to facilitate the effective employment of vocabulary learning strategies. |
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