A Comparative Study On English Vocabulary Learning Strategies Between High-achievers And Low-achievers In Junior High School

For junior high school students,mastering the vocabulary required in the syllabus can lay a solid foundation for learning English well.However,traditional English teaching usually consolidates vocabulary learning through repeated practice and mechanical memorization.Although this way can improve students’ English vocabulary performance in a short time,it can not achieve the purpose of deepening understanding and will easily cause the forgetting of knowledge points.Therefore,it is particularly important to teach students to use English vocabulary learning strategies properly.Mastering effective vocabulary learning strategies can not only improve students’ vocabulary learning efficiency,but also help to cultivate students’ autonomous learning potential.In recent years,although many scholars and teachers have done research on the English vocabulary learning strategies,there are few contrastive researches about English vocabulary learning strategies of high-achievers and low-achievers in junior high school.In view of the above,based on the constructivism theory and memory theory,this study makes a contrastive research on the application of English vocabulary learning strategies between high-achievers and low-achievers in junior high school.There are three main research questions :(1)What is the current situation of the application of English vocabulary learning strategies for high-achievers in junior high school?(2)What is the current situation of the application of English vocabulary learning strategies for low-achievers in junior high school?(3)What are the differences between the high-achievers and low-achievers in using English vocabulary learning strategies in junior high school?In order to answer the above questions,this study conducts a questionnaire survey on 100 high-achievers and 100 low-achievers from a junior high school in a city,according to O ’Mally & Chamot’s classification of learning strategies and interviews 10high-achievers and 10 low-achievers.The data are analyzed by SPSS21.0.The results show that there are significant differences between the high-achievers and low-achievers in the use of metacognitive strategies,cognitive strategies,social affective strategies.High-achievers use metacognitive strategies mostly,and the frequency of using the other three strategies is also not low.By contrast,low-achievers use cognitive strategies mostly,while the use of metacognitive strategies,social affective strategies is at an average level and resource strategies are hardly used.To be more specific,high-achievers often use selective attention strategy,guessing strategy and seeking cooperation strategy,while low-achievers often use mechanical memorization strategy and English song strategy.Through comparison,it is found that there are significant differences between the high-achievers and low-achievers in the use of self-regulation strategy,practice strategy,seeking cooperation strategy,and book and newspaper strategy.In view of the problems found,combined with constructivism theory and memory theory,this study provides some suggestions for teachers.When students encounter difficulties in learning English vocabulary,teachers can often encourage them,and when they can’t arrange their English learning plan,teachers can give them some advice.Sometimes teachers should supervise students in class and teach them more skills about English vocabulary memorization.In addition,teachers should encourage low-achievers to ask questions,treat them patiently,and tell them some memorization skills in English vocabulary learning.