| Scope and method of study. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) of Turkish university students and to find out whether certain variables such as studying a foreign language other than English, gender, self-reported English proficiency, use of strategies based on the number of years they have studied English, or educational background (the type of high school they attended before enrolling at the university, that is, public vs. private high schools) have an impact on the choice of perceived VLSs. Subjects in the study consisted of 934 EFL Turkish university students (male N = 547, female N = 387), studying at various universities in Turkey. Each participant completed a 35-item VLSs questionnaire, which was translated into Turkish, the native language of the subjects. Descriptive statistics, such as means and standard deviations, and independent t-tests were calculated to obtain answer to the four research questions.; Findings and conclusions. The results showed that overall Turkish university students perceived using VLSs either with medium or low frequency (71%). Memory and discovery strategies were among the strategies learners perceived to use with high frequency. Social, determination, and discovery strategies were used with either medium or low frequency. Mnemonic strategies, especially the ones which require cognitively deeper processing such as the keyword method, were perceived to be used with low frequency. Subjects who studied a foreign language other than English used determination strategies significantly more compared to those who did not. The results of the independent t-test showed that female students used the majority of the strategies (76%) significantly more than their male peers. Subjects who reported low English proficiency used discovery strategies significantly more than those reporting high English proficiency. Subjects who reported studying English between 0--3 years used discovery and determination strategies significantly more than those who studied English more than 8 years. Finally, memory strategies were perceived to be used significantly more among subjects who reported studying English more than 8 years. |
