Junior English Majors' Incidental Vocabulary Learning Strategies-an Empirical Study

For language learners, vocabulary is of vital importance in language learning. As English Linguist Winkins once said:"You know little without grammar. But you know nothing without vocabulary." (2000:95). Richards (1976) is one of the first scholars who suggest that vocabulary is typically ignored in foreign or second language instruction. Teachers are often hesitant to waste valuable class time directly teaching individual words. In recent years, a great many relative papers have been published in China. However, only few studies are designed to explore the strategies of incidental vocabulary learning. In fact, as for Chinese language learners, with deeper communication between China and English-speaking countries, more and more access to English is available and the environment for study becomes more and more favorable.To investigate the strategies of incidental vocabulary learning adopted by students, 120 junior English majors of one university in Chongqing are selected. It is a normal university whose teaching level and student source are representative of similar schools. Firstly, to identify each subject's ability of incidental vocabulary learning, a comprehension test and a vocabulary test are used in the study. According to the results, subjects are divided into two groups:the high proficiency students (HPS) whose scores are above the average score and the low proficiency students (LPS) whose scores are below the average score. Then a questionnaire, adapted from Gu and Johnson's, is administered to the two groups. Through the analyses of the data, it is found:(1) subjects believe vocabulary can be learned incidentally by listening, speaking, reading and writing; (2) the investigated students employ a wide range of strategies in their incidental vocabulary learning; (3) one significant difference is found between HPS and LPS in the use of rote learning; (4) there is no difference between male students and female students in the selection of strategies.The study not only provides the much-needed information on the studies of incidental vocabulary learning, but also gives some important enlightment to English teaching and learning:(1) the belief of independent study should be encouraged among students; (2) the belief of incidental vocabulary learning should be cultivated among students so that the concept of incidental vocabulary learning can be further understood; (3) dictionary is a very important tool to learners'incidental vocabulary increments; (4) rote learning is proved to be a very efficient learning strategy in incidental vocabulary learning; (5) incidental vocabulary learning is a long process of learning. This comparison study will draw more attention to the strategies of incidental vocabulary learning, encouraging students to make good use of the strategies in their daily study, and shed some light on vocabulary teaching.