A Study On The Relationship Between Non-english Majors' Personality And Vocabulary Learning Strategy

Many studies have found that learners'individual differences, especially learners'language learning strategies, play very important roles in their language learning process and even somehow lead to the success of their learning activities. There are many factors that influence the choice of learning strategies, for instance: learners'age, gender, personality, intelligence level, motivation, and so on. Various studies done on language learning strategies have come to the same conclusion. That is, the use of language learning strategies can effectively improve learner's learning quality and thus can lead to their final success in foreign language learning. Hence, the importance of language learning strategies has been agreed. Personality is one of the most important factors which have influence on foreign language learning and the choice of learning strategies. Learners'personality is an essential issue during foreign language teachers'teaching as it is beneficial for the teacher'individualized teaching. As we enter the 21st century, acquisition of vocabulary has assumed a more important role, and as some would argue, the central role in learning a second language (Lewis, 1993). Therefore, the present study investigates the relationship between non-English majors'personality, one of the most cognitive factors, and their cognitive, metacognitive as well as social/affective strategies use in vocabulary learning, and it also makes a comparison on cognitive, metacognitive and social/affective strategies use in vocabulary learning between more proficient learners and less proficient learners.The subjects of this study are 606 freshmen from different departments in different universities, 300 are from different departments of Chongqing University and 306 are from different departments of Chongqing College of Electronic Engineering. Two questionnaires and a semi-structured interview are adopted in this study. In order to explore the relationship between subjects'personality and their cognitive, metacognitive as well as social/affective strategies use in vocabulary learning, the data is collected, described and analyzed through Pearson Correlation and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).The findings of the investigation lead to the following conclusions.1)Generally speaking, most subjects have shown an extroversion personality.2)Generally speaking, the subjects'using frequency of cognitive, metacognitive and social/affective strategies in vocabulary learning is a little bit low, especially the using frequency of metacognitive strategy.3)Generally speaking, a significant positive correlation has been found between the subjects'personality and their pre-planning, selective attention, self-monitoring, self-evaluation (metocognitive); contextualization, translation/L1, guess, association, reading, grouping, note-taking (cognitive); cooperation and self-encouragement (social/affective) strategies use in vocabulary learning. A significant positive correlation has been found between more proficient learners'personality and their selective attention (metacognitive); practice, reading, grouping as well as note-taking (cognitive) strategies use in vocabulary learning. Significant correlation has also been found between less proficient learners'personality and their pre-planning, selective attention, self-monitoring, self-evaluation (metacognitive); repetition, use of dictionary, contextualization, guess, association, grouping, note-taking (cognitive); cooperation as well as self-encouragement (social/affective) strategies use in vocabulary learning.4)Significant difference has been found on the use of selective attention, self-monitoring (metacognitive); repetition, contextualization, guess, association, reading (cognitive); cooperation and self-encouragement (social/affective) strategies in vocabulary learning between more proficient learners and less proficient learners. More proficient learners with introversion personality and less proficient learners with introversion personality show significant difference on the use of repetition (cognitive) and self-encouragement (social/affective) strategies in vocabulary learning.5)Learners with extroversion personality and learners with introversion personality have significant difference on the use of pre-planning, selective attention, self-monitoring, self-evaluation (metacognitive); repetition, contextualization, translation/L1, guess, association, keyword, grouping, note-taking (cognitive); cooperation and self-encouragement (social/affective) strategies in vocabulary learning. Less proficient learners with extroversion personality and that with introversion personality show significant difference on the use of repetition (cognitive) and self-encouragement (social/affective) strategies in vocabulary learning.Finally, some tentative answers to the results have been provided and a few suggestions have been made about future college English language teaching on the basis of this investigation and the author's own teaching practice.