The Effects Of Language Learning Strategy Training On Vocabulary Acquisition

Since 1970s in western countries, teachers and researchers' interest in language learning strategies and their training has been increasing with the intent to help learners become more effective and autonomous. And researches into language learning strategies in China began in 1980s, but researches into language learning strategies training were few. Furthermore, most of the western researches in the field of learning strategy instruction have focused on reading strategies as one of the important language skills (Carrell, 1998), and on cognitive strategies as one of the main categories of learning strategies. In addition, most of the researches on vocabulary learning strategies have also focused on cognitive strategies. Due to the importance of metacognitive learning strategies and vocabulary learning, the present study focuses on both metacognitive and cognitive strategy instruction and its impact on Chinese EFL students' improvement in vocabulary learning. The present study aims to explore the relationship between strategy training and learners' vocabulary acquisition in the following four points:1. Whether and how does the strategy training affect learners' self-awareness of strategy use in vocabulary acquisition?2. Whether and how does the strategy training affect learners' efficiency to learn vocabulary?3. Whether and how does the strategy training affect learners' motivation in vocabulary learning?4. What is the learners' attitude towards this language learning strategy training? The strategy instruction program reported here covered selected metacognitivestrategies and cognitive strategies for vocabulary learning. Metacognitive strategies included 'selective attention' and 'self-initiation'. For cognitive strategies, 'guessing strategies', 'dictionary strategies', 'note-taking strategies', 'rehearsal strategies', 'encoding strategies' and 'activation strategies' were talked about. This language learning strategy training was conducted with fifty-one students in classroom hours,who were second-year English-majors at Peihua University, Xi'an. The training lasted five weeks. Data were collected through two questionnaire surveys and two vocabulary retention tests and processed by means of SPSS. A qualitative case study was carried out among four of the students to supplement the quantitative study. The main findings are as follows:Firstly, analyses of the vocabulary learning strategies used by the students before and after this training suggested that all the means of the strategies rose. And the means of some strategies such as metacognitive strategies, encoding strategies and activation strategies even rose significantly. This showed that the language learning strategy training could increase the learners' awareness of strategy use in vocabulary learning. Secondly, T-test of the two tests' results presented that the strategy instruction raised students' efficiency to learn vocabulary. Thirdly, the strategy instruction raised students' level of motivation for vocabulary learning, largely attributed to a boost in self-confidence as a result of an increase in perceived knowledge of strategies and good learning results. Fourthly, students took a positive attitude toward this training. On the whole, this language learning strategy training has yielded some useful findings which are believed to have implications for vocabulary learning and teaching.Although this study was designed carefully, there were still some limitations. Firstly, because of the conditional inconvenience, the participants were taken in two intact classes, and not chosen randomly. Secondly, the period of time this experiment took may be short?only five weeks. Thirdly, the efficiency to learn vocabulary was measured by two vocabulary retention tests which were given after two weeks' learning. The retention time was also limited.