Gender Differences In The Use Of FL Vocabulary Learning Strategies

Vocabulary is an essential part of language learning. Yet the significance of vocabulary learning has just been recognized in the past few decades. Meanwhile, the field pf second language acquisition (SLA) has seen a newly emerged interest in the study of language learning strategies. Appreciation of the importance of both vocabulary learning and language learning strategies has led to considerable research in each as well as in the place where they intersect — vocabulary learning strategies (VLS). But the problem is that most of the recent research on this subject has tended to be held in a small scale, and deal with some specific or small numbers of strategies. Large-scale and comprehensive research is scarce. On the other hand, the awareness of individual differences in SLA has recently given birth to another topic of discussion — the gender differences in language learning. And researchers have aimed to investigate how male and female learners differ in language learning tasks and strategy use. The author chooses the ground where the three areas meet — the gender differences in the use of vocabulary learning strategies as the theme of the present study, and try to find out the range, number, and the effectiveness of the VLS employed by male and female learners, and eventually detect, though hypothesis testing, whether significant gender differences exist in using VLS.This study is conducted on the theoretical basis of psycholinguistic theories of memory and information processing, since vocabulary acquisition is not a mechanical process, but rather a psychological or cognitive one, it involves the storage and retrieval of vocabulary in memory. Besides, information processing theory may provide proofs for the effectiveness of some strategies over others. Psycholinguistic theories of brain lateralization and sociolinguistic theories of gender differences and language are also quoted in the present study for the consideration that these theories may give support to the interpretation of gender differences in vocabulary learning and strategy use.The subjects in this study are selected from two major universities in Shijiazhuang city, Hebei Province. They are composed of 200 non-English majorsophomores (91 males and 109 females). The data collection methods are a questionnaire and a vocabulary size assessment paper. In the compilation of the questionnaire, the author follows Gu & Johnson's (1996) in combination with Fan Ling's (2002) framework, with an exclusion of the section of vocabulary learning beliefs. A 5-point Likert scale is adopted to measure the frequency of strategy use. The vocabulary size assessment paper consists of some 50 words selected from College English Curriculum Requirements (trial version) (2004). The subjects are asked to give a Chinese translation, or a synonym to each of the 50 target words. When the data are collected, they are processed by SPSS 12.0 for Windows.Through statistical analysis, the following conclusions are obtained: 1) gender differences do exist in the use of FL vocabulary learning strategies; 2) male subjects in all differ from females in their more frequent use of metacognitive strategies. More specifically, they report to make more frequent use of learner autonomy in metacognitive caegory, auditory plus visual strategy and acting out strategy in cognitive category; 3) females report to use more than males the immediate context guessing and note taking methods in cognitive category; 4) highly successful male subjects in vocabulary learning have more learner autonomy than females in the same achievement group; 5) no gender differences exist in unsuccessful group; 6) females in different achievement groups do not differ in using VLS; 7) males in different achievement groups vary significantly in the use of metacognitive strategies and cognitive strategies, with the highly successful male subjects reporting using more metacognitive strategies, including planning, learner autonomy and reviewing, and more cognitive strategies, especially association, grouping and affixes.On the basis of these findings, inferences might be drawn that gender differences may exist in language-related tasks. But through self-motivated effort, males, the comparatively weaker group, may still become prominent in this aspect. And female subjects seem to be comparatively much more traditional in using VLS, but they are proved to be more careful learners.After the conclusion, pedagogical implications are suggested that it is nessary to...