A Study On Vocabulary Learning Strategies For Non-English Majors

It is well known that vocabulary plays a very important role in language learning because it is the core of a language and vocabulary learning is central to language acquisition. Yet, the studies of vocabulary learning and vocabulary learning strategies have long been neglected. The learners' vocabulary learning strategies refer to specific techniques, methods or behaviors that the learners use to improve their progress in acquiring the target language.Research on vocabulary learning strategies commenced in the 1970s. Most of the study in this field focused on the techniques, methods or behaviors that the "successful" learners used to improve their progress in acquiring the target language. Based on the findings of some researchers, the study is intended to probe into non-English majors' vocabulary learning strategies application by investigating 300 sophomores from three universities through a questionnaire. The questionnaire is adapted from Gu & Johnson's (1996). Vocabulary learning strategies are divided into three levels. They are metacognitive, cognitive and social/affective. The analyses of the data via SPSS show that: (1) The participants tend to view vocabulary learning as a monotonous and mechanical task and from which they can derive no sense of pleasure and sense of success;(2) They employ the strategies at metacognitive, cognitive and social/affective levels, but only the metacognitive strategies are comparatively frequently used, the next two are less used;(3) A large number of students believe that context and practice assist vocabulary learning, but rote learning or simple rehearsal is still the mainly used vocabulary learning strategies. The main reason lies in the lack of guidance of vocabulary learning strategies from the teachers;(4) The rank order of the most frequently used vocabulary learning strategies at cognitive level is dictionary strategies, guessing strategies, memorization strategies and note-taking strategies. They seldom use social activity, plan-making and plan-implementing, reviewing and testing, etc. But these are very important for the retention of vocabulary.Based on the findings, the researcher advances some tentative suggestions to resolve the problems. They are as follows:Teachers should adopt diverse vocabulary strategies to arouse students' interest in vocabulary learning. For example, teachers can combine direct vocabulary instruction with the indirect ones in arranging the vocabulary instruction in class. Teachers should introduce some effective vocabulary learning strategies to their students, such as dictionary strategies and guessing strategies. Teachers also should give instructions on the actual application of them for the purpose of employing them more effectively. Teachers' vocabulary instruction should involve the aspects of teaching the words' pragmatic and cultural connotations, which makes students' vocabulary knowledge more comprehensive. We suggest learners use various vocabulary learning strategies during their vocabulary learning process. Encouraging the learners to reflect on their own practice for vocabulary learning can help them realize the effectiveness of some strategies and then use them in their learning. A student should plan and manage the whole learning process consciously, he should approach the learning and retention process of vocabulary with the proper strategies to himself. The researcher also suggests that some measures should be taken to isolate individual variables and investigate the importance of the employment of specific strategies in a more controlled and systematic way in further studies. More than one factor may influence vocabulary learning except vocabulary learning strategies. As to other factors that may affect vocabulary learning, such as, intelligence, language proficiency, personality and so on, further studies need to be carried out in the future. Last but not the least, In future research, the best way to observe the development in one's language acquisition would be a longitudinal one, that is to say, to follow a group of subjects for at least one or two years and conduct experiments at different stages.After that, some specific mnemonic vocabulary learning strategies are put forward and analyzed in order to investigate the reasons for their popularity. Theresearcher illustrates these vocabulary learning strategies and gives instructions on the actual application of them. It is hoped that these specific mnemonic vocabulary learning strategies can be beneficial for both the learners and teachers. Although this study was designed carefully, there were still some limitations. For instance, the data collected are from the learners' self-assessment, so it is hard to know the learners' vocabulary learning strategies use in a completely objective way. Furthermore, the design and construction of the questionnaire remain insufficiently scientific. Anyway, the study is done full of care and it is hoped that the result can be beneficial for future vocabulary learning and teaching.