A Study On The Frequency Of Use And Perceived Usefulness Of L2 Vocabulary Strategies

Since the 1980s, vocabulary learning research has become one of the most heated areas in the field of applied linguistics. At present, vocabulary is central to L2 learning research. Researchers in our country and abroad did a great quantity of researches on this and made great achievements. During the last decade, a new tendency of vocabulary learning research goes towards the theoretical exploration and empirical researches on L2 vocabulary deep processing knowledge. However, most of the articles and monographs on vocabulary learning strategies mainly speak from experiences, but lack introduction to theories abroad and empirical researches.This thesis is a study concerning the learning of English vocabulary by Chinese College English learners. The aims of the study were: a) to identify the strategies that are conductive to learning vocabulary in general and the strategies that are especially useful for learning high- and low-frequency words in particular, and b) to find out the discrepancies among the frequency of use, the perceived usefulness, and the actual usefulness of vocabulary strategies. The participants in the study were 119 fourth-year students from Qiqihar University. A vocabulary test and a vocabulary learning strategy questionnaire were used for data collection. This thesis focuses on the findings for the first aim. ANOVA and Multiple Regression were employed for data analysis. The analysis of data indicated that:a) Discrepancies exist between the frequency of use and perceived usefulness of vocabulary learning strategies. Results of one-way ANOVA indicated significant differences among the mean scores for the nine categories both in frequency of use and perceived usefulness. And although guessing strategies were often used by students, but not considered very useful;on the contrary, management strategies were perceived very useful, but seldom used.b) Students had a preference for dictionary strategies. The two categories of strategies most often used were guessing and known words whereas the three categories of strategies least often used were grouping, association, and management.c) The students in this study who were most proficient in English vocabulary used various kinds of strategies significantly more often than the less proficient students. The students who were less proficient in L2 vocabulary depended much more on repetition and association strategies in their learning;by comparison, the more proficient students used significantly more often both guessing and dictionary strategies in learning new words.d) Reviewing and using words newly learned, in particular, consulting the dictionaryare important to the learning of English words. In contrast, repetition and association strategies may not be useful for the learning of English words. Whereas, guessing strategies may be especially relevant to learning high-frequency words (3,000 word level), and exploring sources for encountering new words may be very useful to learning low-frequency words(5,000 and 10,000 word levels).The results of the study shed light not only on the strategy use of the Chinese English learners in general but also on the complicated relationships among how frequently strategies are used, how useful they are perceived to be, and how useful they actually are in enlarging the vocabulary of learners. Strategies relevant to the learning of L2 vocabulary as well as high- and low-frequency words are identified and their implications are thoroughly discussed.