An Investigation Involving English Vocabulary Learning Strategies Of Non-English Major College Students

Vocabulary plays an important role in the English language learning, which is a really difficult one for foreign language students, especially for those college students, not majoring in English, to acquire vocabulary. How do non-English major college students use vocabulary learning strategies in their English learning? Therefore, helping students to adopt some ways of vocabulary learning and teachers to instruct students of different learning strategies respectively is the intention of the research. The thesis is mainly divided into five chapters. The first chapter deals with the rationale of this investigation, the importance of the vocabulary, non-English major college students'vocabulary learning and teachers'teaching vocabulary. The second chapter deals with major theories related to this study---learning strategy, Vocabulary Learning Strategy (VLS) and its classifications, and depth of processing of vocabulary. The third chapter is mainly about the methodology of the research. They are the research design (three stages), two main research questions, its subjects (242 second-grade students from Chang'an Institution attached to Xidian University) and the chief instruments (vocabulary learning strategy questionnaire, personal interview and observation). The questionnaire forms are handed out and collected by the English teachers concerned within the set time. Chapter four and five deal with the discussions, the data analysis and the conclusion. The results of the study indicate that 1) most of the participants lack the knowledge of vocabulary learning strategies; strategies calling for deeper cognitive processing are used less frequently than those that require only shallow cognitive processing; that 2) good students are different from poor students in using the meta-cognitive strategies and cognitive strategies and tend to use the vocabulary learning strategies efficiently and flexibly.Due to limited time, energy and resources, the study has only been carried out in a local university. It cannot reflect the college students'vocabulary learning strategy adoption fully. At the end of the dissertation, the author also makes some suggestions for college students in English vocabulary learning and for teachers in English teaching.