EFL Vocabulary Learning Strategies: A Study Of English Majors At Guizhou University

Vocabulary learning is central to language acquisition since it is the fundamental element of every aspect of the target language acquisition. Studies on vocabulary learning strategies from different aspects have been carried out and some significant achievements have been obtained in the past 20 years.But most studies on vocabulary learning strategies focused on the vocabulary learning strategies used by learners and the relationship between the frequency of use and the perceived usefulness of the strategies was often neglected. Furthermore, most studies examined strategies for learning vocabulary in general and few for learning high- and low-frequency words in particular. Based on the prior researches, the present researcher made a study on the use of English vocabulary learning strategies of English majors at Guizhou University by utilizing both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The aims of the present study are twofold: (a) to identify the strategies that are conducive to learning vocabulary in general and the strategies that are especially useful for learning high- and low-frequency words in particular, and (b) to look at the discrepancies among the frequency of use, the perceived usefulness, and the actual usefulness of vocabulary learning strategies.The participants under study were 86 second-year English majors at Guizhou University. Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire, focus group interviews and Vocabulary Levels Test were used for data collection. As for the quantitative study, data were collected from the questionnaires and the vocabulary tests and then put in the SPSS. And one-way ANOVA and Stepwise Multiple Regression were used for analysis. As for the qualitative study, ten students were interviewed.The findings of the study indicate that the students employ a wide variety of strategies, of which guessing and dictionary strategies enjoy the most reputation while association and management strategies get inadequate attention. The study also sheds some light on the complicated relationships among the frequency of use, the perceived usefulness, and the actual usefulness of English vocabulary learning strategies. There is not always an agreement between the frequency of use and the perceived usefulness of strategies. It can be noted that the mean scores of all categories are higher in the perceived usefulness than in the frequency of use, except repetition. And there is also discrepancy among individual strategies in the two variables. The potential reasons for the discrepancies are lack of strategic knowledge, misunderstanding of the vocabulary learning, uncertainty about guessing and influence of Chinese English educational system. The study indicates that the most proficient students in English vocabulary use various kinds of strategies significantly more often than the other two groups. They have a plan for vocabulary learning, and create more chances to encounter vocabulary in class and after class. They are more skillful in looking up a dictionary and apply the newly learned words more often. The study has identified different strategies that are especially relevant to the learning of different frequency of words. Dictionary strategies are conducive for vocabulary learning at all frequency-level words, guessing and activation strategies are especially useful for learning high-frequency words, analysis strategies are helpful for learning academic words and using various sources for studying low-frequency words.The findings of the present study suggest that students should employ a variety of strategies in their English vocabulary learning, regulate their learning process and consciously apply the newly learned words. And it also suggests that teachers should help students see the significance of strategy use in English vocabulary learning, introduce them to the strategies used most often by the most proficient vocabulary learners and, most important, encourage them to develop their own effective strategies in vocabulary learning.