A Study On Vocabulary Learning Strategies Of College English Majors

This paper reports on the study of strategy used by college English majors in vocabulary learning, the differences between good and poor learners in employing vocabulary learning strategies and the relationship between their strategies and learning outcomes. The use of vocabulary learning strategies was examined through questionnaire survey. One hundred and eleven third-year English majors in Jiaying College participated in the questionnaire survey. They were asked to complete a questionnaire and take a vocabulary test. The results of the study are analyzed through SPSS.Detailed analysis of the data has the following findings: (1) Chinese English majors employ a wide range of strategies to learn English vocabulary. Among the three dimensions of vocabulary learning strategies, cognitive strategies are the most frequently used, followed by social-affective strategies and then meta-cognitive strategies. Of all eighteen categories, guessing, Contextualization and word-formation are the chief types of strategies the participants used, while self-evaluation, planning and keyword strategies are the least often used.(2) The results of t-test indicate that there are highly significant differences between good learners and poor learners in use of vocabulary learning strategies. Good learners in this study employ a significantly higher use of meta-cognitive and cognitive strategies than poor learners. However, poor learners employ a relatively higher use of social-affective strategies, though the difference is not significant.(3) Pearson correlation analysis reveals that most vocabulary learning strategies are proved to be positively correlated with two learning outcomes - the vocabulary test and TEM 4.The present research provides some implications for English teaching. Firstly, awareness of strategy use, especially of meta-cognitive strategies, should be raised. Secondly, teachers should realize the importance of helping poor learners become autonomous learners who are able to build, expand and refine their vocabulary on their own.