A Study Of The Impact Of Vocabulary-Learning-Strategy Training On University Students

In recent years, it is increasingly recognized that the mastery of vocabulary is an essential component of second language and foreign language learning. Appreciation of the importance of vocabulary has led to considerable research in vocabulary learning, teaching abroad and in China. However, few studies in vocabulary learning strategies have been made for non-English-major freshmen at universities. So it is necessary to investigate the vocabulary learning strategies employed by these freshmen, find the insufficiencies and then train them some vocabulary learning strategies to improve their vocabulary learning skills.The subjects are 187 first-year non-English majors who responded to a Questionnaire on vocabulary learning beliefs and strategies based on O'Malley and Chamot's (1990) classification of learning strategies and with reference to Gu and Johnson's(1996). The statistical analysis reveals that word-formation strategy and association strategy which are the vocabulary-learning-strategy training contents are seldom employed among these freshmen. Through the vocabulary-test paper and questionnaire after the vocabulary-learning-strategy training, the result of the data by SPSS 17.0 indicates that1. The overall frequency of vocabulary learning strategies is not high, but merely around the medium level. Among the three broad categories of vocabulary learning strategies, metacognitive strategy is the most frequently used while the social/affective strategy is least frequently used and the frequency of cognitive strategy falls in between. Among the subcategories of cognitive strategies, repetition, inferencing and deduction are used at the highest level of frequency, while note-taking, word-formation and grouping are at the lowest level.2. Vocabulary-learning-strategy training helps the improvement of the application of vocabulary learning strategies. After training, the freshmen in the experimental group use these vocabulary learning strategies more frequently.Finally, after the discussion of the results, some helpful suggestions about vocabulary learning strategies are put forward in the hope of helping Chinese non-English major freshmen, especially those students, to improve their English study.