Application Of English Vocabulary Learning Strategies To Senior High School In Underdeveloped Areas-a Case Study

Vocabulary is the foundation of English learning. Yet the situation of vocabulary learning in senior high school is far from optimistic. Small vocabulary has become a main obstacle that influences students'improvement of English learning. Many students started learning English with great passion but with more and more challenges they meet, they gradually lose the confidence as well as the interest in English. Affected by traditional teaching idea, teachers have not paid enough attention to vocabulary learning. They are reluctant to do much vocabulary teaching in class because they think vocabulary teaching is time-consuming. Therefore, the task of memorizing vocabulary is left to students who do not have much knowledge about vocabulary learning strategies. As a result, low efficiency of vocabulary learning has become a problem perplexing both teachers and students.In some relatively underdeveloped areas, things are worse. With the limitations of the local education resources, it is more difficult to make improvement in vocabulary learning. Therefore, it is necessary to select some effective vocabulary learning strategies in accordance with the special situation of the local area.The present study focuses on the vocabulary learning strategy training, based on the researches both abroad and at home. A 14-week training experiment was conducted in accordance to the practical teaching situation. Some strategies were selected and integrated into the three stages of vocabulary learning:presentation, revision and application. The research attempts to find out the effect of the vocabulary learning strategy training on students'vocabulary learning efficiency.The subjects of the experiment were 137 Senior Grade One students from No.4 Middle School, Gansu Province, in which 67 of them were experimental group from Class 4 and 70 were control group from Class 3 who received traditional vocabulary teaching. The instruments involved in the study were:a questionnaire before the training, interviews before and after the training, pre-test and post-test for evaluation of students' vocabulary level. The analysis of the results of the experiment proves that the vocabulary learning strategy training does improve the vocabulary learning of the senior middle school students in the underdeveloped area.