A Study Of Chinese Middle School Students' Vocabulary Learning Beliefs And Strategies

Vocabulary is widely acknowledged as a key component of second language proficiency, making it a logical target of studies on how language is acquired. With the increasing importance attached to the learner-centered approach to language teaching, the strategies employed by successful or proficient language learners have become the focus of attention among teachers and researchers. The study reported here examined the vocabulary strategies used by Chinese middle school students with quantitative and qualitative methods. The aim of the research was to find out: (a) the category and frequency of vocabulary beliefs held and strategies employed by Chinese middle school students, (b) the difference between male and female students in vocabulary test scores, belief and strategy use, (c) the difference between high-proficiency and low- proficiency students in vocabulary belief and strategy use, and (d) the relationship between strategy use and Chinese traditional learning style. The participants in the quantitative part included 79 senior students from Nanjing No. 9 Middle School. A vocabulary test and a vocabulary learning strategy questionnaire were used for data collection. In the qualitative part, four students were surveyed through interviews. The quantitative part was input into the computer and analyzed with the software Excel and Spss. The interviews were recorded and transcribed for analysis.The major findings of this research are as follows:1. The present study indicates that Chinese middle school students have changed the traditional belief that learning word is just memorizing. They have realized it is important to learn words through use, but most of them still use rehearsal strategies in practice. In any case, Chinese middle school students are developing their own learning strategies.2. The present study demonstrates that vocabulary test scores are related to gender, which is a great difference from the findings of the previous studies. But thisresult will vary when learners are growing up. There is no significant difference found in beliefs related to gender. Females are observed in the present study to show greater use of extended dictionary strategies, word-structure and contextual encoding strategies. On the other hand, males are found to use association strategy significantly more often than females in the present research.3. This study shows the use of strategies can improve the vocabulary proficiency given that high-proficiency students use strategies significantly more often than the low-proficiency students. These students are found more inclined to accept that words should be learned through use and using more self-initiation, contextual guessing, dictionary, note-taking, encoding strategies than the less proficient students.4. The evidence of the interview reflects other aspects related to vocabulary learning such as the teaching method, the family background and Chinese traditional learning style.The evidence in the study supports that it is important to review and consolidate the newly learned words after the initial handling. Students at different stages differ in the learning styles, habits, features and so on. Teachers may need to introduce different strategies to different students and encourage them to use these strategies in their learning instead of emphasizing the test scores. On the other hand, not all the strategies regarded useful are necessarily advantageous to any student. Students should be informed to develop the strategies most adapted to each of them and use these strategies in a well-organized system, the most effective grouping. Middle school learning is a primary stage ready for college study. The proficient employment of learning methods proves to be more beneficial to the future college study.