A Study On English Vocabulary Learning Strategies Of Chinese Junior High EFL Learners

This study attempted to explore the overall pattern of English vocabulary learning strategies used by Chinese junior high school students and the training effects of two vocabulary learning strategies on their vocabulary acquisition. In the study, a questionnaire for vocabulary learning strategies was first developed and administered among 42 learners of a junior middle school. The data revealed the following findings on the students' beliefs in vocabulary learning and on their use of cognitive strategies: 1) Most investigated learners considered vocabulary learning as a monotonous, mechanical task and they seldom derived pleasure and sense of success. 2) Vocabulary learning strategies used by junior students were very limited, and among them, oral plus visual repetition, oral repetition, visual repetition and dictionary using predominated all learning strategies. However, some deep vocabulary learning strategies, such as word formation analysis, guessing strategies, the context strategies and imagery strategies and so on were seldom used. According to the result of this questionnaire, two vocabulary learning strategies (word form analysis and context guessing strategy) were chosen for a training experiment, which v/as the second phase of the research. 42 junior students were randomly divided into two groups and received one of the two learning-strategy instructions for four weeks. At the end of the training, a multiple-choice test was administered to...