On The English Vocabulary Learning Strategies Of High School Students

This research is an empirical study of the vocabulary learning strategies of middle school students. One hundred and twenty students are selected as the subjects of the investigation. Before the investigation, an English vocabulary test is conducted among the 120 subjects to determine their vocabulary size and differentiate the high-scorers and low-scorers. Then a questionnaire about vocabulary learning and one about vocabulary learning strategies are used as instruments to investigate their use of vocabulary-learning strategies. After that, the data are analyzed with the statistic tool—SPSS version 11.5 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences), and the results are discussed. The research proves that the strategies used most frequently by middle school students are memory strategies, cognitive strategies and meta-cognitive strategies. The three strategies have an obvious effect on students' vocabulary learning. Therefore, it is suggested that vocabulary learning strategies should be taught in middle school English classes.The whole thesis is divided into six chapters.Chapter I puts forward the objectives and significance of the research.Chapter II discusses three major theories related to learning strategies and the history of the development of researches on vocabulary study strategies.Chapter III is mainly about the methodology of the research, the analysis of the data and conclusions.Chapter IV discusses the teaching of vocabulary in Chinese middle schools and how to apply the theories to the training of students in English classes. It is the key part of the paper.Chapter V is my reflections on the results of the experiment.Chapter VI draws conclusions, and points out the shortcomings of this research as well as a number of suggestions about further research on this issue.