An Empirical Study Of Cognitive Vocabulary Learning Strategies Training For Senior High Students

Since the 1970s, researches and theories in the field of second language teaching and learning have gradually shifted from examining the methods of teaching to investigating the learning process. And many learning strategies have been identified and classified, among which, cognitive strategy, as one vital part of learning strategies together with vocabulary learning strategies have been obtained more and more attention. Mc.Carthy (1990) indicates,"No matter how well the students learn grammar, no matter how successful the sounds of second language are mastered, without words to express a wide range of meanings, communication in a second language just cannot happen in any meaningful way."From which, the importance of vocabulary can be seen.More and more research results come into being along with the development of researches on vocabulary learning strategies. However, there are few researches focusing on senior high students. Looking into the current situation of English teaching in China, the teachers lay much emphasis on the introduction of language knowledge while they seldom or never guide the students with learning strategies, thus the low efficient results can not be avoided. Training of learning strategies is considered an efficient way to solve such difficult problems. Just as the English Curriculum Criteria points out: strengthen learning strategy training, cultivate the students to form good learning habits and efficient learning strategies and lay a good foundation for their future development and lifelong study. However, it is hard to realize the aim that helping students develop efficient learning strategies in the process of English classroom teaching for senior high students on account of the shortage of practical methods and related textbooks and materials.The present research attempts to employ cognitive theory, explore the effects of vocabulary learning strategy training on learners'vocabulary learning performance and find effective ways to help senior high school students to achieve good results in their vocabulary learning so as to fulfil the purpose of the English Curriculum Criteria. The author first investigated the current situation of vocabulary learning strategies in Hebei Zhuozhou Senior High School. All the training covers selected cognitive strategies for vocabulary learning, three of which were chosen to be trained during a five–month project in the classes where the author was teaching. The instruments are two interviews, two vocabulary test papers, two examination papers and one questionnaire adapted from O'Malley and Chamot and Gu Yongqi. Data are collected and processed by means of statistic software SPSS.13.0.The study attempts to answer the following questions:1. What is the general situation of vocabulary learning strategies adopted by senior high students?2. What are the effects of vocabulary learning strategies to English achievements?3. What is the biggest difference in the use of vocabulary learning strategies between successful learners and less successful learners?4. What is the correlation between the vocabulary learning strategy training and the students'vocabulary learning efficiency?The research findings are presented as follows:1. Vocabulary learning strategies employed by senior high students are in the initial stage and it needs to be improved.2. One of the major factors that affects the students'English achievements is the using of English vocabulary strategies. It is effective to get the vocabulary learning strategies training embedded into everyday classroom English teaching.3. The biggest differences in the use of vocabulary learning strategy between successful learners and less successful learners lie in note-taking strategy and context–encoding strategy.4. There is a positive correlation between the vocabulary learning strategy and the students'vocabulary learning efficiency. The study achievements witnessed great improvement through vocabulary learning strategy training.