A Study Of Junior Middle School Student Vocabulary Learning Strategies

Since the 1970s,researches and theories in second language learning and second language teaching have shifted their attention from examining the methods of teaching to investigating the learners' processes of learning.Hence,many researches center on the investigating of learner's individual differences(belief,attitude, motivation,learning style,or learning strategies etc.).Learners' language learning strategies naturally become a focus in the great demand in the foreign language learning.Vocabulary acquisition is a fundamental step in foreign language teaching and learning.For most students in Chinese culture,however,vocabulary learning has been a headache and hinders the improvement of other skills.So,this research is aimed to discover the general tendency of the use of strategies in vocabulary learning process, and the effectiveness of various vocabulary learning strategies by contrasting more successful learners and less successful learners' strategy use between more successful learners and less successful learners in junior middle school.In this research,the writer uses O'Malley & Chamot's classifications of learning strategy as the basic framework.These are:cognitive strategies refer to 'the steps or operations used in problem-solving that require direct analysis,transformation or synthesis of learning materials' such as repetition,grouping,translation,imagery etc.;metacognitive strategies make use of knowledge about cognitive processes and constitute to regulate language learning by means of planning,monitoring,and evaluating;and social/affective strategies concern the ways in which learners elect to interact with other learners and native speakers i.e.working with on or more peers to obtain feedback,pool information or model a language activity and question for clarification.And the findings in this study show that junior middle school students do use some various strategies to enhance their retention while learning vocabulary in EFL. Among the three kinds of strategies,cognitive strategies are the most frequently employed ones;secondarily metacognitive strategies and social/affective strategies are the less commonly used ones.Additionally,the findings indicate the differences between the strategies-use of more successful learners and less successful learners. More successful learners use the three kinds of strategies more frequently and more elaborately than less successful learners.Besides,the findings also indicate that vocabulary learning strategies do co-relate with vocabulary size.This study has practical application value.It is of effectively meaningful to both the foreign language learning and teaching.