An Action Research On Strategy-based Vocabulary Learning Instruction In A Vocational School

In the past 30 years,many studies have been carried out on learning strategy. Among the studies,vocabulary learning strategies(VLSs) have been paid great attention.However,study on VLSs instruction is not enough.Meantime,the difficulty in vocabulary learning has made vocational students feel frustrated in learning English.So the current study will focus on VLSs and VLSs instruction in a vocational school.The author reviewed the definition,classification of VLSs and VLSs instruction, and the effect of VLSs instruction on vocabulary learning.Based on prior study and the vocational students' need,strategy-based instruction was adopted to answer the questions.1) What VLSs(Vocabulary Learning Strategies) are used by vocational students before strategy-based instruction? And Why?2) What VLSs are not used by vocational students before strategy-based instruction? And Why?3) What are the most useful strategies for vocational students?4) Will the strategy-based instruction improve the vocabulary learning of vocational students?The present study took two classes in grade one in a vocational school as the subjects and a pretest was done to show they are at the same level.Then,the author used a questionnaire to find out the strategies they use and don't use and the experimental group underwent a 12-week strategy -based instruction.The other class is the control group.In the instruction,The author adopts 4-step model based on O'Malley & Chamot(1990)'s instruction model.The tour steps are preparation, presentation,practice and evaluation.A metacognitive strategy and a few cognitive strategies were carried out and tests after each strategy instruction were given to check whether the strategy-based instruction is effective.At last,a post questiormaire found out the most useful strategies.Here are the findings of the present study:1) Before instruction,rote learning is used in a much higher frequency than other strategies which indicats students lack learning strategies and need strategy instruction to improve their learning.2) Vocational students seldom use metacognitive strategies,cognitive strategies and social/affective strategies.Among them,Cognitive strategies are most frequently used and are followed by metacognitive strategies and social/affective strategies.3) Strategy instruction improves the students' vocabulary learning outcome.After instruction,the awareness of using strategy is increased and beliefs in vocabulary learning changes in a positive way.Guessing from the context,reviewing and test as well as gouping are used much more frequently and the tests indicate that experimental goup and comparative goup have significant difference after instruction.Students should keep using these strategies.4) The instruction in some strategies is not so effective.For word structure strategy, there is no significant difference between the two goups.Besides,word structure strategy and spelling rules strategy are not often used after instruction.This may lie in limited time and the complicated nature of them.So the time spent on these strategies according to the level of students should be considered carefully in future study.Rote learning strategy is still often used which shows that students still depend on it5) The most frequently used by vocational students are guessing from the context, note taking,rote learning,dictionary,reviewing and test and gouping.These strategies are used in a high frequency and are useful vocational students.So,they can be instructed to improve vocational students' learning.