Investigation Of Senior High School Students' Vocabulary Learning Strategies

Learning is a lifelong task for each person . Since 1960s, with the research into the field of second language learning and teaching, greater emphasis has been put on learners and learning rather than on teachers and teaching. Currently , a new round of elementary educational reform is being carried out all over China, which attaches great emphasis on developing students' awareness of using learning strategies. And the newly-issued National English Curriculum Standards (2003) definitely points out that "Helping students develop sound learning habits and form the effective learning strategies is an important task of English curriculum. In this way, students can not just adopt scientific learning methods and improve their learning abilities, but become the real master of their own learning, thus forming the ability of lifelong learning ". Vocabulary is the most important one of major components that constitute English language, and it is the foundation of any kind of communication. The new National English Curriculum Standards requires senior high school students to master more vocabulary than ever before and describes the vocabulary learning goals in detail. After three years' study in senior grades students are required to know about 3,300 words and 400-500 phrases and use them properly according to different ocassions.Undoubtedly, it is important to use learning strategies in vocabulary study. Do senior high school students apply the learning strategies in their vocabulary learning as the national English Curriculum Standards demands? Are there any associations between students' vocabulary learning strategies and their English language ability? Do students in different grades adopt vocabulary learning strategies differently?In reply to these questions, an investigation on vocabulary learning strategies was made, which was based on the study of theories on language learning, learning strategies and concrete vocabulary learning strategies at home and abroad. A questionnaire with 23 concrete vocabulary learning strategies, adapted from Wen Qiufang and Wu Benhu, was administered in May, 2008 to 345 senior high school students in 3 schools with different levels in Wenzhou. By using Excel and the principles of statistics, the data was analyzed. Therefore, certain conclusions are drawn in hope of providing some useful insights to the application of vocabulary learning strategies in English teaching and learning.