A Study On English Vocabulary Learning Strategies For 6th Graders In Elementary Schools

Vocabulary plays a paramount role in the process of foreign language learning. But studies of the present English learning and teaching in Chinese primary schools reveal that the ways most of pupils learn vocabulary are haploid, time-consuming and low efficient, and that the teachers rarely provide guidance to pupils about vocabulary learning strategies. The facts mentioned above are the two major reasons that block the betterment of the pupils' results of English tests. The latest domestic and overseas studies show that the pupils who consciously apply learning strategies to their vocabulary learning often get their study efficiency immensely improved. The learning strategies involve the means, behaviors and procedures that the learners adopt in the foreign language learning to achieve some predictable effects. It's necessary for us to study how pupils learn English words, in order to determine the troubles they encounter and thus accordingly carry out the specific strategic training to help them out of the troubles. Based on the general situations of the senior graders, this thesis is devoted to the applications of English vocabulary learning strategies in the primary school teaching.In the research, a questionnaire has been issued to 176 pupils from the primary school attached to Changsha University of Science and Technology. Detailed analysis of the quantitative data leads to the following findings:(1) Most of grade-six pupils in the sampled school considered vocabulary learning as a monotonous, mechanical task and develop no sense of pleasure or success. (2) Students in the sampled school frequently use some of the cognitive strategies but seldom employ metacognitive or social strategies.(3) Strategies adopted by the learners are simple and concrete ones, among which oral visual repetition, oral repetition and the dictionary using predominate all learning strategies. But vocabulary learning strategies such as word-formation, contextualization and imagery strategies are seldom used.(4) Students with high vocabulary achievement have a better command over English vocabulary learning strategies than those with low vocabulary achievements.According to the results of the investigation, five vocabulary learning strategies were applied in a training program in which 87 students have been chosen as the subjects and divided into two groups: the experimental group and the controlled group. Detailed analyses of the qualitative and quantitative data results lead us to the following conclusion:(1) Vocabulary strategy trainings can enhance the learners' awareness of their vocabulary learning strategy;(2) The whole experimental group develops their vocabulary achievements;(3) Vocabulary strategy training improves the learners' performance in English tests because a large English vocabulary is the foundation of good results in English exams.Finally, the limitations of the current study are particularly mentioned with a view to improving the present thinking in further studies.