High School Students Cognitive Strategies In Vocabulary Learning

Vocabulary is the building material of language and the "cell"of the culture carried by language. In recent years, vocabulary learning strategies have drawn an increasing attention in China. Researchers home have done considerable work in this field. But the present studies are confined to college students: undergraduates or graduates, English majors or non-English majors. (Wen and Johnson, 1997;Wu Xia,Wang Qiang, 1998; Wang Wenyu , 1998). Up to now, few researches have investigated the vocabulary learning strategies used by senior high school students in China. As Wen and Wang(2004) have commented that the area of learning strategies research in middle school is still in an embryonic state.The study mainly employs the questionnaire method, some subjects are also chosen for in-depth interview. The questionnaire adopted is based on O'Malley&Chamot's(1990) learning strategies classification in combination with Gagne,Weinstein and Mayer's description and classification of cognitive strategies. 229 students in An Hui Tianchang Middle School participate the questionnaire survey. Descriptive statistics analysis of SPSS10.0 are applied to analyse the relative data. With the help of quantitative and qualitative analysis,the study tries to answer the following four questions: 1.What is the vocabulary learning belief held by the senior one students? 2.What is the vocabulary learning cognitive strategy use profile? 3.Is there any difference in the use of vocabulary learning cognitive strategies between male and female? 4.Is there any difference in the use of vocabulary learning cognitive strategies between high-proficience and low-proficience learners?The main findings of the research are as follows: 1.Compared with Repetition belief, Contextualization and Practice beliefs are more favoured; 2.Among the vocabulary learning cognitive strategies investigated, Note-taking strategies are the most frequently used, followed by Repetition,Practice,Dictionary Use,Contextualization,Guessing,Preview,Association,Grouping strategies. 3.Slight gender difference is shown in the use of vocabulary learning cognitive strategies. Female learners tend to use more strategies to learn vocabulary 4.Compared with high-proficient students, low-proficient students favour those less-complexed cognitive strategies, and they often employ certain strategies for convenience.The results of the study, which are in accordance with some studies home and abroad, can partly shed light on the vocabulary learning strategy profile by senior high school students in China.The author attempts to analyse the reason of the result.At last, it is suggested that what should be done in cognitive strategy training from infiltration angle. The author also puts forward the matters which need to be paid attention to in the cognitive strategy training process.