An Investigation Of Vocabulary Learning Strategies Employed By Non-English Major Sophomores

Vocabulary has been regarded as essential to foreign language learning; withoutadequate vocabulary, learners may find many difficulties in learning andcommunication. In the past decades, many studies have been conducted on vocabularylearning strategies (VLS), with an aim to facilitate vocabulary acquisition. They haveyielded insightful yet not consistent results. Therefore, Stern (1999: 412) called for"further research in different social contexts, under different language learningconditions, at different age and maturity levels, and at different levels of proficiency."This study probed into 182 non-English majors' use of vocabulary learningstrategies. They were second-year students from eleven departments in JiangxiNormal University. It adopted both quantitative and qualitative method to elicit thedata. The present questionnaire adapted from Gu & Johnson's (1996) and thevocabulary size test made by Nation were employed to gather data. With the help ofSPSS 17.0, descriptive analysis, independent sample t-test and correlation analysiswere conducted and used to analyze the data generated by each research question. Inaddition, a semi-structured interview was done among eight learners to know moreabout their use of VLS and to give support to the quantitative results.The results found by the current study indicated: (1) The subjects used most ofstrategies at a medium level, with contextual guessing strategies at the highest end ofthe frequency scale and activation strategies at the lowest end. The results areconfirmed again by eight interviewees, who claimed that they like guessing activitiesmost. (2) Successful learners scored higher than less successful ones in vocabularysize test, and they use a greater number of cognitive strategies more frequently thanless successful ones. (3) Female participants were found to outperform their malecounterparts in vocabulary size. However, female students make insignificantly moreuse of cognitive strategies than male students. (4) At meta-cognitive level, self-initiation and selective attention are positively correlated with vocabularyachievement at the 0.05 and at the 0.001 level respectively. At the cognitive level,most of VLS are positively correlated with vocabulary proficiency apart from thestrategy of contextual guessing.In all, this study not only made us understand vocabulary learning strategiespractice of Non-English major learners comprehensively, but also provided somevaluable implication for both vocabulary learning and vocabulary teaching in Englishas a foreign language (EFL) context. Firstly, as to language learners, they shouldrealize that the integration of meta-cognitive and cognitive strategies is a reasonableapproach in learning words; and they should choose appropriate strategies accordingto their differing proficiency level and gender. Secondly, with regards to languageteachers, they should create more opportunities for students to experiment withdifferent VLS, making each student a good learner in learning vocabulary, and keepindividual difference in mind and teach every VLS accordingly.