An Investigation Into The Use Of English Vocabulary Learning Strategies Of Senior High School Students

Since the1970s, researchers in western countries began to shift their emphasis of study from "how to teach" to "how to learn" in the field of Second Language Acquisition. Influenced by the shift, many domestic researchers started to analyze the study process of language learners. Among the studies, learning strategies were paid attention to widely. Meanwhile, The National English Curriculum Standard also requires that senior high school students should explore their study potential, form effective strategies and enhance their autonomic learning abilities.Vocabulary, one element of language, embodies students'language learning ability directly. It is of great importance in the process of language learning. The New Curriculum Standard Exam Outline in2012(Henan province)lists3500words that senior high school students should master, which are far more than2000words required by previous Curriculum Standard Exam Outline(2007). So it is imperative for high school students to learn English vocabulary efficiently. This research aims at answering two questions as follows:①What vocabulary learning strategies do students often use in senior high schools?②What are the differences in the use of vocabulary learning strategies between efficient students and less efficient students?This paper chooses100students in Yanjin No.1Middle School and makes a research into the vocabulary learning strategies used by them through questionnaires, class observation and individual interviews. The author collects98valid questionnaires. After analyzing the data carefully, the author finds:①Among98subjects,77students think vocabulary should be learnt by practicing rather than rote learning.②The strategies used most frequently by the98participants are guessing and dictionary strategies.③In the questionnaire, the average scores got by efficient students in using meta-cognitive strategies, cognitive strategies and social strategies are3.74,4.11,2.45.While the less efficient students respectively got2.66,2.74,1.23.This data contrast shows efficient students tend to use a variety of strategies to learn vocabulary. At the meantime, through class observation and interviews, the author carries out a further investigation into the use of vocabulary learning strategies among efficient students and comes to a conclusion.This study consists of five chapters. Chapterl introduces the research background and the purpose of the research in the part of introduction. In the literature review, the author introduced the domestic and foreign researches of learning strategies. In the design part, the author describes the research questions, the research objectives, the research methods, research procedure and the collection of data, etc. Then in chapter four, the data is analyzed and discussed. At last, the author puts forward the main findings of this study and the enlightenment on vocabulary learning.