The Research On The Application Of English Vocabulary Learning Strategies Of The Tuition-free Normal Students Majoring In English

The importance of language learning strategies, especially vocabulary learning has been proven and emphasized worldwide. Language learning strategies researches have been proposed since the1980s. Learners’ language learning strategies are one of the key dimensions for successful language learning. EFL (English as a foreign language) should be taken not only as a subject in school, also a prerequisite essential competency in society. In China, the normal universities’ education system has a long history and plays an important role in cultivating highly professional middle school teachers. In2007, the State decided to implement free education in the normal universities directly under the Ministry of Education and established the corresponding system in order to attract outstanding students to normal universities, to encourage more outstanding young people to be teachers, and to promote education development and equity. There is no doubt that these tuition-free normal students performed excellently in the college entrance examination, therefore, they laid a pretty solid foundation in the previous years for their learning career in the universities. As for the English majors, even though they are excellent enough, they may find that effective learning strategies are quite critical in language learning. Vocabulary learning, as the foundation for English learning, is not so satisfactory sometimes. So they are eager to acquire some helpful vocabulary learning strategies not only for their own learning but also for guiding their future students to obtain good achievements with some strategies.There has been almost no research particularly for the tuition-free normal university students majoring in English, though more and more articles about the vocabulary learning strategies have been published these years. This paper researches the vocabulary learning strategies employed by tuition-free normal students majoring in English in Huazhong Normal University and the interrelationship between their learning strategies and their achievements. It is expected that investigation of the variables can reveal the influence on learners’ vocabulary development and subsequently provide some insights into both vocabulary learning and teaching. This is the cause why the author conducted this study.The three research questions addressed in the study are: 1What are the vocabulary learning strategies adopted by Chinese tuition-free normal students majoring in English? What are the most and least favorable beliefs and strategies?2Are there any interrelations between learners’ vocabulary learning beliefs and strategies and their vocabulary test achievements? If there are, what are they?3Are there any similarities and differences between successful learners and unsuccessful learners in their vocabulary learning strategies? If there are, what are they?The participants were59tuition-free normal students majoring in English in Huazhong Normal University. They were given a vocabulary test and a questionnaire concerning vocabulary learning strategies. Some of the participants were selected to have an interview afterwards.The study made the following findings.First, a descriptive analysis revealed that students are inclined to believe "vocabulary should be learned by use". In turn, the frequently employed strategies were: self-initiation, selective attention, dictionary strategies, note-taking strategies, contextual guessing strategies, repetition strategies and encoding strategies and so on; while the use of visual encoding was the least favorable one.Second, the correlation analysis showed that the dependent variable was positively correlated with "the words should be learned through use" belief as well as selective attention, self-initiation, contextual guessing, dictionary strategies, note-taking strategies, the use of word list and visual repetition. In the meanwhile, there is no correlation between the vocabulary learning achievement and oral repetition, association, visual encoding, semantic encoding, contextual encoding.Third, there is significant difference in the adoption of vocabulary learning strategies between advanced learners and poor learners. Advanced learners employed contextual guessing strategies, note-taking strategies more frequently as well as making good use of meta-cognitive strategies, while the poor learners were found to favor the rote memorization. Both tended to use dictionary strategies frequently.The findings of this study revealed that the development in vocabulary knowledge were dependent on how learners understand the essence of vocabulary learning and how frequently they use learning strategies especially those elaborated strategies (such as contextual guessing, note-taking and dictionary strategies). One implication is that it is advisable for them to try a variety of strategies in their vocabulary acquisition process and to overcome the difficulties in using these strategies so as to form a good vocabulary learning habit. And the other one is that it is useful for teachers to provide these tuition-free English majors with guidance on the use of a variety of vocabulary learning strategies and examples so that gradually they can use these strategies by themselves and can guide their future students in their vocabulary learning when they become teachers one day.