An Empirical Study On Vocabulary Memory Strategy Training Among Students Of Independent College

Vocabulary is the basis of language, which plays an important part in languagelearning. Without sufficient vocabulary size, it is difficult to effectively accomplishvarious learning tasks, including listening, speaking, reading, writing etc. At present,vocabulary is still the biggest block in the whole process of English learning for themajority of college students of non-English majors. How to help students learn wordseffectively is of great significance, which has drawn great attention of more and moreresearchers. In1970s, the rapid development of cognitive psychology injected newenergy into stagnant language teaching. Thus there has been a great shift in the focusof language teaching from studying ‘how to teach’ to ‘how to learn’. A wealth ofresearch concerning language learning strategies has been conducted. In recent years,numerous studies in the field of VLSs and ST have been emerging and have achievedcertain accomplishments. In the previous study, some concrete VMSs have been paidless attention, and most studies have been focused on identification, classification anddescription of VMSs employed by students. In addition, there have been few studieson VMST for vocational students.In this study, the subjects are76vocational students in two classes from Xi’anInnovation College of Yann’an University. Two issues are explored: the currentsituation of application of VMSs; the influence of ST on the application of VMSs andoutcome of lexical learning. The research instruments adopted in this study arequestionnaire survey, vocabulary test and interview. Vocabulary memory strategyquestionnaire is based on O’Mally and Chamot’s theory of learning strategies and GuYongqi’s theory of vocabulary memory strategies. All the items are revised from Gu’squestionnaire (1994). SPSS17.0is used to analyze the collected data.At the outset of the study, the author conducts vocabulary memory strategiespre-questionnaire survey and vocabulary pretest. The results indicate that vocationalstudents can use a wide range of strategies to promote lexical memorization, while the overall frequency of application is still at a low level; repetition is the most frequentlyused strategy while grouping is the least frequently used one; there exist no significantdifferences between the two classes in the application of strategies and vocabularyproficiency level. After that, the author selects three least frequently used but effectivestrategies to train students in the experimental class. The strategies used in the trainingare grouping, word-formation and associating. After ST, the author conductsvocabulary memory strategy post-questionnaire survey and vocabulary post-test. Theresults indicate:1. The consciousness of strategy use is reinforced among students inexperimental class and the overall frequency of application of strategies increases.There exist significant differences between the two classes in the application ofgrouping, associating, word-formation and activation. The application of strategiesbefore and after training changes greatly in the experimental class and there existsignificant differences in the application of three trained strategies. However, there isno change in the application of strategies in the control class.2. The score ofvocabulary post-test improves greatly in the experimental class after training and thereexists significant difference between the two classes in the post-test. For theexperimental class, there exist significant differences in the two tests. However, thescores of the control class in the two tests remain same. The outcomes of researchprove that ST does exert positive effect on the application of VMSs and lexicallearning.3. According to the interview, the majority of students support ST andbelieve that it is beneficial to their lexical learning. Finally, the author proposes someimplications for lexical teaching and learning of vocational students.