Action Research On Instructing Vocabulary Learning Strategies To An English Underachiever In Senior2

Vocabulary is undoubtedly important in language study. It" s the basis for the development of the five skills:listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation. The criterion of English course in senior middle school makes great demands on vocabulary in language studies, while vocabulary is believed to be the biggest obstacle in students’English learning. Some researchers realize the importance of vocabulary learning strategies, and make some researches on vocabulary learning strategies. However, most related studies are limited to college students. Less research has conducted about vocabulary learning strategies to senior high school students, especially to the English underachievers.Faced with such background, this study was based on O’Malley and Chamot’s (1990) classification of language learning strategies. According to O’ Malley and Chamot, language learning strategies are divided into three groups:meta-cognitive strategies, cognitive strategies and social/affective strategies. This study was designed to undergo a twelve-week vocabulary learning strategies(VLS) instruction to an English underachiever in senior two, with a particular purpose to improve the effectiveness of his vocabulary learning. Therefore, this thesis tries to answer the following two questions:(1) Does the instruction of vocabulary learning strategy affect the research subject’s beliefs on the vocabulary learning?(2) Can the instruction of vocabulary learning strategy improve the effectiveness of the research subject’s vocabulary learning?The theoretical framework adopted in this study is based on constructivism and deep processing theory. Two research designs are employed in this study, quantitative and qualitative designs. For quantitative part, a questionnaire and vocabulary tests are designed. In the questionnaire the author investigated the research subject’s vocabulary learning at beliefs, meta-cognitive, cognitive and social/affective levels. For qualitative part, interviews are made to collect information.The data and information were analyzed and generated the following results:Firstly, after the twelve-week instruction of VLS. the subject’s beliefs about vocabulary learning have changed, that is to say, he is more confident in his vocabulary learning. Before the instruction, the subject thought vocabulary learning was just a kind of rote-learning; after the instruction, the subject realizes that a lot of vocabulary strategies can be employed to learn vocabulary. He is able to employ more strategies about how to grasp and remember the new words of target language than ever.Secondly, the comparison of the results of pre-test and post-test and the subject’s answers to the interviews show that the subject’s effectiveness in vocabulary learning improves as a result of VLS instruction.Thirdly, effective vocabulary learning strategies help the subject make much progress, and understand that vocabulary learning is not a simply boring and time-consuming process as long as he adopts proper strategies. Besides, good learning habits can also compensate for the lack of memory ability.Some implications yielded from this study are as follows:teachers should pay more attention on the underachievers and arm them with proper learning strategies. The underachievers should be provided chances to put the learning strategies into practice. It is also important to cultivate the students’learning autonomy.