A Study Of Learning Strategy Of College English Vocabulary Under The Category Related Theories

As the basis of language learning, vocabulary takes a significant part in the fourlanguage skills including listening, speaking, reading and writing, as well as adifficult learning process or task for language learners all the time. Especially forChinese second language learners, who are mostly accustomed to recognizing andusing the Chinese hieroglyphic to remember vocabulary, it is difficult to find asuitable and effective vocabulary learning strategy to improve their English learningcapability, even more to enlarge their vocabulary size. Without a certain degree oflexical resources, language learning will be hindered for vocabulary learning decidesother aspects of language learning. Though most Chinese English learners havealready tried to perfect vocabulary learning strategies to improve vocabulary learningefficiency, result is far from ideal. Most language learners have been studying Englishin junior and senior high school. However, they still tend to use rote learning andother traditional methods in vocabulary learning, which center on linguistic forms.After they enter college, their efforts made for English learning get less and less. Dueto requirements for special majors or further study, like in foreign countries, somecollege students would spend more time on English learning just for the preparationof CET-4or CET-6or other forms of tests. In addition, lots of English teachers paylittle attention on systematic and in-depth vocabulary teaching and just teach studentsvocabulary for grammar, pronunciation and isolated meanings. As a result, all thetraditional vocabulary learning and teaching lead to huge waste of time on languagelearning.Since the1970s, many foreign scholars have studied on second languagelearning, such as O’Malley and Chatom, Atkinson and Rubin. And they have carriedout researches and work out some learning stategies like meta-cognitive method,cognitive method and social-affective method. Among those researches, there are many useful vocabulary learning strategies, such as keyword method related withnative language, association method used through creating a phrase or short sentencefor words to be easily memorized. Though they are studied by Indo-Europeanresearchers to be used for learning other Indo-European languages, those researchesare useful for Chinese second language or foreign learners. Series of studies inwestern countries show that students’ efficiency of vocabulary learning can beimproved after understanding and mastering vocabulary learning methods. Inspired bythe foreign researches, domestic scholars and researchers further study on theeffective methods used for improving vocabulary learning proficiency of collegenon-English majors. Nowadays, both in CET-4and CET-6and syllabus, vocabularyknowledge is obviously required to be tested. That’s to say, vocabulary learning is akey point for solving the difficulties in English learning and teaching, forimprovement of vocabulary learning efficiency is helpful to increase test score anddevelop students’ practical capability of English competence and performance.Domestic scholars such as Wen Qiufang, Shu Dingfang and Wang Wenyu haveput forward some viewpoints after some related studies, but vocabulary learningability of English learning students in college are not improved obviously, andteachers mostly do not have, or lack or find it difficult for them to offer studentsproper methods or strategies of vocabulary learning and memorizing effectively.Therefore, it is necessary and urgent to explore more applicable English vocabularylearning strategies. This thesis aims at getting to know more about difficulties thatexist in students’ vocabulary learning and what usual learning strategies are appliedby them, and then attempting to put forward some useful vocabulary learningstrategies or models in order to improve students’ vocabulary learning ability andefficiency through applying prototype category, basic-level category, and other relatedtheories into vocabulary learning, and this thesis also provides data and experience tosupport the fact that due attention should be paid to heightening English vocabularylearning, and meantime, tentative suggestions would be given for English vocabularyteaching.According to prototype category and basic-level category theory and other learning strategies, this study treats college non-English majors as participants andconduct an empirical experiment for the validity of vocabulary learning strategies ormodels which are obtained through applying category related theories into vocabularylearning. The participants from Changchun Normal University,60sophomores in total,are experimented for16weeks. According to domestic and foreign studies on learningstrategies and related category theories, the thesis uses questionnaire on theapplication of learners’ learning strategies, pre-test and post-test on Englishvocabulary knowledge. Computer program software SPSS is used for collected dataanalysis including mean value, sample T-Test, etc.What’s more, this thesis mainly tries to find out the answers to the following threeresearch questions.1) What is the current situation of English vocabulary learning strategies used byChinese college students?2) Does the application of category related theories have positive and efficientinfluence on vocabulary learning?3) What vocabulary learning strategies or models based on the category relatedtheories can be applied by college students to improve their English vocabularyacquisition?This thesis is mainly composed of five parts:The first part introduces background and purpose of the research, and frameworkof the thesis.The second part is literature review. It first introduces related category theoriesincluding from classical category to prototype category theory and from basic-levelcategory theory to superordinate and subordinate category theories. Then, it revealscurrent situation of college students’ English vocabulary learning, as well as theforeign and domestic studies on learning strategies and vocabulary learning methods.The third part is the combination of theories and its application. This part showsvalues of prototype and basic-Level category theories in vocabulary learning whichserves as the theoretical support for the following experiment.The fourth part is mainly related to the empirical research including research questions, hypotheses, participants, instruments and its purpose. Questionnairesbefore test, teaching process in the control and experimental classes, pre-test andpost-test, and SPSS software used for data analysis are all included in. At last of thischapter is the analyses of the experiment results and the summarizing, which arebased on the collected experimental data from questionnaires and pre-test andpost-test through SPSS.The fifth part is mainly the conclusion consisting of discussion of findings,implications and limitations of the empirical research with a concise conclusion, andpractical and feasible suggestions for the improvement of learners’ vocabularylearning strategies as well as English vocabulary teaching.The major findings after the statistics of experiment data are shown as follows:Firstly, students, in mostly traditional vocabulary learning process, tend to apply suchvocabulary learning strategies as rote learning, or word memorizing by spelling in aalphabetic order which are of low efficiency and bring about difficulties inenlargement of vocabulary. Secondly, in general, college non-English majors hardlymake use of learning strategies directed under category theories to support themselvesto improve vocabulary learning efficiency, and the ways of guessing word meaningthrough context and words association are unusually utilized. Thirdly, there exists asignificant difference in application of vocabulary learning strategies and final scoresof the tests between experimental and control classes after different vocabularylearning strategies are given to participants. Before the empirical stage, no differencedoes exist between vocabulary knowledge and English proficiency of students in twoclasses. After the empirical stage of vocabulary strategies training directed bycategory theories, difference get more and more obvious between the two classes invocabulary learning efficiency, memorization of basic-level, superordinate andsubordinate category words, and correct usage of vocabulary. Experimental classstudents more frequently use category theories to classify words and enlarge wordsquantity based on basic-level category theory, while the control class students still usebasically traditional methods to memorize vocabulary. What’s more, generallyspeaking, experimental class students are ready to apply category theories to learn more vocabulary besides those in the textbook. All in all, vocabulary learningstrategies or models based on the category related theories in this study can be appliedand proved to be more effective by college students on improvement of their Englishvocabulary acquisition.Based on the major findings, some implications have been proposed to suggestfor English vocabulary learning and teaching. Therefore, it is urgent for Englishteachers in college to develop students’ awareness of using vocabulary learningstrategies, especially under category theories to create enough opportunities topractice positive strategies effectively. In the regular English class teaching such asintensive reading, teachers should expound clearly what vocabulary strategies are,how those strategies can be used in their vocabulary acquisition to enhance theirefforts in vocabulary learning. In addition, teachers should also deliver lectures onlanguage learning strategies for students and let them make discussions after thelectures, which could make students share their learning strategies and experienceswith others.Actually, although some implications have been shown for college Englishvocabulary learning and teaching, the present study is still affected by somelimitations, such as the number and the range of the subjects not big enough, theexperimental time still a little shorter and some subjective factors. Thus, larger andwider samples, longer experimental time, more relevant instruments are suggested forthe future researches concerned with learning strategies, esp., vocabulary ones. It issincerely hoped that this study will attract more attention to the study of learningstrategies to improve English vocabulary learning in college and English vocabularyteaching quality.