An Empirical Study On Vocabulary Learning Strategies Of Senior One Students

Language is the foundation of communication, while vocabulary is the base of language. However, English vocabulary learning, the most elementary part of English learning, is becoming a more and more tough problem for senior high school students, especially for grade one students. Because the quantity and difficulty of vocabulary in high school increase more significantly than that of junior school, it is necessary to find suitable vocabulary learning strategies to deal with this change.With 104 senior one students from Xinzhou High School as the subjects, the study is to explore the correlation between VLS and using vocabulary ability, VLS and English achievement. The experimental procedure lasts for 5 months which begins in September,2014 and ends in January,2015. During this period, a series of strategy straining takes place in experimental class after giving questionnaire, interview and vocabulary tests for subjects. The training results in the following findings:(1) Vocabulary learning strategies can be improved by training and strategy training can improve students’ability of learning vocabulary. Before training, the usage rate of vocabulary learning strategies of the senior one students is low, they especially prefer the strategy of repetition, and the usage rate of meta-cognitive strategy is also low. Senior one students utilize the vocabulary learning strategies more frequently after training. Besides, they can use the meta-cognitive strategy better. (2) The use of vocabulary learning strategies after training helps to increase students’vocabulary and promotes their English achievements, especially the middle level and academically poor students. (3) Permeating the training of vocabulary learning strategies in the classroom teaching has changed students’vocabulary learning concept, improved their vocabulary memory in a certain degree and enhanced students’ overall English level. In the end, the study further discusses its implications and gives suggestions for its future development.The thesis consists of five chapters. The key points of each chapter are as follows: Chapter 1, outline of the thesis, is the introduction part. It gives us a brief look at the social backgrounds, purpose and significance, organization of the thesis. From this part, we can find the research is necessary and significant. Chapter 2 is about the literature review. It mainly elaborates some concepts, theoretical foundation and correlative study on vocabulary learning strategies at home and abroad. Chapter 3 is about the research methodology, which includes the research questions, subjects, instruments, procedures. And chapter 4 is the training results analysis. It demonstrates the analysis results and states the major findings, presents the overall situation about the vocabulary learning strategies in Xinzhou senior high school. Chapter 5 is about the findings, implications and suggestions of the thesis.