A Research On Relationship Between Chinese Vocabulary Development And Vocabulary Learning Strategies In Second Language Acquisition

Compared to grammar, vocabulary study in second language acquisition started late. As research developed, researchers found out that vocabulary consists of not only breadth but also depth. Unlike grammar, vocabulary learning exists at every stage of language acquisition. Even for high-level learners, vocabulary learning is still a main task. Vocabulary learning largely depends on self-learning and is closely related to vocabulary learning strategies. Now the amount of research on Chinese vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary learning strategies in China is relatively small, which means more research is needed. Therefore, it is necessary to study Chinese vocabulary knowledge and Chinese vocabulary learning strategies of foreign learners. This paper studies Chinese vocabulary breadth, depth and learning strategies of elementary and intermediate level foreign students who are not from sinosphere, using vocabulary tests and strategy questionnaires as tools. It aims to know Chinese vocabulary breadth, depth and their change, to investigate the using of Chinese vocabulary learning strategies and to explore the relationship between Chinese vocabulary knowledge and learning strategies.The research objects of this paper are elementary and intermediate level foreign students who are not from sinosphere in Nanjing University. Research tools include Chinese vocabulary tests and Chinese vocabulary learning strategy questionnaire. The vocabulary breadth tests are based on words from Outline of HSK. The vocabulary depth tests are based on VocabularyKnowledge Scale (VKS) of Wesche & Paribakht (1996). The vocabulary learning strategy questionnaire adopts classification of O’Malley & Chamot (1990). The questionnaire combines SILL of Oxford (1990) and questionnaire of Gu & Johnson (1996) and is revised according to characteristics of Chinese. This paper uses SPSS 17.0 to analyse data, mainly through methods of descriptive statistics, independent-samples T test, Mann-Whitney U test, Pearson correlation, Spearman correlation and regression analysis.The results show that:(1) The Chinese vocabulary size of intermediate-level students is medium and the Chinese vocabulary size of elementary-level students is small. Both the vocabulary size of elementary students and the vocabulary size of intermediate students are not sufficient. The Chinese vocabulary size of every grade for intermediate-level students is larger than that for elementary-level students. There exist significant differences in vocabulary size of every grade between the two groups.The growth and growth rate of total vocabulary size for intermediate-level students is far more than that for elementary-level students. There exist significant differences in growth of total vocabulary size and third grade vocabulary size between the two groups. (2) The Chinese vocabulary depth of in intermediate-level students is medium, and the Chinese vocabulary depth of elementary-level students is small, which shows a positive correlation between vocabulary depth and language level. The vocabulary depth of every grade for intermediate-level students is more than that for elementary-level students. There exist significant differences in vocabulary depth of every grade between the two groups.The growth rate of vocabulary depth for elementary-level students is more than that for intermediate-level students. (3) For elementary and intermediate level foreign students who are not from sinosphere, cognitive strategy is most frequently used, followed by social-affective and metacognitive. There exist significant differences in using of metacognitive and cognitive strategies between elementary and intermediate students. But there is no significant difference in using of social-affective strategy between the two groups. (4) Chinese vocabulary breadth and depth is in significant positive correlation to overall vocabulary learning strategies, metacognitive, cognitive and social-affective strategies. Overall vocabulary learning strategies can explain about 33.4% of Chinese vocabulary breadth and cognitive strategies can explain 31.5% of vocabulary breadth. Overall vocabulary learning strategies can explain about 30.1% of Chinese vocabulary depth and cognitive strategies can explain 25.2% of vocabulary depth. There is no significant correlation between growth of Chinese vocabulary knowledge and Chinese vocabulary learning strategies. (5) There exists significant positive correlation between Chinese vocabulary breadth and depth. Vocabulary breadth can explain about 73.2% of vocabulary depth in the first test and can explain 67.3% of vocabulary depth in the second test.Enlightenments from the analysis above:(1) Learners should use more metacognitive strategy and cognitive strategies that can help learners memorize vocabulary. Learners should put more emphasis on dictionary strategy and self-assessment strategy which are in significant positive relation to vocabulary depth. (2) Teachers should let students practice using vocabularies more in class. Teachers should emphasize the sense of using vocabulary learning strategies of students. Teachers should also help students find vocabulary learning strategies that suit them and teach students some vocabulary learning strategies. (3)Schools should offer courses related to Chinese characters, in which strokes, radicals and character structures are taught.