Research On Senior One High School Students’ English Vocabulary Learning Strategies

Vocabulary, which is the main carrier of information, is the basic unit of a language. Vocabulary learning is the key to learning English. English vocabulary is of such great importance that students spend a lot of time and energy on it. However, the result is not desirable. Therefore, vocabulary learning is considered to be a barrier and it is with such great difficulty that students learn English vocabulary. It is especially true for students who have just finished their junior high school and entered the senior high school. For students in this transitional period, a large vocabulary is what they first encounter and feel caught in. In addition, the new English Curriculum Standards for the senior high school makes great demands for the amount and the usages of vocabulary the students need to master.Based on the present situation, the paper investigates the use of vocabulary learning strategies by reviewing the relevant studies on language learning strategies and vocabulary learning strategies abroad and at home. The subjects of the study are110senior one middle school students form Nantong No.1Middle School of Jiangsu Province. By means of the questionnaire and interview, all the quantitative data are analyzed by SPSS. Several findings are revealed from the study. First, descriptive statistics show the overall pattern of students’ vocabulary learning strategies. Second, male and female students do not differ greatly in the use of vocabulary learning strategies. Besides, there are some differences between high proficient students and low proficient students. All in all, high proficient students use almost all the strategies more frequently than low proficient students.On the basis of the above findings, the author carried out this research in the experimental class on how to use some English vocabulary learning strategies and provides some suitable implications for vocabulary learning and teaching. First, teachers should help their students realize the importance of vocabulary learning strategies. Second, teachers ought to help students make use of metacognitive strategies such as making up their plans on vocabulary learning. Besides, teachers must be aware of the differences in the usage of vocabulary learning strategies according to different gender and proficiency, and provide a variety of instructional techniques to cater for the needs of different groups of students. Finally, students should make full use of various encoding strategies such as imagery, association, word-structure strategy and activation strategies such as putting words into practice.