An Investigation On English Vocabulary Learning Strategies Of Senior High School Students

The author has been teaching English in a common senior high school for more than three years. From her own teaching experiences, she finds that the efficiency of the senior high school students’ memorizing English words is far below. Vocabulary is the basic element of a language and of critical importance to language learners. As Wilkins says: “Without grammar, very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed.”Vocabulary is the basic unit in language learning. Without vocabulary verbal communication is equal to impossible. And a language learner with a poor vocabulary may find it difficult to read and write well, hard to understand what others speak and fail to speak correctly and idiomatically. However, English vocabulary learning is a difficult task for Chinese learners.Researches show that adequate and effective vocabulary learning strategies can facilitate vocabulary learning.The learners’ knowledge of words is also very important in developing and improving their reading ability, in promoting and fostering listening comprehension. So learners should expand their knowledge of words as much as possible in order to communicate effectively in foreign language. It is of vital necessity for teachers to be aware of the usage among students studying in senior high school and have an idea of how effectively they choose their earning strategies in vocabulary learning.Concerned with the overall pattern of vocabulary learning strategies used by the Senior One students, the study mainly attempts to address the following two key research questions:the general usage by senior high school students; the different employment of vocabulary learning strategies between male subjects and female subjects and also the high-proficiency subjects and low-proficiency subjects. The author investigated the current situation of vocabulary learning strategies in a senior high school in Renqiu Number One Middle School,making a survey of two classes--one key class and one ordinary class according to the English proficiency. The instruments are one questionnaire which is designed based on the framework of O’Malley and Chamot and one vocabulary test paper.Several findings are revealed from the present study. Firstly, students employ various strategies to learn English vocabulary, but most use them at medium level. The morefrequently used strategies are note-taking, guessing, imitating and repetition strategies: and the least used strategies are grouping strategies. Secondly, most senior high school students believe that words should be learnt in use and context. Thirdly, male and female students differ greatly in the use of cognitive strategies. Fourthly, high proficient students use almost all the strategies more frequently than low proficient students. Finally, many vocabulary strategies have correlation with the students’ vocabulary achievement.