A Research On English Vocabulary Learning Strategy In Junior High School

As is known to us all, vocabulary plays a significant role in language learning process and it is an integral part of the three components(pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar) of language. Wilkins(1972) once stated about vocabulary “without grammar we can convey little things, without vocabulary we can convey nothing”. Vocabulary learning is a complex but boring process. Vocabulary learning is one of the basic problems in English learning process for students to deal with. Teachers and students all know that vocabulary is one of the indispensable components of the language system, but English teaching and learning are considered to be more time consuming, and learners get less reward.Many researchers have turned their interest into vocabulary learning strategies in the former studies, but most of their research subjects were college students or adults learners,few were junior high school students. In order to give suggestions for the English learning of junior high school teachers and students, the author conducts a survey on English vocabulary learning strategies in junior high school. The author tries to work out which kind of English vocabulary learning strategies are more popular and which kind of strategies are unwelcome in junior high school. And then she wants to work out the differences of using vocabulary learning strategy between high-score students and low-score students. At last, the author wants to test the effectiveness of vocabulary learning strategy training. In the thesis, the author uses two questionnaires and two vocabulary tests which are adopted for quantitative analysis though SPSS 17.0 to sums up the use of vocabulary learning strategy by junior high students. The author hopes that the findings and measures she puts forward after her research will help students conquer the difficulties of learning English vocabulary and cultivate their learning confidence. The following three questions are answered in the paper:1) What’s the current situation of English vocabulary learning strategy use in JuniorHigh School?2) What are the differences in using vocabulary learning strategies between high-score students and low-score students?3) What’s the relation between the students’ using vocabulary learning strategies and theirvocabulary achievements?In September, 2015, the author began to conduct the vocabulary learning strategy training in Qingdao Tongji Experimental School. Two intact classes taught by the author in this school participated the study. All the subjects were grade 8, 102 in total. This study investigates the current situation of using vocabulary learning strategies by junior high school students and the effectiveness of vocabulary learning strategy training. Besides,the differences of using vocabulary learning strategies between the high-score students and low-score students are also included. The following parts give us a general description:1. Junior high school students use different kinds of vocabulary learning strategies in their English learning process. This finding is not correspond with the popular opinions raised by foreign and domestic researchers that Chinese learners learn vocabulary by using rote memory strategy. However, the frequency of vocabulary learning strategies use by junior high school students is at medium level. It can be concluded that most of them may do not form their own ways in learning vocabulary properly. Especially, the students are negative in using some sub-cognitive strategies. That is to say, many students have little awareness of grouping strategy, contextualized strategy, association strategy and word-structure strategy.2. High-score students and low-score students differ greatly in using meta-cognitive strategies and cognitive strategies as well as meta-cognitive strategy. As to the strategies such as self-evaluation strategy, visual repetition strategy, contextualized strategy,practice strategy, guessing strategy, association strategy and note-taking strategy, the frequency of high-score students is much higher than low-score students. But in the use of written repetition strategy and cooperation strategy, the differences between the two groups are obviously small. To sum up, compared with low-score students, high-score students make better use of vocabulary learning strategies. But the low-score students prefer to turn to others for help and cooperate with them when they meet difficulty in learning process while high-score students use cooperation strategies less frequently.Besides, the high-score learners often use meta-cognitive strategies to monitor their process of learning.3. The vocabulary learning strategy training has a greatly positive effect on students’ English learning. After training, students in experimental class make a great process in vocabulary learning compared to control class to some extent. So it can be concluded thatvocabulary learning strategy training can stimulate students’ English interest and improve their English scores in learning process. It is urgent and necessary for teachers to guide students make full use of vocabulary learning strategies to improve their learning abilities.In the end of this paper, the author puts forward some implications and suggestions on the meta-cognitive strategies and some sub-strategies of cognitive strategies as well as social/affective strategies, which she hopes that it can help teachers and students in the English vocabulary teaching and learning in the future.