A Comparative Study On English Vocabulary Learning Strategies Of Successful And Unsuccessful English Learners In Junior High School

With the deepening of China's internationalization, English, as one of the most popular international language, has been used more and more widely. Despite the increasing use of English, English learning difficulties for Chinese students, but has always been there. Especially in vocabulary learning,learning English is still difficult for Chinese learners. Middle school period, especially in junior high school, is the basic stage for students to develop their ability of listening, speaking, reading and writing. "No matter how well students are good at grammar and pronunciation, if they can't master the vocabulary, they can't make meaningful communication." (Wilkins, 1972). The study of vocabulary learning strategies can be effective in English vocabulary learning.Many researchers have made great contributions to the study of vocabulary learning strategies, especially the classification of vocabulary learning strategies. This study is mainly based on the classification of O'Mally&Chamot(1990) learning strategies, which mainly includes met cognitive strategies,cognitive strategies and social strategies. There is few research on vocabulary learning strategies between excellent learners and underachievers at home and abroad. A comparative study on the two groups can draw similarities and differences of strategy use in vocabulary learning, which can provide suggestions for adjustment for different groups of students in vocabulary learning strategies, appropriate ideas in vocabulary learning strategies training for teachers and new thinking in this field for researchers.This article will focus on junior high school students who are at the basic stage of learning English. This paper hopes to clarify the following four problems: What is the overall tendency of vocabulary learning strategies in junior high school students? What are the characteristics of vocabulary learning strategies in successful learners? What are the characteristics of vocabulary learning strategies in students with learning disabilities?What are the similarities and differences between the successful learners and underachievers in the use of vocabulary learning strategies?The object of this investigation are the students in three ordinary class from the second grade in a great junior high school in Wuhan .We select the the first 15 and the last 15 of the students of every class as the research object. The survey found that:Overall,the overachievers use the three kinds of strategies better; the underachievers use cognitive strategies more frequently than they use meta cognitive strategies and social/affective strategies. More specifically, the overachievers use context strategy,dictionary strategy and classification strategy more frequently. The underachievers use mechanical memory strategy and L1 strategies more frequently; The overachievers can summarize and adjust better than the underachievers in learning vocabulary and they can check and supervise their own learning better, etc.Through these conclusions, I draw the following enlightenment: According to thedifferent types of students,teachers should pay attention to use different methods of training; teachers should pay special attention to vocabulary teaching methods,establishing the idea of combining guidance and autonomy ; teachers should correct the wrong beliefs and learning strategies of the students; teachers also should make the most of students' subjective initiative in learning vocabulary.