An Investigation On English Vocabulary Learning Strategies By Junior Middle School Students At Different Proficiency Level

English as an important international language,is the carrier of the world's science,technology,economy and cultural exchanges.With the development of society and economy,English plays an essential role in school and daily life.However,vocabulary as the basis of English learning,the amount of vocabulary and the ability to apply vocabulary are closely related to English level.English Course Standards for Compulsory Education(2011 edition)puts forward the objectives and explanations of vocabulary teaching.Teachers and students generally believe that it is difficult to teach vocabulary,to learn vocabulary and to use the right words.In junior middle school,there are still high-proficiency students and low-proficiency students.The main purposes of this paper are to investigate the different use of English vocabulary learning strategies by high-proficiency and low proficiency students and the correlation between English vocabulary strategies and English achievements.The main research questions are as follows:(1)What attitudes do junior middle school students' hold in English vocabulary learning and vocabulary learning strategies?(2)What are the different use of English vocabulary strategies between high-proficiency group and low proficiency group?(3)What is the correlation between English vocabulary learning strategies and learning proficiency of junior middle school students?The author chose the students of Grade 9 of Xinxiang No.10 Middle school as the research subjects and the 150 students of three classes were selected to participate the survey of questionnaire.The questionnaire was adapted according to Schmitt's(1997)classification of vocabulary learning strategies.The author selected 60 students from the three classes and divided them into two groups according to their scores in the English examinations at the end of last semester.One group consists of 30 high-proficiency students whose scores ranked at top 30 and another consists of 30 low-proficiency students whose scores ranked at last 30.The author carries on the investigation to the students mainly centering on these three research questions.Research findings are as follows:(1)The majority of junior middle school students believe that vocabulary learning is very important and their vocabulary learning strategies are mostly guided by teachers.Meanwhile,the overall use frequency of vocabulary learning strategies of junior middle school students is 3.22,which is medium level.Among the five strategies,the order from high frequency to low frequency use is: determination,memorization,cognitive,social and meta-cognitive.(2)There are big differences on using English vocabulary strategies between high-proficiency students and low-proficiency students.The use frequency of vocabulary learning strategies by high-proficiency students is at high level,while the usage frequency by low-proficiency students is at low or medium level.(3)There is a significant positive correlation between junior middle school student' English learning achievements and vocabulary learning strategies.Based on the research results,in the future teaching,teachers are supposed to cultivate students' learning interests,mobilize students' initiative of learning English,impart the suitable vocabulary strategies for students and help students employ vocabulary learning strategies in English learning as well as arouse students' enthusiasm of learning English independently.The author believes that the results of this research can be used as reference for middle school English teachers.Because of the limited scope of investigation,the research has limitations,the author will conduct further research in the future.