A Comparative Study On English Vocabulary Learning Strategies Of High-achieving And Low-achieving Students In Senior Middle School

Vocabulary is the basis of learning English.Without enough vocabulary,no matter how good a person's grammar and pronunciation are,he still can't communicate with others in English.Using vocabulary learning strategies is a powerful means to improve students' English vocabulary learning.There is a special group in senior middle school.For various reasons,their English learning effect is not ideal.Senior middle school education is of great importance for students to learn English,thus helping them to use English vocabulary learning strategies skillfully can greatly improve their English grades and arouse their enthusiasm for English learning.Under the guidance of English vocabulary learning theories,this thesis presents the research of vocabulary learning strategies between low-achieving and highachieving students at senior two in a high school in Xi'an,and focuses on the following two questions:(1)What is the general situation of vocabulary learning strategies used by high-achieving students and low-achieving students?(2)What are the specific differences in the use of vocabulary learning strategies between high-achieving students and low-achieving students? This study classifies vocabulary learning strategies into cognitive strategies,metacognitive strategies,communicative strategies and resource strategies.The methods of this study include questionnaire and interview,and SPSS 20.0 is used for comparative analysis of the results of the questionnaire.The followings are the findings of this study:a.Generally speaking,the frequency of English vocabulary learning strategies used by high-achieving students is higher than that by low-achieving students.Within the four strategies,the most widely used is cognitive strategies,with resource strategies being the least used.b.There are significant differences in the use of vocabulary learning strategies between high-achieving and low-achieving students.High-achieving students use metacognitive strategies more frequently than low-achieving students to adjust the learning process consciously.In terms of cognitive strategies,low-achieving students frequently use rote learning strategies,while high-achieving students are better at employing phonetic symbols,guessing,and word-formation strategies.With respect to communicative strategies,the frequency of cooperation strategy used by both highachieving and low-achieving students is lower than help-seeking strategy.As for resource strategies,both types of students seldom use network resource,and they use text recordings and English newspapers more frequently.In order to solve the above problems,this study puts forward suggestions for students and teachers respectively from four aspects: improving the use of metacognitive strategies,cognitive strategies,communicative strategies and resource strategies.Through the research,it is hoped that this study can enrich the relevant theories of improving senior high school students' English vocabulary learning strategies,and provide theoretical guidance for effectively improving students' autonomous learning ability of English vocabulary.