The Choice of Effective Vocabulary Learning Strategies

刘建芳

【Abstract】This paper aims to make a comparison between good and poor language learners in the use of vocabulary learning strategies.It will introduce some helpful vocabulary learning strategies to help those frustrated Chinese college non-English major learners.

【Key words】language learning strategy； vocabulary； good and poor language learners

For more than two decades the question why some language learners succeed in their efforts while others are doomed to failure is been asked over and over again.Therefore， individual differences affect foreign language learning a lot， such as， different motivation， different learning strategies and even different personality， age and empathy etc.But only learning strategies in vocabulary learning is going to be discussed to help learners improve their vocabulary learning.

I.Factors Affecting Strategy Choice

What the learners believe will contribute to their choice of vocabulary strategies.The learners individual differences， like their age， learning experiences play important roles.But other factors like the learning environment， the kind of learning tasks also result in whether successful learners or not.

Language learning strategy research began with realizing that the different ways in which they approach learning affect their success with the target language.It was assumed that once the learning behaviours of such learners are identified， they could probably be taught to less competent of second language skills.

II.More Successful Learners and Less Successful Learners

“Research and theory in SLA strongly suggest that good learners use a variety of strategies to assist them in gaining command over new language skills.”（OMalley， Chamot， etc.1985）.In order to prove what the vocabulary learning strategies both the successful and less successful learners use， two groups of students were selected to make the comparison， one being 16 more successful learners who achieved their scores above 80 in CET-4， the other 15 less successful learners who achieved their scores below 50 in CET-4.

In the process， in order to see whether the differences were significant， T-test was conducted to test for the significance of the differences between the two populations.

As a result of the T-test for the means of the different choices of 11 dimensions of vocabulary learning strategies， the two groups were significantly different in the means of activation strategies（Sig.=0.004<0.01， contextual guessing strategies（Sig.=0.012<0.05，structural memorization strategies （Sig.=0.000<0.01， and deliberate learning strategies（Sig.=0.017<0.05 The means of the four dimensions of more successful learners were larger than that of less successful learners.This implied that the more successful learners employed these four dimensions of vocabulary learning strategies more than less successful learners in their college EFL vocabulary learning.

In sum， the more successful learners differ with less successful learners in their vocabulary learning belief and learning strategies.More successful learners believe that vocabulary should be studied carefully and put into use rather than simply memorize again and again.Vocabulary learning is not isolated item.

III.Conclusion

As Skehen （1989， p.139） summarizes： One of the main motives for the study of strategies is the hope that they are causative and that they can be trained.If the successful learning strategies can be discovered， it will help the learners make progress smoothly and rapidly.

Teachers could suggest a range of specific， effective ways of performing the vocabulary task rather than vaguely tell their students to work harder， to memorize or just guess the meaning.Students， on the other hand， could select from a number of vocabulary learning strategies and determine what might work best for them.It requires the cooperation between the teachers and the students to find the effective ways to make it easy and efficient.

References：

[1]Cook， V.2001.Second Language Learning and Language Teaching.New York： Oxford University Press.

[2]Ellis.1994.The Study of Second Language Acquisition.Oxford University Press.

[3]Krashen， S.1981.Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning.New York.

[4]Harmer， J.2001.The Practice of English Language Teaching.Pearson Education Limited.

[5]Skehen.1989.Individual differences in Second Language Learning Oxford University Press.

[6]章柏成，韦汉.英语词汇教学的呈现方式研究[J].外语与外语教学，2004（4）.

本文为马江涛主持的内蒙古哲学社会科学规划项目“英语专业学生外语学习策略和学习效果相关性研究——以一项基于网络自主学习环境下的实证性研究”（2012H120） 的阶段性成果。