The Strategies of English Vocabulary Learning1

1、学习英语单词的策略the strategies of english vocabulary learningcontentsabstract1key words1i introduction1ii the purpose of this study2iii the present situation of this topic home and abroad23.1the definition of the “strategy”23.2 the main researches aboard33.3 the development of this topic in china4iv the me

2、thods of the research and the findings54.1 the methods54.2 an analysis of the questionnaire and the interview6v the key problems and resolutions of the study85.1 the main problems85.2 the resolutions 95.2.1 changing the learning habit95.2.2 finding out the remembering rules105.2.3 the using of affix

3、es11vi conclusion 12references12appendix114摘要：在整个英语学习中，英语单词的学习受到越来越多的人的重视。本篇文章的目标就是要为英语学习者提供一些关于英语单词学习方面的建议。通过总结国内外的研究成果和近百份的问卷调查，我们可以得出：策略的应用在单词的学习中有着至关重要的地位。我们的目标就是要通过调查，找出哪些策略是最常用的，哪些策略是最有用的。在学习单词的策略应用上，给出一些有用的建议。关键词：单词学习 学习策略 学习习惯 记忆规律 构词法 abstract: as we considered the whole process of english

4、learning, we can easily get that: vocabulary learning is the most important part in the english learning. the aim of this paper is to find out which strategy is the most frequently used in china and which are more helpful ones for second language learners. though reviewing the major findings from re

5、searches done on efl learners vocabulary learning strategies in chinese-speaking contexts and comparing them with those from the west, we can know clearly that the using of learning strategies in vocabulary acquisition is very important for a second language learner. finally, the paper will also dra

6、w some suggestions and implications for efl learning and teaching in china.key words: vocabulary learning； learning strategies； learning habit； remembering rules； word formationi. introduction nowadays, english has become a very popular language. however, for our second language learners, english le

7、arning is a very hard thing, especially vocabulary learning. it always takes a lot of time and energy; moreover, the process of learning vocabulary is so boring. but we cant give it up. as we all know, learning vocabulary is one of the key elements in learning a language. in fact, vocabulary has bee

8、n described as the key element (wilkins 1972: 111) since lexis is more useful than grammar at low levels for communicating meaning. the basic problem with learning vocabulary is that there is so much of it; it is very easy to become overwhelmed. this is true for the teacher as well as the student.in

9、 the last two decades or so, based on some of the characteristics of the good language learners, a lot of researches have been done on language learning strategies and all kinds of factors affecting the choice and using of learning strategies, in the world of esl learning (rubin 1975; stern 1975;oxf

10、ord 1989;oxford 1990; porte 1988;lawson and hogben 1996; rees-miller 1993; omalley and chamot 1991; oxford and scarcella 1994; white 1995). the study of language learning strategies still attracts great attention from current researchers, mostly hoping that these strategies have a great effect upon

11、language learning outcomes and that they can be trained in some way (skehan 1989). one phenomenon that has been noticed by some teacher researchers (huang and van-naerssen 1987; gu and johnson 1996; wen and johnson 1997; kouraogo 1993) is that the majority of the students in second language learning

12、 use inappropriate vocabulary-learning strategies. to find out a suitable learning strategy becomes a vital important thing for all our second language learners. thus, this paper is to find out which strategy is the most frequently used in the vocabulary learning in china and which are more helpful

13、ones for second language learners. i hope this paper will give some useful suggestions on the english vocabulary learning for second language learners. ii. the purpose of this studythe purpose of this study is to explore which vocabulary learning strategy is the most frequently used and which one is

14、 the most helpful for the second language learners. besides these, another purpose of this study is to find out: whether the strategies the second language learners used are also the most helpful ones in the english vocabulary learning and to give some suggestions on how to learn the english vocabul

15、ary.iii. the present situation of this topic home and aboard 3.1the definition of the “strategy”the term “strategy” had been defined as “ the art of planning movements of armies or forces in war”, “a particular plan for winning success in a particular activity, as in a war, a game, a competition, or

16、 for personal advantage” and “skillful planning generally” (longman dictionary 1978). however, in language learning, this term has been used differently. a general definition for the term “strategy” in linguistics can be “a mental or behavioral activity related to some specific stage in the overall

17、process of language acquisition or language use.” (ellis 1994) so, we may also generally consider the “strategy” as “the tools for the improving the english language ability”. (oxford 1992/1993) therefore, vocabulary-learning strategy can be defined as “specific approaches, methods, behaviors, steps

18、 or techniques that students (often intentionally) use to improve their progress in learning the english vocabulary.3.2 the main researches aboardduring the past 2 decades, a gradual significant change has taken place in education: that is less emphasis on teachers and taking great stress on learner

19、s and learning. this change has a great reflection. as a result, these days more and more educators pay their attention to this new trend in teaching: the students-centered teaching method. the teacher-centered mode is thought to be not appropriate for learners. therefore, more and more researches h

20、ave been done on the english vocabulary learning, and a large number of research findings have been explored. (hell&mohn 1997; lawson&hogben 1996; sanaoui 1995; schmitt 1997)with the increasing interest in language learners and their learning strategies over the past decades, the growing attention h

21、as been paid to the importance of second language lexical knowledge. therefore, this has led to a number of recent studies on second language vocabulary learning strategies overseas.most of the early studies of language learning strategies focused on the general approach and specific actions or tech

22、niques that the “good” language learner used to improve his progress in developing second language skills. (rubin 1975 and 1981; stern 1975)other studies put their key point on the interactions between the learning strategies and various learner characteristics. (for example, language aptitude, pers

23、onality traits, learning style, cognitive style, attitudes and motivations) of groups of both good and poor language learners (hosenfeld 1976; naimon et al 1978; omalley and chamot 1990)much of the early work on strategies (rubin 1975; stern 1975; naiman et al 1978) was focused on isolating and list

24、ing the learning strategies, which was used by successful language learners. according to the classroom observation and informal discussions with good language learners and second language teachers and what she had observed of herself as a language learner, rubin (1975) suggested that the good langu

25、age learners:1). guessed willingly and accurately2). was eager to communicate and to learn from communication3). took risks and views errors as a useful tool for learning4). focused on both form and meaning;5). seized every opportunity to practice 6). monitored his own speech and that of otherin add

26、ition, stern (1975) noticed that the good language learners benefited from an awareness of his own learning style and his preferred learning strategies. at the same time, they also took responsibility for their own learning and often tried to think in the target language learning.later, research tri

27、ed to systemize the strategies schmitt claimed that vocabulary-learning strategies included five parts: determination strategy, social strategy, memory strategy, cognitive strategy and metacognitive strategy.3.3 the development of this topic in chinain the efl context in china, there have also been

28、several recent studies on vocabulary learning strategies (dong 2001; gu&johnson 1996; lu 2000; wu 2001; zhang 2001)most of the studies, focused only on no more than a limited number of strategies. gu and johnson (1996) and liu and yang (2001) may be two exceptions. they all had a large sample in the

29、 survey and a questionnaire was used, which consisted of 91 strategies. but they only collected data on students strategy using and beliefs about vocabulary learning, not on their perceptions of strategy helpfulness.another research, which was developed by 2 professors, yang jian, of college of educ

30、ation, seattle university, liu bing, of beijing foreign studies university, explored the vocabulary learning strategies of chinese efl students. the research was done with a questionnaire that consists of 17 discovery strategies and 35 consolidation strategies. the students were asked to indicate if

31、 they had used each strategy and thought it was helpful. in addition, 23 of the students were interviewed. they named two least helpful strategies and gave the reason for their selection.after studying the information of the questionnaire, yang jian and liu bing got four findings: the major finding

32、from this study is that instead of using only strategies that involved mechanical means and repetition, the chinese students also used many deeper strategies. another finding is that social strategies, those that require interactions between students, were among the less used or even the least used

33、ones. third, while these chinese fel students were not satisfied with many of the strategies they most frequently used, they had not used or even had no knowledge of many strategies they consider helpful. finally, the results, especially the interview data, point to the connection between proffered

34、learning strategies and social-cultured upbringing. (yang jian & liu bing 2001) thus, from the finds above, we may conclude that a large number of students dont know which strategy is appropriate for himself.iv. the methods of the research and the findings4.1 the methods1) questionnairebased on the

35、questionnaire of yang jian and liu bing (2004) and taken our students learning level into consideration, a new questionnaire was made, which consisted of 20 selections about english vocabulary learning. of those selections, both discovery strategies and consolidation strategies are included. a total

36、 of 80 middle school students took part in this study, aged from 12 to 15 years old. they all came from no.152 middle school in shihezi city where i worked for two months as a practice teacher. although they are not in the same grade, they are all in the same team named “like english”, which would h

37、ave a meeting once a week. when i was in that school, i was one of the leaders of this team.the study was hold in the meeting time, and the students were asked to indicate if they had used each strategy, if they thought it was helpful, and whether they had used it or not. in addition, within each of

38、 the two strategy types, they had to choose five most helpful strategies and rate them by assigning a number to each. 2) interviewimmediately after the students had finished the questionnaire, 20 of them were interviewed. the students were selected randomly. they were asked to tell why they selected

39、 that strategy and whether they think the frequently used strategies are helpful or not.3) interacting with second language teacherswhen worked in no.152 middle school, i often communicated with other teachers. through our talking, i got some useful ideas about english vocabulary learning. 4) the ex

40、perience of my own as a college student in china, i have learned english for about ten years. when i was a middle school student, i found that english vocabulary learning was extremely difficult. how to remember vocabulary effectively became a key point in the english learning.in nov 2005, i had wor

41、ked in a middle school for two months. when i was in that school, i collected a lot of useful information.4.2 an analysis of the questionnaire and the interview the questionnaire and the interview have covered the most frequently used vocabulary learning strategies within second language acquisition

42、. it is hoped here that an analysis of their findings may help provide a general picture of the use of vocabulary learning strategies in china. among the many various strategies reported used by these efl learners in china, the following characteristics appear to be outstanding.1) reading as a major

43、 means to the english vocabulary learningit seems from the questionnaire and the interview that one outstanding feature of the target groups of chinese efl learners is that reading may be the most important way of language learning for them. after analyzing the questionnaire, we can know that 41% st

44、udents learn the english vocabulary through reading. despite the explosion in the demand for english and massive expansion (cortazzi and jin 1996) of english learning and teaching, efl in china still shows the disadvantage of poor input. for second language learners, they have few chances to engage

45、themselves in a variety of wide communicative activities and to put the target language into real communication. this is especially true for students in middle schools and colleges. for them, the most familiar activity is either in the classrooms, where the teacher (mostly chinese-speaking rather th

46、an native) gives their english lesson, or outside the classrooms when they can find their own means to the english language learning. the most probable situations they can find and put themselves into is from books, reading materials and listening materials, but not likely from real conversations. f

47、or them, reading itself is one means of putting the language into using. it is a combination of effortful study, deliberate use, elaboration and analysis of the target language (wen and johnson, 1997). thus, the chinese efl learners frequently dwell on those techniques and strategies that promote ef

48、fectively reading.new vocabulary reading and listening seems to be the general behavior the top groups of efl learners in china are likely to adopt. in prescribed reading, students are generally required to understand every detail of the reading material including new vocabulary and phrases, structu

49、res, as well as the discourse structure and the overall meaning. when engaged in this kind of reading tasks, it may be more beneficial if students pay more attention to new words and expressions. more analytic study of the new words, phrases, and their form meaning may result in better learning resu

50、lts.2) guessing from context guessing from context is another technique most of these efl learners reported using when engaged in learning the english vocabulary. 29% of students reported that the using of both local cues (from the immediate context) and wider cues (from wider context, such as the s

51、entences before and after, the paragraph or the whole text, social background knowledge, etc.). for this group of students, learning vocabulary in natural context (as indicated before, reading is a natural situation) was a very useful means of learning the new vocabulary. however, considered further

52、 with the information from the questionnaire and the interview, the result becomes much clearer. in actuality, both the successful and unsuccessful language learners of the questionnaire subjects used guessing strategies extensively. the difference lies in how, where and when they use these strategi

53、es. “the higher achievers used “guessing strategies” consistently throughout their reading, but they made a clear distinction between prescribed reading for studying purposes and reading for pleasure. for the latter, they relied extensively on guessing but sometimes used the dictionary to check thei

54、r guess at the meaning of words they considered important or interesting. in their intensive reading (same as the prescribed reading), a guess was consistently checked against the dictionary, and the use of the dictionary was seen as an opportunity to extend their knowledge of the language. the lowe

55、r achievers were less consistent in their use of both guessing and dictionary strategies.” this use of guessing strategies is greatly accepted as an effective and successful way learners use for comprehension in research literature (oxford 1990; oxford and scarcella 1994; omalley and chamot 1990; ch

56、amot 1987; wenden 1987; lawson and hogben 1996). students do not have to stop reading when they come across unfamiliar words or expressions if they can guess meaning from the context. they do not need to move between whatever they are reading and looking up the words in dictionaries which might not

57、be so easy to find immediately anyway. if the task is a to listen or in real time communication, it is simply impossible to stop listening to look up a dictionary. on the other hand, by guessing from the context, learners can speed up their reading again, in the specific environment like china, where there is not enough natural communication, the more students can manage to read freely. finally, the word meaning of which they guess gives them deep impression that it cant be easily forgotten.3) dictionary use the third frequently used