scholarly journals The Use of Vocabulary Learning Strategies by EFL and EAP Undergraduate University Learners’ in the Iraqi Context

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohanad Al-Omairi

Vocabulary learning is an essential part of foreign or second language learning. This study aims at identifying the most and least common strategies that are used by Iraqi English as a foreign language (EFL) majors and English for academic purposes (EAP) learners. Also, determine the differences that are in EFL and EAP students’ vocabulary learning strategy (VLS) use as well as exploring EFL and EAP students’ views and difficulties. The study samples were 100 undergraduate learners (50 EAP learners and 50 EFL majors studying at Al-iraqia University, Iraq). There were two methods adopted; a validated Likert-scale questionnaire based on a developed version of Schmitt (1997) and further selected four of them for a follow-up semi-structured interview. The results of the survey indicated that EFL and EAP learners’ most common strategy was determination strategy, whereas, the least common strategy was metacognitive. The finding of the independent sample t-test of the five identified categories: metacognitive, determination, cognitive, memory as well as social, indicated that there was no significant difference between EFL and EAP learners’ in the frequency of the use of VLS. The results of the interview indicated that the majority of EFL and EAP learners’ valued the significance role of VLS.

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-70
Author(s):  
Cemil Gökhan Karacan ◽  
Kenan Dikilitaş

SummaryVocabulary learning strategy domain has been one of the areas of research in the language learning strategy field. Bilinguals use different language and vocabulary learning strategies than monolinguals (Hong-Nam & Leavell, 2007; Jessner, 1999). Even though there are numerous studies that investigate and compare monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual language learning strategy use, no studies have been conducted to compare the vocabulary learning strategy use in simultaneous and sequential bilinguals. This paper addresses this gap by investigating and comparing those strategies reported by Italian-Turkish simultaneous and sequential bilingual high school students with a total number of 103 participants, 34 of which are simultaneous bilinguals and the remaining 69 sequential bilinguals. The Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire (VLSQ) developed by Schmitt (1997) was utilized as the instrument of data collection. We found that simultaneous and sequential bilinguals (a) are medium to high level vocabulary strategy users, (b) report using social strategies the most, (c) do not differ considerably in their choice of vocabulary learning strategy type, but (d) differ substantially in their choices of metacognitive strategy use. The results offer implications for teachers and teacher educators particularly as to how they teach and support bilingual students’ vocabulary learning process in monolingual contexts.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-348
Author(s):  
Richard LaBontee

This article reports on the final round of piloting for a questionnaire instrument created and designed with the intention of collecting self-report data on adult, beginner Swedish L2 learners’ use of vocabulary learning strategies. The Swedish Vocabulary Learning Strategy Survey (SVLSS) version 1.2 is distributed to 182 participants studying Swedish at institutes of higher learning in Sweden. The collected data set is subject to exploratory factor analysis to explore initial interpretations of the underlying constructs of the instrument, and analyzed for content validity and internal consistency. Readability and accessibility of the instrument is also addressed. Initial findings and interpretations are used to guide the development of a preliminary VLS taxonomy for the SVLSS, as well as suggest and perform revisions that will result in the SVLSS 2.0.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (7) ◽  
pp. 66-79
Author(s):  
Siti Nursakina Baharudin

Students need to take control of their learning process by knowing when, where and how to use appropriate learning strategies for effective learning to take place. One of the language learning strategies learners need to take into consideration is vocabulary learning strategy (VLS) as vocabulary is one of the crucial elements that learners need to master in language learning. Vocabulary learning strategies if used effectively will help learners to master a wide range of vocabulary. This study aims to identify the types of VLS which are frequently used among ESL undergraduates according to learners’ gender. Forty ESL undergraduates from various disciplines at a local university were involved in this study and data were collected to achieve the main objective of the study. The survey design was employed, and data were analyzed quantitatively using descriptive analysis to measure the frequency and percentage to identify the most frequent use of VLS and whether it differs from the undergraduates’ gender. The findings of this study found that male undergraduates used VLS more than female undergraduates and memory and social strategy were the most frequently used by female undergraduates while male undergraduates used more of cognitive and metacognitive strategy. Therefore, the findings of the study are indeed beneficial for learners to know which VLS suits them and how they can acquire a vast amount of vocabulary during their second language learning process by applying those vocabulary strategies.


Author(s):  
Zarinatun Ilyani Abdul Rahman ◽  
Nur Farhana Nasri

Vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) play a significant role in assisting language learners in the development of language learning. A quantitative study was conducted to explore VLSs employed by undergraduate ESL learners in a public university. Data were collected from a group of 197 ESL learners from three faculties–Accountancy, Applied Science, and Computer and Mathematical Science–in the university. An adopted VLSs questionnaire by Gu & Johnson (1996) was used to answer two research questions: (1) to find the most and least preferred strategies and 2) to identify if there is any significant difference between the ESL learners in three different faculties–Accountancy, Applied Science, and Computer and Mathematical Science - in terms of their vocabulary learning strategies preference. The results were gathered using descriptive analysis and one-way ANOVA followed by a post-hoc test. The results of the study revealed that note taking, memory and guessing using linguistic clues were the three most preferred strategies while guessing using background knowledge and activation were the least preferred ones. In addition, the data also unveiled that there was a significant difference between Accountancy students and Applied Science students as well as Computer and Mathematical Science students both in guessing strategies. It is hoped that the findings of this study can shed some light to the teaching and learning process whereby the educators could employ the best VLSs to assist students in vocabulary learning while learners could be aware of strategies that suit them best.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Batoul Nematollahi ◽  
Fatemeh Behjat ◽  
Ali Asghar Kargar

Vocabulary learning is one of the crucial matters in second language learning. There is a vast body of research in this field which has been done by famous researchers around the world, but still there is no specific solution for extending lexical knowledge in the best way. Therefore, we have conducted a meta-analysis on a body of 30 research projects to investigate the usefulness of different strategies of vocabulary learning. The results showed that the strategies which are used by students are as follows in order: determination, cognitive, memory, meta-cognitive, and social strategies. Besides, it seems that guessing from context and using the dictionary are among the strategies which are most favored by successful students. In addition, the relationship between context, treatment, and methodology by vocabulary learning strategy were studied. It was clear that learners of different contexts would prefer different strategies, and teachers used specific strategies according to their syllabus. For further research, it is suggested to select a larger body of studies. It is advised to make teachers aware of the importance of choosing an appropriate strategy of vocabulary learning for language learners to pave the way of improving lexical knowledge for them.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Husain Abdulhay

Nowadays, it is strongly irrefutable that vocabulary skills founds the stepping-stone to  language learning and should be at the epicenter of language education, in re to the fact that much cannot be implied without grammar; nothing can be imparted without vocabulary. Understanding the key notions of how vocabulary is acquired can help language teachers be able to dispense more realistic and effective vocabulary teaching. With this thought in mind, it is crucial to acquaint students with vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) so that they can do this more effectively. With the expansion of research on vocabulary learning strategy instruction, the question to be posed is whether training on strategies will culminate in improvement in language learners or not. Thus, based on the significance ascribed to teaching vocabulary learning strategies in the process of language learning, the present paper seeks to cull evidences and scour the effectiveness of teaching vocabulary learning strategies.  Keywords: Vocabulary, vocabulary learning, strategy training for vocabulary learning.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Tskhvitava

The importance of teaching ESP to students not majoring in English is discussed. The role of vocabulary learning inESP is emphasized. The article attempts to add an insight to Georgian experience of teaching English to studentsof Agriculture to the existing studies on the use of vocabulary learning strategies in ESP. The students shouldbecome aware of the importance of language learning strategies and get trained to use them appropriately. Thepurpose of this study was to investigate the attitude of students towards vocabulary learning methods offered bythe textbook and the teacher, as well as the awareness of and the preferred vocabulary teaching /learning strategiesamong Agriculture University students while they were taking an English for Specific Purpose (ESP) course.Respondents comprised 107 students at Agriculture University of Georgia students. An ESP vocabulary learningquestionnaire was administered to the randomly selected students who enrolled in the English for Agriculture as arequirement. It revealed that students are not sufficiently satisfied with the existing state of teaching ESP vocabulary.A conclusion has been made that vocabulary learning strategies have to be purposefully taught, to improve theexisting situation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 01-10
Author(s):  
Farzad Sabeki ◽  
Rezvaneh Karimzadeh

The present study is an attempt to explore English vocabulary learning strategies employed by Iranian EFL undergraduate Baluch-Persian bilingual and Persian monolingual students in the University of Sistan and Baluchestan. The study utilized a between-groups research design. The participants of this study were 33 bilingual (Baluch-Persian) and 34 monolingual (Persian) students with an intermediate level of English. Their age ranged from 19 to 24 and. In order to collect the data, adapted version of Schmitt’s (1997) Vocabulary Learning Strategy Questionnaire (VLSQ) with a five-point Likert scale was administrated. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and independent samples t-test. The results indicated that EFL students use a wide range of vocabulary learning strategies. Furthermore, the findings revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between bilinguals and monolinguals regarding English VLSs. Finally, the paper ends up with a number of pedagogical implications for English teachers.


Author(s):  
Ida Nyoman Tri Darma Putra

Vocabulary is crucial to language learning in which lack vocabulary knowledge will make learner difficult to learn the language. Vocabulary knowledge is affected by the vocabulary learning strategies. The purpose of the present study was to identify the vocabulary learning strategies employed by postgraduate students and also try to explore the most and least vocabulary strategy used by Mataram university postgraduate students. The sample of this study was 40 postgraduate students of English department in FKIP Mataram University in academic year 2014/2015. Vocabulary learning strategies questionnaire was used in this study to identify students’ frequency of vocabulary learning strategies use. The result of the study showed that the research subjects used the vocabulary learning strategies in all five categories. The memory strategies (37.80) were the most frequently strategies by all subjects. Meanwhile determination strategies (mean=19.43) were determined as the second frequently used strategies followed by cognitive (mean=15.23), metacognitive (mean=13,26). The social strategies were determined as the least used strategies by all students with mean score of 11.00. In specific, looking at each item of category, the most vocabulary learning strategy used by postgraduate students was guessing from context (mean=3.33) which is part of determination category and the least vocabulary learning strategy used by postgraduate students was ask other people to discover the meaning of new vocabulary (mean=1.50)


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