scholarly journals Students’ Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Discovery and Consolidation in Malaysian Primary School English Language Classrooms

Author(s):  
Sharon Fung-Chien Kho ◽  
Joseph Ramanair ◽  
Ambigapathy Pandian

A good grasp of vocabulary enables language learners to articulate, comprehend and communicate ideas and concepts effectively. For learners whose first language is not English, mastering vocabulary knowledge in terms of the breadth and depth is challenging and needs to start at a young age through the use of various strategies. The lack of English language vocabulary knowledge would demotivate learners and even result in abandoning efforts to learn the language. Therefore, it is important that learners know and are able to use five strategies, which include determination, social, cognitive, memory, and metacognitive strategies to learn vocabulary. Determination and social strategies are in the discovery category, while social cognitive, memory, and metacognitive strategies are in the consolidation category. This study aims to determine the vocabulary learning strategies used by 132 Year Five primary school English language students in two urban National Type Chinese schools in Sarawak. It investigated the strategies these learners used, how frequently they used them, and their reasons for preferring particular strategies. Data were collected from two classrooms at each school through the use of questionnaire and individual interview. Questionnaire results were analysed descriptively in terms of mean scores and standard deviation while interview responses were coded, categorised and analysed using thematic analysis. The findings suggest that while the students employed moderate use of all the five strategies, cognitive strategies which involved mechanical approaches were the most used while social strategies were not used by all students.

Vocabulary learning is one of the problems in language learning skills. Tackling such problems is to provide useful and effective strategies for enhancing students’ VLSs. Therefore, this study aims to survey vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) utilized among English as a Foreign Language learners (EFL) in Baghlan University of Afghanistan, and to study the high and least frequently used VLSs that contributes to the learners’ vocabulary knowledge. This study utilizes a descriptive quantitative research method with 67 EFL learners who participated in the survey questionnaire adopted from Oxford (1990) taxonomy of VLS from different faculties of Baghlan University. The findings indicated that EFL learners preferably utilize VLSs at a medium level, and the highly used vocabulary learning strategies are the social strategies through which they ask the native speakers, teachers, and classmates for the meanings of new words in English language conversation. Determination, cognitive, and memory strategies are respectively followed by the learners. Whereas, metacognitive strategies are the least used strategies among EFL learners, the reason is that they only focus on the materials related to examination; explore anything about the new words for learning, and rarely think of their improvement in vocabulary learning.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 142
Author(s):  
Aravind B R ◽  
Rajasekaran V

The present research was carried out to study the cognitive and metacognitive vocabulary learning strategies of 36 ESL learners’. Schmitt’s Vocabulary Learning Strategies questionnaire was used to conduct the study. The study revealed the subsequent array of cognitive and metacognitive strategies employed by ESL learners. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were also conducted with 10 ESL learners’ who completed the questionnaire to get more reliable information about learners’ strategies with vocabulary learning. The findings indicated that ‘Using English Language Media’, ‘Verbal repetition’, ‘Take notes in class’ were the most popular strategies, whereas ‘Skip or pass new word’ and ‘Put English labels on physical objects’ were least used. The results of this paper provide many implications for English language teaching. Detailed explanations of the participants’ cognitive and metacognitive strategies were given in the discussion.


Author(s):  
Hamza Atifnigar Editor ◽  
Zia Ur Rahman Zaheer ◽  
Wahidullah Alokozay

Vocabulary learning is one of the problems in language learning skills. Tackling such problems is to provide useful and effective strategies for enhancing students’ VLSs. Therefore, this study aims to survey vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) utilized among English as a Foreign Language learners (EFL) in Baghlan University of Afghanistan, and to study the high and least frequently used VLSs that contributes to the learners’ vocabulary knowledge. This study utilizes a descriptive quantitative research method with 67 EFL learners who participated in the survey questionnaire adopted from Oxford (1990) taxonomy of VLS from different faculties of Baghlan University. The findings indicated that EFL learners preferably utilize VLSs at a medium level, and the highly used vocabulary learning strategies are the social strategies through which they ask the native speakers, teachers, and classmates for the meanings of new words in English language conversation. Determination, cognitive, and memory strategies are respectively followed by the learners. Whereas, metacognitive strategies are the least used strategies among EFL learners, the reason is that they only focus on the materials related to examination; explore anything about the new words for learning, and rarely think of their improvement in vocabulary learning.


2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-315
Author(s):  
Reem Ibrahim Rabadi ◽  
Batoul Al-Muhaissen

Abstract This study explores the use of Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLSs) by Jordanian undergraduate students majoring French as a Foreign Language (FFL) at Jordanian universities. The vocabulary learning strategies (Memory, Determination, Social, Cognitive, and Metacognitive) were used in this study following Schmitt’s taxonomy. A five-point Likert-scale questionnaire containing 37 items adapted from Schmitt’s (1997) Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire (VLSQ) administered to 840 FFL undergraduates randomly selected from seven Jordanian universities. The descriptive analysis showed that the participants of the study regardless of their year of study were medium strategy users overall. The results revealed that Memory strategies were the most frequently employed strategies, whereas the Social strategies were the least frequently used ones. Although the participants were medium strategy users, the results of the VLSQ disclosed that some individual strategies were employed at a high level. Accordingly, detecting these strategies will be beneficial to language instructors to improve effective vocabulary teaching techniques and to motivate language learners to use them more frequently.


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)


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 41-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aravind B R ◽  
Dr. Rajasekaran V

Purpose of the study: The present study diagnoses the vocabulary knowledge employed by ESL learners’ through memory strategies. Schmiit’s (1990) Taxonomy of Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLS) questionnaire was adopted and administered to 93 ESL learners. In order to get authenticities about the ESL learners’ memory strategies with vocabulary learning, semi-structured interviews were also conducted with 30 participants who completed the questionnaire. The result exposed the subsequent array of memory strategies used by ESL learners from the most frequent to the least frequent strategies, particularly findings revealed that ‘Use new word in sentences’, ‘Study word with a pictorial representation of its Meaning’, ‘Connect word to a personal experience’ are most popular whereas ‘Use scales for gradable adjectives’, ‘Relating word to unrelated items (Peg method)’ were least used memory strategies. Methodology: Schmitt’s Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire (VLSQ) (1997) was favored to diagnose the vocabulary knowledge through memory strategies of 93 ESL learners. Initially the responses were collected through Google Forms. Additionally, 30 ESL learners were randomly selected for interviews in accordance to reassure participants’ comprehension of the subject matters. Main Findings: The study finds effective result among 93 ESL learners in acquiring vocabulary knowledge while using memory strategies with the assistance of technological modalities. It also listed the most frequent and least frequent use of memory strategies in Schmitt’s Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire (VLSQ) (1997). Applications of this study: The present study is conducted in English Language Laboratory, where ESL learners’ can be benefitted and the learners can use these memory strategies while learning a new vocabulary when encountering a word. Novelty/Originality of this study: The existing technological modalities will assist the learners to correlate more effectively. Subject and language experts in the field can design the instructional materials and tools to assist ESL learners to improve vocabulary knowledge through memory strategies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Suci Fitriani ◽  
Febria Sri Artika

<p style="text-align: justify;">The purpose of this research is to investigate the Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLS) employed by international students who are studying English as a second language at the English Language Intensive Course for Overseas Students Program (ELICOS) of the University of Canberra College English Language Centre (UCCELC) in Australia. A qualitative design was used to gather information from six international students from different countries including Indonesia, China, Philippine, and Japan by using interviews. The results from the interview were then analyzed and presented by using the qualitative research procedures including coding, grouping, argument construction, and drafting. The finding of this research revealed that students at the ELICOS program employ various VLS including cognitive, metacognitive, memory, and social strategies. Cognitive strategies are identified as the most popular strategies used by the students, followed by metacognitive and memory strategies respectively and social strategies are recognized as the least popular. These findings have important implications in improving the quality of language teaching and learning process and enriching the research repertoire in the field of VLS.</p><p> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><em>Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui strategi pembelajaran kosa kata yang digunakan oleh mahasiswa internasional yang sedang mempelajari bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa kedua di English Language Intensive Course for Foreign Students Program (ELICOS) di University of Canberra College English Language Centre (UCCELC) di Australia.  Desain kualitatif digunakan untuk mengumpulkan informasi kepada enam siswa internasional dari berbagai negara termasuk Indonesia, Cina, Filipina, dan Jepang dengan menggunakan wawancara. Hasil wawancara kemudian dianalisis dan disajikan dengan menggunakan prosedur penelitian kualitatif meliputi pengkodean, pengelompokan, penyusunan argumen dan penyusunan. Temuan penelitian ini mengungkapkan bahwa siswa pada program ELICOS menerapkan berbagai strategi pembelajaran kosakata termasuk strategi kognitif, metakognitif, memori dan sosial. Strategi kognitif diidentifikasi sebagai strategi paling populer diikuti oleh strategi metakognitif dan memori masing-masing dan strategi sosial diakui sebagai yang paling tidak populer. Temuan ini memiliki implikasi penting dalam meningkatkan kualitas proses belajar mengajar bahasa dan memperkaya khasanah penelitian di bidang strategi pembelajaran kosa kata. </em></p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trần Thị Như Quỳnh

Vocabulary is extremely important for language learners. They will face difficulties learning a foreign language if their vocabulary knowledge is insufficient. The goal of this study is to find out which vocabulary learning strategies were used the most by third-year English majors and whether gender influenced their choice of vocabulary learning strategies. The participants are sixty-one English major students from Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry, fifty-three of whom are female and eight of whom are male. The questionnaire is the testing tool, and it is divided into five categories: determination strategies, cognitive strategies, memory strategies, metacognitive strategies and social strategies. The findings indicate that participants favoured guessing the meaning from context and making a list of words and memorizing the most, while social tactics were the least common. Furthermore, gender has little impact on the preference of vocabulary learning techniques.


Author(s):  
Ibrahim R. Alqarni

This study aims at exploring the vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) employed by Saudi Freshmen students majoring in English as a foreign language (EFL). The participants are 81 Saudi male students in their first semester in the English Department and Translation in the College of Language and Translation at King Saud University. Data was collected using a questionnaire which was adapted from the study of Rabadi (2016) and was analyzed using the SPSS program. The overall results of this study show that participants use all of the different vocabulary learning strategies: Determination strategies, Memory strategies, Cognitive strategies, Metacognitive strategies, and Social strategies, with different degrees of frequency. By looking at the sub-categories of the strategies the results indicate that Metacognitive strategies (mean score: 1.98/4) are the most used and/or preferred strategies by all participants, followed by Social strategies (MS: 1.91), Determination strategies (MS: 1.62), Cognitive strategies (MS: 1.39) and Memory strategies (MS: 1.26) respectively. However, the overall mean score of (1.63) for the use of the strategies indicates that the participants of this study are low/poor users of vocabulary learning strategies in general. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (35) ◽  
pp. 28-34
Author(s):  
Ngoc Thi Mong Trinh ◽  
Ngoc Boi Trinh

Vocabulary is very essential to language learners. If their vocabulary knowledge is insufficient, they will  encounter challenges in learning a foreign language. The purpose of this study is to investigate which vocabulary learning strategies were employed most by the third-year English majored students and if genders had an effect on the choice of vocabulary learning strategies. The participants are 40 English majored students at Tra Vinh University including 31 females and 09 males. The questionnaire is the instrument of this research which consists of five different categories: dictionary, guessing, memory, autonomy, and social strategies. The results show that autonomy and dictionary were preferred most by the participants whereas the least popular strategies were guessing and social ones. In addition, genders had no significant impacts on the choice of vocabulary learning strategies.


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