| This thesis was based on the learning theories advanced by Jones et al. and the cognitive theories proposed by Anderson. It reports on a ten-week study that has investigated the effects of strategies-based instruction (SBI) on vocabulary learning of 100 freshmen at Nanjing Army Command College, in which 50 freshmen majoring in Law were participants in a strategies-based instructional treatment, and another 50 freshmen majoring in Computer Science were comparison students receiving the ordinary instruction. The experimental group filled out a pre-treatment questionnaire, but both groups performed a series of learning tasks. The vocabulary learning strategies contained in the tests, as Rehearsal Strategies and Guessing Strategies, were designed specifically for the given tasks to make a fine-tuned link between trained strategies and their impact on specific learning tasks. It was hoped that while learners might use or not use strategies to learn new words, SBI would stimulate the learners to use various strategies systematically. 15 students from the experimental group representing three levels of English proficiency as determined by their academic records of various English tests from The Entrance Examination to College English Achievement Test Band 1 also provided verbal report data indicating their responses to SBI and its effects. As expected, the experimental group outperformed the comparison group in a series of tests. Besides, ten-week training made most trainees realize that a balanced approach with various strategies involved was far more effective than only sticking to certain strategies. The findings of the study also suggest that explicitly describing, discussing, and reinforcing strategies in the classroom can have a direct payoff on student outcomes. Conclusions are that considerate efforts should be made for SBI to be carried out in all the College English classrooms. In this manner, students will be more able to consciously transfer specific strategies to new contexts.
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