The Effect Of Semantic Elaborative Strategy On The Acquisition Of English Vocabulary

In 2001, the Standard of English Curriculum formulated by the Ministry of Education set a higher requirement for secondary school students. They are required to have a vocabulary of 3,660 words upon graduation, while the previous requirement was only 2,000 words. The increase of vocabulary has imposed a new challenge on Chinese high school students. Though a considerable amount of research concerning vocabulary-learning strategies has been done, there have been very few empirical studies. Therefore, it is necessary to explore what learning strategies can help students learn English vocabulary more effectively.Based on Craik and Lockhart's theory of "level of processing" the author attempts, from the cognitive perspective, to study these issues: 1) What are the differential effects of elaborative strategy and single strategy? 2) Which strategy is more effective to the EF learners at the initial stage? 3) Is over-elaborated input negatively related to vocabulary acquisition?The author conducted an experiment, which involved 120 high school students, to compare the effect of elaborative strategy and a single strategy by questionnaires, tests and interviews. The study revealed the results: 1) The experimental group that used elaborative strategy did much better than the control group that used single strategy. 2) Those who used combined method of image association and keyword-semantic elaboration performed better on the vocabulary posttest than other strategy used alone. 3) Over-elaborated input was negativelyrelated to vocabulary acquisition.In conclusion, elaborative strategy is an effective way of teaching and learning English vocabulary.