Relation Of Depth Of Vocabulary Knowledge And Vocabulary Learning Strategy In Middle School Students

In order to get a general overview of vocabulary learning strategies (hereinafter VLS) and depth of word knowledge (hereinafter DVK) of middle school students, the author carried out an empirical research to investigate the current situation of these two aspects and their conelations at different proficiency levels.Based on vocabulary knowledge framework put forward by Richards (1976) and Nation (2001), the classification of learning strategies posed by O'Malley & Chamot (1990), and the test format of Read (1998), this study investigates into the state of Chinese middle school students' vocabulary knowledge acquisition and their vocabulary learning strategy use. This study attempts to get insight into the difference of depth vocabulary knowledge (word collocation, grammatical, contextual and comprehensive knowledge), vocabulary learning strategies and the correlations between vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary learning strategies between different proficiency levels.This study involved 96 junior middle school students and 85 senior middle school students, who completed a questionnaire (50 items) and a test paper (four types of questions). After the data were collected and processed by a statistic software (SPSS 13.0), the following findings were obtained:1. On the acquisition of vocabulary knowledge, both junior and senior middle school students have acquired no more than half of commonly used target words. Grammatical knowledge is best acquired by junior subjects and collocation is best acquired by senior subjects. The contextual knowledge of words is significantly correlated with the grammatical knowledge of words for junior subjects and significantly correlated with collocation of words for seniorsubjects.2. On the use of vocabulary learning strategy (VLS), most of VLSs were applied by both junior and senior middle school students and there was no great difference on frequency of use except two social/affective strategies between junior and senior middle school students. However, good learners of senior students are good at managing their study but successful learners of junior subjects seem to use cognitive strategies a little more frequently. At the junior level, the high achivevers use VLS more frequently than the low achievers, yet the difference between them is not significant. At the senior level, there is great difference on the use of VLS, that is, good learners using VLS more frequently than poor learners on all three dimensions.3. On the correlation of VLS and DVK, for the juniors, most of the VLS have a positive effect on the DVK for good learners while a negative effect on the poor ones, which implies it is the quality of use of VLS not the frequency that really benefit junior students' vocabulary learning. At the senior level, both good and poor learners show more negative than positive correlations between VLS and DVK.From above results, we conclude that (1) The acquisition of DVK is neglected both by junior and senior subjects; (2) The use of VLS were mastered by good learners of junior students effectively and benefited their DVK acquisition. In contrast, most of senior subjects cannot use them effectively to promote their DVK acquisition.Finally, on the basis of the research, suggestions on how to improve vocabulary knowledge of commonly-use words through teaching and learning, and how to cultivate effective vocabulary learning strategies are put forward as follows: (1) Both learners and teachers should concentrate more on the depth of knowledge of commonly-used word. (2) The comprehensiveand systematic use of VLS which can facilitate the acquisition of DVK should be investigated and taught to senior middle school students.