Impact Of Teaching Direct Learning Strategies On The Retention Of Vocabulary Of Senior Middle School Students

A growing body of research evidence has shown the advantages of using certain skills and behaviors, called learning strategies, in the process of L2 vocabulary acquisition. This comes at a time when there is broad agreement about the crucial, perhaps even central role played by vocabulary in the task of foreign or second language learning. While there have been calls for some time to include training in the use of vocabulary learning strategies in language instruction to enhance students'vocabulary retention. This study examined the effect of teaching direct learning strategies (memory, cognitive, and compensation) and their subcategories on the vocabulary retention--short term and long term- - of Inner-Mongolian senior middle school students. Participants of the study were 60 senior middle school students in Inner-Mongolia between the ages of 15 and 18. Before the treatment phase of the study, a questionnaire was given to the participants to see if they already use these strategies even before receiving any instruction, and also to raise their consciousness on the use of them. After the treatment, the participants took two equivalent tests with an interval of two weeks to find out the difference between their short term and long term retention of vocabulary. The results indicated that learners'strategy use in short-term retention far outweighs that in long-term retention. The results also portrayed the superiority of memory strategy use both in short and long term retention. The next most frequently used strategies were cognitive and compensation strategies respectively. The implications of the findings for incorporating these strategies in teaching will be discussed in detail.