A Study On English Vocabulary Learning Strategies In Senior High School Students

Vocabulary is undoubtedly important in language study. It's the basis for the development of the 5 skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation. The criterion of English course in senior middle school makes great demands on vocabulary in language studies, while vocabulary is believed to be the biggest obstacle in students' English learning. Some researchers hold that learning strategies may affect students' vocabulary acquisition and English learning. Therefore, the study in vocabulary learning strategy may be a key for the effectiveness of English learning and teaching.This thesis reports an experimental study on the training of English vocabulary strategy. The study is designed to investigate the circumstance in which the students are using the strategies, and then some valid strategy trainings are carried on in the experimental class. O'Malley and Chamot's(1990)classification of learning strategies, namely metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, social/affective strategies and resource strategiess, are mainly adopted and complemented in the study.In this study, two classes with 105 students of Senior Two were wholly sampled. A vocabulary learning strategies questionnaire was used to investigate the students' strategy use. Before the training, the students were given questionnaires and English vocabulary test. Then the data was collected. The students in the experimental class were trained with specific strategies. After the training, the students in the experimental class were given a vocabulary learning strategies questionnaire and the students in both classes were given vocabulary tests. Then the data was analyzed. The results of the research prove that suitable vocabulary learning strategy can promote vocabulary learning, and vocabulary learning strategy can be trained by specific teaching and daily studies.