The Effects Of Learning Strategy Training On Junior High School Students' English Vocabulary Acquisition

This study is aimed at investigating the effects of vocabulary learning strategy training on junior high school students'vocabulary acquisition, in an attempt to shed some light on vocabulary pedagogy.The research questions in this study are:1) Does learning strategy training facilitate students'vocabulary acquisition? 2) Who benefits more from strategy training, the less effective learners or the ineffective learners?Four subjects were selected from my students in Junior 2. They consisted of two boys and two girls and represented the less effective and ineffective English learners. Before the training, an individual interviews were conducted among the four subjects to explore their problems in vocabulary acquisition, what they learn about vocabulary and their strategy use in vocabulary learning. Based on interview, fifteen metacognitive, memory and discovery strategies were selected for instruction. Six training schemes were then designed, which included the first training of metacognitive strategies, the second training of what to learn about a word and the next 4 trainings of memory and cognitive strategies. The training lasted for six weeks. Four self-evaluations during the training, seven vocabulary tests during the reviewing period, the final exams and a post-training questionnaire were administered. The data were analyzed mainly from the qualitative perspective.The findings show that vocabulary learning strategy training improved the subjects'vocabulary acquisition. First, the four subjects developed from a non-strategy applying learners to strategy applying learners. Second, the two less effective learners'vocabulary mastering improved from 70% to more than 80%, while the two ineffective learners'vocabulary mastering improved from about 50% and below 40% to about 70%, which means that they greatly benefited from the training. Third, though both the less effective learners and ineffective learners benefited from the training, it seems that the training is more beneficial to the ineffective learners because they improved by more than 20%, compared to the less effective learners' around 15%.These findings suggest that vocabulary learning strategy training has a facilitative effect on junior high school students'vocabulary acquisitions and that vocabulary learning strategies are beneficial to junior high school students, especially less effective and ineffective learners.