Research Into Vocabulary Learning Strategies Of Grade5Students In Beijing Primary Schools

Vocabulary learning strategies are general approaches, specific behaviors and techniques or thoughts that language learners adopt to improve vocabulary learning either directly or indirectly. Basic Education Primary School English New Curriculum Standard(the New Standard) clearly pointed out in the learning strategy content criteria that teachers should bear the awareness of helping students to form the most suitable language learning strategies and acquire the ability of constant adjusting their language learning strategies. Therefore, it is very necessary for primary school students to have a system of effective and reasonable vocabulary learning strategy. If they are applied to primary school students sufficiently, their vocabulary size will be bigger, their comprehensive English ability will be improved, and their interests for English learning will be increased.The researcher investigated236Beijing primary schools (A, B and C primary schools) students’use of vocabulary learning strategies, by classroom observations, questionnaire, vocabulary size test, mid-term English exam and semi-structured interviews. And the following results were concluded:Determination strategy is the most frequently used vocabulary learning strategy while metacognitive strategy is the least frequently used one."Looking up the word lists in the text-book" is the most frequently used strategy and "skipping or passing new word" is the least used frequently strategy. There is no significant difference in the use of four types of vocabulary learning strategies between boys and girls. Both of them use metacognitive strategy least frequently, and the difference lies in that girls tended to use determination strategy and cognitive strategy while boys tended to use social strategy and determination strategy. The results show that the only-child students and students with siblings do not have significant difference. However, from the data, the students with siblings use all types of vocabulary learning strategies more frequently than the only-child students. The achievement of vocabulary size tests and mid-term English exams have significant correlation, which indicates that mastering a broader vocabulary can improve the comprehensive ability of one’s English like listening, speaking, reading and writing. The excellent students use various strategies to learn vocabulary and are very good at making use of external aids for learning, and internet, especially, is their most usual way of discovering a new word’s meaning. Besides, they like to study with classmates.In the end of this thesis, insights for teachers and learners are mentioned, then some limitations of this research are listed, and suggestions for further research are provided, too.