On The Training Of English Vocabulary Learning Strategies For Senior High Underdeveloped Students

Vocabulary is the core of language learning and it is important for every language learner. For most students in China, they learn English only in the limited class time. However, most Chinese senior high school English teachers emphasize more on grammar but pay less attention to vocabulary. Both the teachers and students often ignore the importance of vocabulary learning. What’s more, either the teaching or the learning mode of vocabulary is simple and boring. In fact vocabulary is the essential element for the improvement of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating. Therefore, vocabulary is vital for English learners. While vocabulary learning is quite difficult for many senior high school students who have difficulty in learning English and learn English passively. They are called " senior high school underdeveloped students " in this study. As a senior high school English teacher for about20years, the author finds that the problem faced by the senior high school underdeveloped students is vocabulary learning. Although they spend a lot of time in reciting the words, they seldom use the words or recall the words after a while. Studies show that there exists a correlation between vocabulary learning strategies and English scores. High-strategy learners obviously have better English scores than low-strategy learners (Zhou Yuexia,2009:27; Wen Yurong,2009:52; Jin Aiying2003:45). The National English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools (Experimental)(2003) demands that one of the five curriculum goals of the English is to train the students the learning strategies.(2003:6-7) So in order to help the senior high school underdeveloped students, the study aims to train the senior high school underdeveloped students the vocabulary learning strategies so that they can rebuild confidence and interest in English learning.At first, in order to know the current situation of vocabulary learning strategies of senior high school underdeveloped students, the study had the first questionnaire and interview. The results show that90%senior high school underdeveloped students know nothing about the vocabulary learning strategies let alone use the vocabulary learning strategies. And they learn vocabulary passively by following the instructions of their teachers. As a consequence, it is necessary to train the senior high school underdeveloped students the vocabulary learning strategies.Based on the learning strategy theory proposed by O’Malley and Chamot (2001:42-52), the study is mainly engaged in training the senior high school underdeveloped students the vocabulary learning strategies and investigates the effectiveness of the training program. The training program lasts six months from September,2010to January,2011, which mainly focuses on the training of the metacognitive strategies like making plans on learning and reviewing vocabulary to improve the vocabulary learning efficiency, the training of the cognitive strategies such as the strategy of dictionary use, note-taking, association, guessing from the context and keyword, the training of the social/affective strategy like cooperating with the group members and classmates.After the training experiment, the study interviewed and required the participants to do the questionnaire again to investigate the effectiveness of the training program. All the results of interview, questionnaire, the posttest of vocabulary, the first semester examination of Chengdu in Jan2011show that the training program is effective. With the improvement of the score and vocabulary capacity, the senior high school underdeveloped students rebuild confidence in their English learning.