An Investigative Study On Senior High School English Vocabulary Learning Strategies

Vocabulary serves as the basic material of language, and also the basis forcommunication. However, senior high school students find it difficult to learn English words.Many students spend plenty of time on vocabulary without achieving an expected result. Theyget commonly stuck in some ‘remembering-memorizing-forgetting-remembering again-forgetting again’ memory circle. For the present, vocabulary learning has become thebottleneck for general senior high school students to learn English.Senior High School English Curriculum Standards (2003)(Hereinafter referred to asStandards) clearly listed the learning strategy as one of the five key elements of the generalgoal of Senior High School English Curriculum. Learning strategy is the prerequisite forimproving the learning efficiency and developing the self-directed learning ability. It includesall kinds of actions and steps that students take for efficient study. Standards read,‘Seniorhigh school students should base the improvement of vocabulary learning in terms of bothquantity and quality on proper practice of vocabulary learning strategy.’ Thus, senior highschool students need to create their own learning strategies according to their own situation,and adjust them to their own needs. Only in this way, can students get the initiative in theirstudy and thus improve their learning ability. It is thus clear that appropriate practice ofvocabulary learning strategy plays a crucial role in senior high school students’ Englishlearning.In regard to this, a survey is conducted on the practice of English vocabulary learningstrategies of senior high school students in this study, and a systematic conclusion is reachedwith a summary of all kinds of vocabulary learning strategies, which provides a very goodreference for senior high school English studying. The study leads students to think anddiscuss the most efficient English learning strategy. It also inspires teachers with their Englishteaching, and improve the English learning efficiency of senior high school students in allrespects.The author conducted a questionnaire survey among106students of Grade Two inQian’an No.1Middle School, and interviewed10students of Grade Two, aiming to know the actual opinions and strategies of the vocabulary learning of the senior high school students.The result shows that students are aware of the importance of vocabulary learning, and areable to employ many kinds of vocabulary learning strategies, while they performed not wellon each strategy, especially on strategies of meta-cognition, socializing and emotion. They gettheir vocabulary learning strategies mainly through their own practice, rather than scientificand efficient guidance. The application of the vocabulary learning strategies has positivecorrelation with the performance of a foreign language. The better the strategy, the better theperformance.