Exploring The Relevance Among Tolerance Of Ambiguity, Vocabulary Learning Strategies And English Vocabulary Acquisition

Tolerance of ambiguity, first raised by Frenkel-Brunswik in1948, is a range ofreactions extending along a continuum from total agreement to total disagreement,which is the perception of inadequate information to clearly understand unfamiliar,unpredictable, complex, contradictory stimuli or “their temporal or spatialinterrelationships”(McLain,1993:183). The notion has aroused a wide range ofattention in the field of psychology and pedagogy, especially in the area of secondlanguage acquisition. A large number of researchers have explored the relationshipbetween tolerance of ambiguity and reading strategies and concluded that toleranceof ambiguity can influence students’ preference of the using of reading strategies.However, comparatively fewer researchers have explored the relationship betweentolerance of ambiguity and vocabulary learning strategies. As we know, vocabularyforms an important component of second language learning and many students haveproblems when it comes to vocabulary efficiency. Based on inspiration of previousresearches, the author has an intention to explore the relevance among tolerance ofambiguity, vocabulary learning strategies and vocabulary acquisition.This thesis was completed based on a study on80non-English-majorsophomore students, to whom two questionnaires and four kinds of vocabulary testswere given. The data of this study was analysed by means of descriptive analysis,independent sample T-test, Pearson correlation analysis, curve estimation test withthe help of the English version of SPSS16.0. Certain conclusions can be drawnaccording to the analysis:1.Generally speaking, most students have moderate level of tolerance ofambiguity (TOA).2.Students prefer Determination Strategy-monolingual dictionary, and SocialStrategy-ask classmates for meaning when they encounter a new word for the firsttime; they tend to use Memory Strategies-group words together spatially on a page,study the spelling of a word, study the sound of a word, affixes and roots, part of thespeech, and Cognitive Strategies-verbal repetition, written repetition, use English-language media and Metacognitive Strategy-continue to study word overtime.3.Students with lower TOA tend to use Consolidation-Memory Strategies (to usesemantic maps, to use ‘scales’ for gradable adjectives, Peg Method, to group wordstogether spatially on a page, to use new word in sentences, to image word form, tounderline initial letter of the word, Configuration and to learn the words of an idiomtogether) and Consolidation-Metacognitive Strategies (to skip or pass new word)more often than those with Moderate TOA do; students with moderate TOA preferConsolidation-Memory Strategies (image word’s meaning, connect the word to itssynonyms and antonyms, Peg Method and study the sound of a word) more oftenthan those with High TOA do; but there’s no significant differences between Low TOAand High TOA when students use any Strategy Group.4.Students with moderate TOA are expected to perform better than those withlow and high TOA as far as active recall knowledge and passive recall knowledge areconcerned. However TOA shows no influence on the other degrees of vocabularyknowledge, namely active recognition knowledge and passive recognitionknowledge.Based on the study findings, certain pedagogical suggestions are made:1.For students who have low level of TOA, teachers can encourage them to getover uncomfortable feelings when they encounter ambiguities in their English study.For those who have high level of TOA, teachers can instruct them to pay moreattention to language details.2.Teachers can have students pay attention to memory strategies especiallythose relating to deeper information processing.