An Experimental Study On English Vocabulary Learning Strategies Training Of Senior High School Students In Rural Area

Vocabulary, one of the essential elements of language system, plays a crucial role in language learning, and the use of vocabulary learning strategies could greatly influence vocabulary learning efficiency. Therefore, it is necessary to cultivate students’ awareness of vocabulary learning strategies use and promote students’ autonomous learning in vocabulary study. Compared with students in cities, vocabulary learning strategies use for students in rural area is of great significance owing to the fact that they lack rich educational resources, including advanced teaching facilities, outstanding teaching staff and effective learning method. However, most of the studies on vocabulary learning strategies focus on college students and high school students in cities, and little research has been done on students in rural area.Based on the investigation of vocabulary learning strategies use of 257 students in one senior high school of rural area, the present study is designed to explore whether vocabulary learning strategies training is more effective in improving the vocabulary achievement of senior high school students in rural area. Questionnaire and vocabulary test were employed in this study. The questionnaire was revised according to the classification of language learning strategies proposed by O’Malley and Chamot(1990) and vocabulary learning questionnaire(VLQ5) designed by Gu and Johnson(1996), which covers vocabulary learning belief, metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies and social/affective strategies. Moreover, vocabulary test adopts Vocabulary Knowledge Scale(VKS) designed by Paribakht and Wesche(1993).Data were analyzed by means of descriptive analysis, T-test and Pearson Correlation analysis. The main findings of the present study were as follows:(1) A majority of students changed the belief that words should be learned by rote, and realized the significance of learning words through use. However, the overall level of vocabulary learning strategies use was not very high. To be specific, as to metacognitive strategies, self-initiation strategy was not used frequently; note-taking strategies and rehearsal strategies, belonging to cognitive strategies, were the most frequently used, while encoding strategies were the least frequently used; cooperation strategy of social/affective strategies was more popular than others.(2) After vocabulary learning strategies training, a majority of vocabulary learning strategies were used more frequently than before, and significant differences existed before and after training. Specifically, the belief that words should be learned through use was widely accepted by students and the frequency of using metacognitive strategies and social/affective strategies increased slightly, but in terms of cognitive strategies, the use of contextual guessing strategies and encoding strategies increased noticeably.(3) Although the vocabulary achievement of students in both experimental group and control group improved after training, a significant difference of vocabulary achievement existed in experimental group before and after training, while there was no significant difference in control group, that is to say, the improvement in experimental group appeared to be more remarkable. Moreover, a large number of vocabulary learning strategies, such as contextual guessing and encoding strategies, which belong to cognitive strategies, positively correlated with vocabulary achievement.Based on the results of the study, some suggestions will be given to English teachers and learners in rural area to improve their vocabulary teaching and learning efficiency.