Research On Vocabulary Learning Strategies For Senior Two English Underachieving Students In Senior High Schools

Vocabulary is the key to English learning; however, it is a shortcoming to many senior high school students in their English learning, especially those English underachieving students. A number of English underachieving students spend much time and energy learning vocabulary, but they gain few from their hard work. In addition, the New English Curriculum has a further requirement on the quantity as well as the quality of to-learn vocabulary. As a lot of domestic and foreign scholars have carried out a lot of researches about vocabulary learning from the perspective of language learning strategies, this thesis focuses on the point of vocabulary learning strategies to develop the research on vocabulary learning of English underachieving students in senior high schools.Based on theories of metacognition and cognition, the definition and classification of vocabulary learning strategies are demonstrated. And an investigation is made to investigate into the vocabulary learning strategies used by English underachieving students in senior high schools so as to explore effective vocabulary learning strategies which can facilitate students’ learning in and out of class. First of all, according to the views of educators and practical learning situation, underachieving students are described as those who are normal in intelligence but fail to reach the basic requirements of the curriculum standards due to non-intellectual factors such as weak language knowledge, poor English learning habits or ineffective learning strategies. Next, a questionnaire and tests are conducted to look into the use of vocabulary learning strategies among English underachieving students. By collecting and analyzing the data, it is found that the underachieving students are deficient in using various vocabulary learning strategies.In the study of vocabulary learning strategies of the underachieving students, this paper discusses the instructional implications on promoting students’ use of vocabulary learning strategies, involving metacognitive, cognitive and social-affective strategies. With the instruction of vocabulary learning strategies, these students become more aware of when and how to implement strategies in independent vocabulary learning; and the results of the vocabulary testing strongly proves that utilizing learning strategies has a positive effect on improving the underachieving students’ vocabulary learning. It is hoped that through this research, it can help senior high students with their more effective vocabulary learning, and also provide some practical suggestions for English vocabulary teaching.