Research On Current Situation Of Using Vocabulary Learning Strategies Of The 5^th And 6^th Graders In Primary School

In the three major elements of language,namely grammar,vocabulary and speech,the importance of vocabulary cannot be ignored.Linguist McCarthy?1988?pointed out that“No matter how good a person's grammar is,no matter how beautiful his speech is,if he does not have enough vocabulary to express his feelings or to understand others'views and ideas,he cannot communicate with others in this language.”However,learning vocabulary is one of the most difficult tasks for many students.Therefore,it is particularly significant to study vocabulary learning strategies.Based on the classification of the English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education?2017 Edition?”?hereinafter referred to as“Curriculum?2017?”?,vocabulary learning strategies refer to the methods,specific actions and techniques used by learners to learn vocabulary,including four categories which are cognitive strategy,monitoring strategy,resource strategy,and communicative strategy.The 5^th and 6^th Graders in primary school are at the critical period of English learning,and vocabulary plays an important role in consolidating and promoting their English competences.The Curriculum?2017?also requires and emphasizes those students of Grade 5 and Grade 6 in primary schools must acquire some English learning strategies.Therefore,based on the current situation of vocabulary learning among 5^thh and 6^th Graders in primary school,referring to related studies existing at home and abroad,and supported by Piaget's cognitive development theory which proved that students of Grade 5 and Grade 6 are able to understand and use some vocabulary learning strategies and constructivism learning theory that emphasizes the process of learning English vocabulary is the interaction between students and others,this study selected 160 students of Xi'an Primary School?Grade 5 and Grade 6?and their 4 English teachers to figure out two research questions:first,what's the current situation of 5th and 6th Graders in using vocabulary learning strategies?Second,what are factors affecting the situation?Questionnaires and interviews are applied as research instruments in this study.The research results proved that the use of vocabulary learning strategies is at a high level among the 5^th and 6^th Graders in target school.From the perspective of frequency in using the strategies,the four strategies from high to low are cognitive strategy,monitoring strategy,resource strategy,and communicative strategy.The factors that influence the situation include both the students themselves and teachers'teaching about vocabulary learning strategies two categories.The students'own factors mainly include gender,extra-curricular learning time,learning motivation,learning interests,and learning methods.Firstly,female students apply vocabulary learning strategies better and more frequently than male students.Secondly,there is no difference between students of Grade 5 and Grade 6 in using vocabulary learning strategies.Thirdly,students of Grade 5 and Grade 6 who have intense intrinsic motivation,high learning interests,spending more extra-curricular learning time and using more learning methods performed better in using vocabulary learning strategies.Based on the research results mentioned above,this study proposes some suggestions for English teachers and students.For teachers,they can try to take some measures such as enriching teaching resources,stimulating students'learning motivation and interests to improve students'use of English vocabulary learning strategies,meeting the requirements of Level 2 vocabulary and learning strategies in the“Curriculum?2017?”,and improving students'abilities in learning English.Suggestions for students consist of spending more extra-curricular learning time in cultivating their interests and triggering intrinsic motivation in learning English consciously and learning and acquiring more vocabulary learning strategies as well as promoting their learning autonomy,so that English teachers and students of Grade 5 and Grade 6 can get some benefits from this study.