A Study On English Vocabulary Learning Strategies Of Students In Junior High School

Vocabulary is the basis of language and plays an indispensable part in English learning.It directly affects the development of learners’ listening,speaking,reading,writing and translation abilities.Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standards(2011)explicitly lists learning strategies as one of the five elements of the general goal of English curriculum for compulsory education.At the same time,it demands a higher acquisition of vocabulary both in quantity and quality,based on the appropriate employment of learning strategies.This requires that junior high school students should form learning strategies suitable for their own learning characteristics,and constantly adjust them to their own needs.It can be seen that reasonable use of vocabulary learning strategies(hereinafter referred to as VLSs)is of great importance to junior high school students.However,at present,students’ vocabulary learning is mainly based on mechanical memory.They spend plenty of time on vocabulary without achieving an expected result.Therefore,it is worth studying to reveal the general tendency of using VLSs for junior high school students and to help them improve their vocabulary learning efficiency.In view of this,this thesis aims to explore the general tendency of using VLSs for junior high school students,and the strategy using differences between students of different genders and different language proficiency.Supplemented by questionnaires,tests and interviews,the research makes a quantitative and qualitative study on learning strategies of junior high school students for English vocabulary.The result of data analysis shows that:(1)the use of English VLSs among junior high school students is generally at a moderate level.Among these three categories of strategies,cognitive strategy is the most frequently used,followed by affective/social strategy and metacognitive strategy.(2)Junior high school students with different genders(males and females)are significantly different in the use of cognitive strategy and affective/social strategies.However,females use more VLSs than males;(3)Junior high school students with different language proficiency(high achievers and low achievers)are significantly different in the use of meta-cognitive strategy and cognitive strategy,but there is no significant difference in the use of affective /social strategy.By revealing the general tendency and differences of middle school students’ VLSs,this study provides a certain reference for middle school English learning,so as to guide junior high school students to think and explore the most effective VLSs.It also inspires teachers with their English teaching,and improves the English learning efficiency of junior high school students in all respects.