English Vocabulary Learning Strategies Among Minority Non-English Majors With A Comparison With Han Students

In recent years,English is becoming more and more important all over the world with the acceleration of globalization.Due to the vital role English vocabulary played in language learning,vocabulary learning strategies(VLS)have become a hot issue for many scholars.Despite that there are many studies on the vocabulary learning strategies of EFL learners,very few empirical studies dealing with the VLS among third language learners.Therefore,there is a strong need to enrich the related research.The present study was conducted by utilizing mixed methodology consisting of quantitative and qualitative methods to explore two questions: 1)What are the vocabulary learning strategies of the ethnic minority students in non-minority college? 2)Is there any difference between minority students and students of Han nationality in the use of vocabulary learning strategies?Questionnaire and interview were used as the research instruments to collect data.The questionnaire in the present study synthesized and revised the Gu & Johnson’s questionnaire(2003)and absorbed social strategy part designed by Schmitt(1997).130 non-English majors from a university in Shanghai answered the questionnaire.Among them,65 students are ethnic minority students and the other Han students.And then the author randomly selected eight students from those participants for semi-structured interviews.By analyzing the data,the author drew the following conclusions: 1)minority students adopted vocabulary learning strategies to varying degrees in the process of English vocabulary learning.Overall,the frequencies of cognitive strategies and dependence strategies are at an average level.Specific analysis shows that minority students tend to use dictionary strategies for comprehension most often.The least used strategy is social strategy;2)There are significant differences regarding the use of vocabulary learning strategies between minority students and Han students.Firstly,the statistically significant difference was found in beliefs about vocabulary learning(p=0.030).Besides,although there are no significant differences in cognitive strategy between two groups,significant differences are found in its sub-categories(p=0.006).That is,minority students use visual coding far more often than Han students.In the use of social strategies and dependence strategies,no significant difference was found.It is hoped that the present study can provide some references for the future related research and shed light on the English vocabulary learning and teaching for both teachers and ethnic minorities in non-minority areas.