An Empirical Study On The Vocabulary Study Strategies Of Rural Junior Middle School

Vocabulary learning is an important part of English learning,and students’vocabulary level is the basic knowledge that directly affects the language ability level of students in junior middle school.At the same time,vocabulary learning in junior middle school has a profound impact on the development of language ability in the future.However,compared with urban students,the phenomenon of "English learning difficulties" caused by vocabulary learning among rural students is more common.The current rural vocabulary teaching concept is relatively backward.Students mainly memorize words through repeated reading and copying.Vocabulary learning is inefficient.Although rural teachers invest a lot of time in organizing students to read aloud and take quizzes,most of them neglect the effective penetration of vocabulary learning strategies.In the long run,the burden of vocabulary memory continues to increase,while the lack of collation,internalization and application of the vocabulary has finally made vocabulary learning the biggest stumbling block for rural junior middle school students in English learning.In order to improve the vocabulary learning efficiency of rural junior middle school students,it is necessary to cultivate their vocabulary learning strategies.In order to help rural English teachers optimize vocabulary teaching mode,the author conducted an investigation and research on vocabulary learning strategies in a rural school in Tong ’an,Xiamen and tried to solve the following problems:1.What are the characteristics of rural junior middle school students’ vocabulary learning concepts and vocabulary learning strategies?2.What are the differences in vocabulary learning concepts and vocabulary learning strategies between excellent and poor students in vocabulary learning?3.After a period of strategy training,do the concept of vocabulary learning and the use of strategies of the experimental class students change?Is there any difference in vocabulary level between the experimental class and the control class?In this study,two classes in the second year of junior high school in a rural area of Xiamen were selected as the research objects.One class was used as an experimental class which received an eight-week vocabulary learning strategy training,while the other class was used as a control class.Before the strategy training,the author conducted a questionnaire survey and a pre-test on the vocabulary level of the two classes to find out the vocabulary learning concepts and strategies of rural junior middle school students,as well as the vocabulary level of the two classes.By comparing the questionnaire results of the high scores group and the low scores group,the author summarizes the similarities and differences between the excellent students and the poor students in terms of their vocabulary learning concepts and vocabulary learning strategies.During the eight-week training,the author adopted a progressive training mode in the experimental class,including six steps of "explanation,demonstration,reinforcement,application,evaluation and extension".After the training,the author conducted a questionnaire survey and vocabulary proficiency test for the two classes again.Through analysis,the research finds that:First,rural junior high school students have traditional vocabulary learning concepts,but they can also accept correct vocabulary learning concepts,.Second,while the rural students grasp " application strategy" and "selective attention strategy" well,their overall level of use of vocabulary learning strategies is still low.They are unable to flexibly apply different cognitive strategies at the same time.They also lack the awareness to plan ahead and self-supervision.Beside,they also lack the willingness to seek help from teachers and classmates.Third,both the excellent students and the poor students in rural areas have strong traditional vocabulary learning concepts.However,the excellent students have more flexible vocabulary learning concepts.Therefore,good students are more likely to adopt different vocabulary learning strategies.Fourth,compared with poor students,excellent students have more ways to learn vocabulary.Moreover,the use frequency of "application strategy","cooperation strategy" and "asking for help strategy" was higher among the excellent students.However,both excellent students and poor students lack the awareness of overall planning and self-supervision.They are generally passive in vocabulary learning.Fifth,after the training of vocabulary learning strategies,students’ learning of words is gradually transferred to deep coding.Students in the experimental class have significantly improved their recognition of"vocabulary should be learned through application" and "vocabulary should be learned with context".Moreover,vocabulary learning strategy training can effectively improve vocabulary,and slow down the differentiation of vocabulary level of students in the class.