A Study On The Relationship Between High School Students’ English Vocabulary Learning Approaches And Learning Outcomes

In the context of increasing attention to the cultivation of students’ core literacy and learning approaches,optimizing the approach high school students use to learn English vocabulary and their vocabulary learning outcomes has also become a real need.To provide important insights for promoting English vocabulary learning among high school students,this study designed an English vocabulary learning approaches questionnaire based on Biggs’ R-LPQ-F and an English vocabulary learning outcomes questionnaire based on Ma’s second language vocabulary knowledge framework.The relationship between vocabulary learning approaches and learning outcomes was investigated and analyzed using the above questionnaires.A sample of 264 high school students from a combined junior and senior high school in N city of J province,was selected to participate in the questionnaire survey,and 6 students were among them in the interviews.And the following three main questions were explored:(1)In the process of English vocabulary learning,do high school students tend to adopt a deep or surface approach?(2)What is the status of students’ English vocabulary learning outcomes?(3)Is there a relationship between students’ vocabulary learning approaches and their vocabulary learning outcomes,and if so,what is the relationship? In addition,the interviews were used to supplement valuable information for better suggestions.The following findings were drawn after analyzing the results.Firstly,most students(58.7%)tended to adopt a surface approach in the process of English vocabulary learning.Specifically in the analysis of motive and strategy,69.3% of the students were mainly driven by surface motive;59.4% tended to adopt the deep strategy.Secondly,the overall vocabulary acquisition effectiveness of the students reached a moderate and slightly higher level(mean=3.27).The grade distribution results show that56.4% of the students obtained a C grade(60≤C<75)and only 0.4% obtained an A grade(90≤A<100),indicating that their vocabulary learning outcomes need to be further improved.Thirdly,there was a significant association between students’ vocabulary learning outcomes and the approaches they tend to use.The deep approach can significantly and positively affect vocabulary learning outcomes,while the surface approach had a significant negative effect on learning outcomes.Among them,intrinsic interest,one of the components of deep motive,had the most significant positive effect on students’ learning outcomes.Finally,the interview results revealed that students’ perceptions of vocabulary learning and classroom experience largely affect their deep learning of English vocabulary.They want to improve their vocabulary learning outcomes and are willing to work for it,and they also want teachers’ teaching to change as well.Based on the above findings,practical suggestions were made to further promote high school students’ English vocabulary learning outcomes from the following aspects:strengthening the perceptions of deep vocabulary learning,changing from a surface approach to a deep approach,and improving students’ classroom experience for deep vocabulary learning.