An Action Research Approach Towards The Cultivation Of English Vocabulary Cognitive Strategies For Junior School Students

Vocabulary cognitive strategy is a branch of vocabulary learning strategies.Developing students’ ability to use vocabulary cognitive strategies plays an important role in vocabulary teaching,and is also the main way to improve students’ vocabulary learning ability.Therefore,it is particularly important for teachers to attach importance to the cultivation of students’ vocabulary cognitive strategies.However,in many studies,the previous studies on the cultivation of vocabulary cognitive strategies mostly used the experimental class-control class design or only conducted one strategy training,seldom used action research.Based on the theory of information processing and skill acquisition,this study adopts the method of action research to cultivate the vocabulary cognitive strategies of junior high school students,and uses the vocabulary cognitive strategy questionnaire,vocabulary depth knowledge test and vocabulary memory effect test as research tools to conduct action research.This study specifically answers the following two questions:(1)What are the effects of this action research on students’ use of vocabulary cognitive strategies?(2)What are the effects of this action research on students’ vocabulary deep knowledge and memory effect?Based on teaching practice,this study adopts three rounds of action research to cultivate students’ vocabulary cognitive strategies.In the first round of action research,the plan should be made first,and then the teacher present the vocabulary cognitive strategies that students need to master in the way of centralized training.Summary and reflection should be made after the first round.In the second round of action research,the plan is adjusted according to the previous round and then adds after-class exercises.Finally,on the basis of reflection and summary,the third round of action research focuses on review and consolidation.The results show that:(1)Students’ use of vocabulary cognitive strategies is not good before the cultivation,and the two strategies used more frequently are note-taking strategy and repetition strategy.However,the cultivation of vocabulary cognitive strategies can effectively enhance students’ awareness of strategy use.The frequency and variety of strategies used by students have increased.(2)By comparing the test scores before and after the study,it can be found that the cultivation of vocabulary cognitive strategies can effectively expand students’ in-depth knowledge of vocabulary and improve the effect of vocabulary retention.Finally,this study puts forward the corresponding teaching suggestions:(1)The cultivation of vocabulary cognitive strategies should combine explicit teaching with implicit strategy cultivation.(2)The cultivation of vocabulary cognitive strategies should become a normal teaching content,and teachers should constantly cultivate students’ awareness of using strategies.(3)The key to the success of strategy cultivation lies in students themselves.Students should be able to know what kind of situations to use strategies and how to use them.