A Study on the Use of English Vocabulary Learning Strategies by Students in a Senior Middle School英语论文推荐.doc

A Study on the Use of English Vocabulary Learning Strategies by Students in a Senior Abstract: Researches in the field of second language have shifted its attention from teaching to learning since the 1970s. Owing to this shift, many researchers both at home and abroad began to focus on the study of language learning strategies（LLS）. Vocabulary, as the essential part of a language, has widely drawn numerous scholars’ attention. The present study, by referring to the relevant studies on language learning strategies and vocabulary learning strategies(VLS)in the last three decades, investigates the students in the use of VLS in a Chinese senior middle school. The study intends to explore (1) the overall pattern of English vocabulary learning strategies used by some Chinese high school students; (2) VLS used by male and female students. The participants of the study are 150 second year senior middle school students form NO 1 Middle School in Lin County of Shanxi Province. From the questionnaire, we can know the overall pattern of students’ VLS and differences between male and female students in using VLS. Several findings are revealed from the present study. Firstly, most high school students hold that word should be learnt by using and studying. Secondly, students employ various strategies to learn English vocabulary, but most of them are traditional, simple and easy. The more frequently used strategies are self-initiation, guessing, dictionary use and rehearsal strategies, and the least used strategies are encoding strategies and activation strategies. Thirdly, there are great differences between male and female students in the use of meta-cognitive strategies, guessing, dictionary use, note taking, visual repetition, word-structure and encoding strategies. According to the above findings, the author presents some suitable implications for vocabulary learning and teaching. First, teachers should help their students realize the importance of vocabulary learning st