A Study on College Students’ Perception and Usage of Vocabulary Learning Strategies

大學生對字彙學習策略之認知及使用之研究

Ma3c0208 沈芝逸 Claire

Background and Motivation of this Study Statement of the Problem Research Questions Significance of the Study Definition of Terms Organization of the Study

Introduction

Students in Taiwan start to learn English at the age of eight.

Why are most of college students’ English

ability still not good? Students don’t have enough vocabulary

size. Students don’t know how to put the word in correct place in the sentences.

Background and Motivation

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RQ1: What are the most-used vocabulary learning strategies by English major students and Business major students?

RQ2: What are the least-used vocabulary learning strategies by English major students and Business major students?

RQ3: Is there any difference in the use of vocabulary learning strategies among students of different proficiency levels?

RQ4: Is there any difference in the use of vocabulary learning strategies between English major students and Business major students?

Research Questions

Language learning strategies (LLS):Language learning strategies are behaviours

or actions which learners use to make language learning more successful, self-directed and enjoyable.

Definition of Terms

Vocabulary learning strategy (VLS):Approaches students adopt to memorize

words, in other words, to commit spellings, sounds and meanings of vocabulary to memory when learners come across the words again after those words are taught.

Definition of Terms

students of low proficiency levels: Those whose scored at below the bottom

30% of the subjects on the TOEIC test.

Students of high proficiency levels: Those whose scored at the top 30% of the

subjects on the TOEIC test.

Definition of Terms

In OXFORD’S FRAMEWORK, two large groups of learning strategies can be definded : direct and indirect strategies.

Literature Review

Laufer(1997) proposed three obstacles that learners mostly encounter in EFL or ESL context; “words you don’t know”, “words you think you know” and “words you can’t guess.

Concerning the strategy of guessing, it is widely studied and is one of the most used strategies by EFL or ESL learners. (Liu & Nation, 1985)

Literature Review

Each vocabulary learning strategy has its strength and limitation.

According to cognitive psychology, the Depth of Processing theory indicated that the effectiveness of learning is dependent on the level at which information is processed (Craik & Lockhart,1972).

Literature Review

Literature has much to say about vocabulary learning and vocabulary learning strategies, and it becomes clear that numerous types of strategies are employed toward learning new words and their meanings.

Literature Review

Participants: 150 students from the Applied English Department

150 students from Business Department

Above18 years old

Students in STUST

Methodology

The VLS questionnaire: used in this study was based on Schmitt’s (1997) and Gu’s (2003) taxonomies of vocabulary learning strategies.

Methodology

Methodology-Procedure of the Study

Selecting two classes from each year of Applied English Department in STUST

Investigating the vocabulary learning strategies by giving

subjects the VLS questionnaire.

Exploring the frequency of five large groups of vocabulary

learning strategies by conducting independent sample t-test.

Exploring the frequency of five large groups of vocabulary

learning strategies by conducting descriptive statistics.

Selecting two classes from each year of Business Department in STUST

Investigating the vocabulary learning strategies by giving subjects the VLS

questionnaire.

Exploring the frequency of five large groups of vocabulary learning

strategies by conducting independent sample t-test.

Exploring the frequency of five large groups of vocabulary learning

strategies by conducting descriptive statistics.

Data Collection

Collect the questionnaires from participants

Explain the procedure to the participants

Chinese version questionnaire

Data Analysis Quantitative SPSS (descriptive statistics, Pearson

correlations, and independent samples t-test)