Strategy activation in learning English words

This study investigated: 1) the strategies used by EFL university students as they attempted to master new English words and 2) if strategy activation would affect students' vocabulary learning. Two groups of university students were asked to monitor and report on a weekly basis the strategies they used to learn new words. Students in Group Two had the chance to discuss and elaborate on the strategies in the class while students in Group One did not. Both groups were then tested on a multiple choice vocabulary test and two delayed vocabulary tasks of recall and recognition. Group Two students showed a systematically better performance on the vocabulary test and tasks. Introduction As teachers of second or foreign languages, we have noticed that students have difficulty with learning words in their second language. It is, however, the case that students use strategies and techniques of their own to learn the words in a better way. One of the reasons for the ever increasing interest in studying language learning strategies has been the fact that learners are valued and prized in the educational programs as active participants who bring their own personal behaviors to the scene and shape the way in which they learn. Through studying learners' strategies we get familiar with their strategic knowledge being defined by Lefrancois (1991) as a sort of knowledge about how to do things, solve problems, learn and memorize, understand and perhaps, more importantly to monitor, evaluate, and direct the mentioned activities as they occur. Thus, conducting research on learning strategies seems promising with both theoretical and practical implications. Background to the study Since the late 1970s, a considerable amount of research has been carried out concerning vocabulary learning strategies utilized by language learners (for a detailed review of empirical studies on vocabulary learning strategies in second/foreign languages refer to Gu, 2003). In these studies, emphasis has been mainly on three types of strategies, namely, keyword (Pressly, Levin and Delaney, 1982), context (Nist and Olejnik, 1995; Hulstijn et al., 1996), and semantic processing (Beck, Mckeown and Omanson, 1987). The keyword method, which has received a good deal of experimental study, involves using interactive imagery to link the sound of a word in one's native language (the keyword) to the sound of a foreign word that has to be learnt (Levin, 1981; Pressly, Levin and Delaney, 1982; Pressly et al., 1980). Several studies have reported the positive effect of keyword method on students' vocabulary learning (Atkinson and Rough, 1975; Beaton et al., 1995). Advocates of context believe that vocabulary is best learned when it is met in some sort of context (Honeyfield, 1977 cited in Nunan, 1991; Sternberg, 1987 cited in Nist and Olejnik, 1995). Besides the target words, incidental learning of vocabulary from the context has also been reported as a side effect (see, e.g., Nagy, Anderson and Herman, 1987; Nagy et al, 1985; both cited in Nist and Olejnik, 1995; Clark and Nation 1980 cited in Na and Nation, 1985 and Hulstijn, et al., 1996). There are, however, other researchers (Jenkis et al., 1989; McKeown, 1989, 1990, 1993; Miller and Gildea, 1987; and Coll and Nagy, 1989, 1990 all cited in Nist and Olejnik, 1995) who question the utility of context. They especially question the utility of context in teaching low frequency vocabulary items. Hulstijn (1992) stated that language learners usually make wrong guesses about the meanings of the words from the context. Camme, Kameenni, and Coyle (1984 cited in Nist and Olejnik, 1995, p. 75) also stated that "even in studies in which subjects have been taught general rules for determining meaning from context the results have often been non significant." Brown and Prey (1991) conducted research on keyword, semantic and keyword semantic as three learning strategies and concluded that the combined keyword semantic strategy can increase vocabulary retention above the other strategies.