Topic: Use and Helpfulness Rankings of Vocabulary Learning Strategies Employed by EFL Learners in Taiwan

Author: Wei-shi Wu Department of Applied Foreign Language, National Formosa University

Summary and some feedback

Purposes of this study:

1.          To identify what vocabulary-learning strategies used by Taiwanese EFL students. Taiwanese EFL students’ perceptions of the helpfulness of these strategies.

2.          Whether there are different patterns of strategies used among students of different age groups.

Because of reading this research, I know more about the language strategies from the author’s literature review. For example, three types of language strategies divided by Malley & Chamot(1990): Metacognitive strategies, Cognitive strategies, and Social/affective strategies. Moreover, Oxford(1990) developed six major strategy categories which include Memory, Cognitive, Compensation, Metacognitive, Affective, and Social. Furthermore, Schmitt (1997) adopted four strategy groups from Oxford(1990): 1. Social, 2.Memory, 3. Cognitive, 4. Metacognitive as well as adopted two strategies which were discovery strategy( the initial discovery of a word’s meaning) and consolidation strategy( remembering that word once it has been introduced ) from Cook and Mayer’s (1983). Schmitt added a new category determination strategy which means whenever learners encounter a word for the first time, they can use their knowledge of the knowledge, contextual clues or reference materials, to figure out the new meaning.

As a teacher, I believe there is no specific way of learning vocabulary. However, a teacher should lead students to find the suitable vocabulary learning strategies to facilitate their continuous implications and improvement.

Referring to either electronic bilingual dictionary or bilingual dictionary, asking classmates for the meanings, guessing from textual context, consulting with word lists are the use and helpfulness rankings of Vocabulary learning strategies employed by EFL learners in Taiwan. The Results of the research didn’t surprise me at all. Students tend to refer to electronic bilingual dictionary due to the advanced technologies, the potable size and time-saving efficiency. Moreover, it is very interesting to figure out that four common discovery strategies shared by three different students groups.

According to my teaching experiences, I use phonics to help my students know the sounds first, and I use the flashcards, TPR, Chinese translations or drawings to connect the meanings with the sounds. Later on, I try to create a situation and make several sentences with new words or even tell them a story with new words. And then, I will ask my students to make their own sentences by using new words. Or even we will have a story relay by using those new words in context. Of course, students will be asked to review those new words at home and they will suppose to take a test which may include several items, such as sentence making, reading comprehension, unscramble sentences, translations or matching. 

   From my perspective, it is not sufficient to know the meaning of new words, the spelling of the words, students are supposed to apply the vocabulary they’ve learned into practice. Besides, I think teaching students to organize their own word bank in topics is quite necessary. Moreover, as a teacher, I should encourage my students

to use their knowledge of the knowledge, contextual clues or reference materials, to figure out the meaning. After all, when they take exams, they are not allowed to bring either electronic bilingual dictionary or bilingual dictionary, they are forbidden to ask classmates for the meanings or consult with word lists. All that they can do is guess from the contextual clues.