A Study on the Vocabulary Mnemonic Stragegies Used by Taiwanese EFL Junior High School Students

• Main Authors: Shu-fang Chiang, 江淑芳
• Other Authors: Tsu-fu Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/92322096487005838285

碩士 === 雲林科技大學 === 應用外語系碩士班 === 97 === This study aimed to investigate vocabulary mnemonic strategies used by good and poor Taiwanese EFL junior high school learners and to find out what are the differences between good and poor learners in using English vocabulary memorization strategies. The participants were six junior high school students studying at a junior high school in Chiang-hua, including three good learners and three poor learners. The data collected for this study were based on think-aloud protocol during students’ memorization of 10 target words, the notes that the researcher took during the memorization and a retrospective interview conducted by the researcher. Think-aloud protocol is a technique in which learners think aloud when they are completing a task to discover what kinds of thinking processes or strategies they are making use of. A retrospective interview was conducted by the researcher after the memorization to realize the strategies used during the memorization process. Thus, it would be clearer to categorize their strategies in groups. The mnemonic strategies were categorized by partially adapting Oxford’s (1990) language learning strategies. The study showed that translating and review were used by all the participants. The top five strategies used by the six participants were review, verbal repetition, translating, writing repetition and phonetic aid. The top five strategies used by the students were all cognitive strategies except review strategy, a metacognitive strategy. All the good learners applied various types of strategy. Poor learners used cognitive strategies mostly. They also used review strategy to help themselves to strengthen their memorization. Some conclusions could be drawn. (1) The good learners used less time than the poor ones. (2) The good learners memorized the new vocabulary words with confidence in a pleasant mood and used less time, while the poor learners appeared to suffer a lot during memorizing the vocabulary words. (3) The poor learners also did a lot of repetition work. In addition, they made some mistakes and misspelled some target words during the memorization. (4) Good learners with a variety types of strategy used seemed to memorize vocabulary words easily and efficiently. This study was mainly a qualitative study, and the data sources were descriptive data that provide the readers some in depth insight of the English vocabulary memorization process. The strategies used in this study could provide those who have problems in vocabulary memorization. However, the implication should be caution, not every strategy is suitable for anyone. A careful choice is important when needed.