A Survey Study of Vocabulary Learning Strategies Used by EFL 6th Graders

Slide 1: A Survey Study of Vocabulary Learning Strategies Used by Sixth Graders in Taipei City: A Case Study Presenter: Cindy

Slide 2: Outline I. INTRODUCTION II. LITERATURE REVIEW III. METHODOLOGY IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS V. PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS IV. LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Slide 3: I. INTRODUCTION • The purpose of this study was to identify the vocabulary learning strategies adopted by 55 sixth graders at Fuan Elementary School in Taipei city. • The independent variable of the research is gender, which affects one student’s use of vocabulary learning strategy.

Slide 4: Research Questions: ★ First, what are the most and least frequently used vocabulary learning strategies by sixth learners? ★ Second, what are the differences between males and females in their use of vocabulary learning strategy? ★ Third, is there a difference in the patterns of vocabulary use among students of different level of proficiency? ★ Fourth, are there any additional vocabulary learning strategies the sixth graders use to help their English learning?

Slide 5: II. LITERATURE REVIEW • Gender and vocabulary learning strategies ♦ For adult learners, Ehrman & Oxford (1990) found that female, compared with males, had the advantages of language learning strategy use in four aspects: general, self-management (metacognitive), authentic language use (social) and searching for and communicating meaning (compensatory).

Slide 6: ♦ The result of Green and Oxford research (1995) showed that gender has significant correlation to language learning strategies, including memory strategy, metacognitive strategy, affective strategy, and social strategy. • Female college students have higher using of language learning strategies than male college students.

Slide 7: • A questionnaire conducted by Rosa Maria Jimenez Catalan (2003) was administered to 581 Spanish- speaking students learning Basque and English as L2 (279 males and 302 females). • The females’ total strategy usage percentages are higher than the males’, which points to either different perceptions of vocabulary learning behaviors or different patterns of vocabulary strategy usage for males and females.

Slide 8: ♦ Sy (1994) conducted a research with 411 college students (170 males and 241 females) in order to investigate the relationship of Taiwanese university students’ gender and the use of language learning strategies. • Sy found that female students used all six categories of language learning strategies more frequently than male students did. • The six categories are memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective and social strategies. For example, in question four of the 15 memory strategy questions, “ 我會把新學到的單字發音和熟悉的發音聯 想在一起” implied that females are much better at using sounds for memorizing vocabulary.

Slide 9: ♦ In Taiwan, Su (2003) conducted a research about the correlation between background factors by using SILL. The result indicted that there was a significant correlation between gender and the use of vocabulary learning strategies.

Slide 10: III. METHODOLOGY • 1. Participants • The participants of the study consisted of 55 sixth- graders at Fuan elementary school in Taipei city. There were 27 boys and 28 girls. The age of the participants is at a range of 12 to 13. All of them have been learning English for six years. At school, they have two 40-minutes regular English courses per week. • The teacher is also the researcher delivered the questionnaires to participants and asked them to fill in the questionnaires. There are three classes ( 六甲 , 六 乙 , 六丙 ) in the sixth grade. Each class spent 40 minutes involving in this research.

Slide 11: • 2. Data Collection • Data collected for this study came from questionnaire surveys, students’ midterm (Nov. 2nd, 2007) and final exam (Jan. 4th, 2008) grades, in- class quizzes, and interview. • The questionnaire is designed based on Schmitt (1997) the ‘taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies; the other is Strategy Inventory of Language Learning by Oxford (1990).

Slide 12: Taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies (Schmitt, 1997)

Slide 13: • 3. Data Analysis • Both quantitative and qualitative data analyses were performed. For quantitative data analysis, this study is conducted through questionnaire. Data was collected and entered into Microsoft Excel to compute descriptive statistics. Percentile is computed for data analysis. • For qualitative data analysis, the researcher conducted the oral interview, the last question about students’ feedback of memorizing vocabulary strategies then analyzed it. Results obtained from interviews were categorized by types of strategies and the rank of strategies students use from high to low.

Slide 14: IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS • The highest frequency strategy use is question 24 (M= 3.928). The question is 我會反覆拼讀單字來 記住英文字，例如記 s c h o o l （學校）這個字 ，我會不斷的重複拼讀 s-c-h-o-o-l 、 s-c-h-o-o- l 。 The question belongs to rote repetition.

Slide 15: • Based on the table, the lowest strategy use is question 4 (M= 2.511). The question is 我會利用 這個字來編一個簡單的對話或故事，以方便記 憶。 The question belongs to putting new words into contexts.

Slide 16: Research Question 1: what are the most and least frequently used vocabulary learning strategies by sixth learners? • The top five strategies that these sixth graders use are rote repetition, phonics, using imagery, word formation, and associating/elaborating. • There are 32 questions on the memory strategies questionnaire. Nine questions show high use of memory strategies, 23 questions show medium use, and no questions show low use. • The result indicates that the sixth graders in Fuan elementary school in Taipei city memorize vocabulary with strategies and the mean of frequency is above 2.5 to 5.0.

Slide 17: Research Question 2: what are the differences between males and females in their use of vocabulary learning strategy? 六年級英語字彙學習策略 4.5 4.0 3.5 3.0 使用頻率 2.5 2.0 六年級男生 1.5 六年級女生 1.0 0.5 0.0 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 問卷試題

Slide 18: • Gender is found significantly related to the use of memory strategies. Female use memory strategies more frequently than males.

Slide 19: • In question 23, girls (M= 4.2) are significantly higher than boys (M= 3.5). The question is 我會反覆唸單字的發音來 記住英文字，例如背 s c h o o l （學校）這 個單字，我會不斷的重複唸 school 、 school 。 We may assume that girls use more metacognitive strategy by putting more efforts to memorize the difficult parts than boys.

Slide 20: • In question 30, girls (M= 3.6) are significantly higher than boys (M= 3.0). 我 會把不認識的英語單字拆成已經認識的 英文單字來記憶 ; 例如把 h o m e wo rk( 家 庭作業 ) 拆成 h o m e ( 家 ) 和 wo rk( 工作 ) 來記。 Girls use more memory strategy by syllabification, and finding out word formation of English vocabulary than boys.

Slide 21: • However, in question 19, boys (M= 3.6) are significantly higher than girls (M= 3.0). The question is 我會用肢體動作比出單字的意 思，來加深對英文單字的印象，例如記 s wim （游泳）這個字時，我會一邊唸單 字一邊做出游泳的動作；記 wa tc h （看 ）這個字時，我會一邊唸單字一邊做出 看東西的動作。 Most of the boys like to make exercises and physical activities.

Slide 22: • In question 20, boys (M= 3.2) are higher than girls (M= 3.0). The question is 我會用 感覺來幫助記憶單字，例如記 h a p p y （快樂的）這個字時，我會想一樣開心 的事情，然後微笑的記住 h a p p y 快樂的 感覺。 Boys use more cognitive strategy through sensation than girls do.

Slide 23: • The interesting finding is that girls and boys share the same frequency of using memory strategy in question 12 and 13. The mean score of girls and boys (M= 3.2) is equal. The question 12 is 我會利用押韻把單字記 起來，例如 b a t, c a t, h a t, m a t, 都是押 韻的字，很容易就把他們一起記起來。 • In question 13, 我會使用 K.K. 音標來幫助 記憶單字 , 例如在 s e e 這個字旁邊寫上 [si] 。 Both of the memory strategy is using phonetic symbols among girls and boys.

Slide 24: English Performance Females, 92.4 95 90 Males, 84 Males Grades 85 Females 80 75 Average • In this case, females not only use more frequently strategies than males, but also get higher grades in English performance.

Slide 25: Research Question 3: Is there a difference in the patterns of vocabulary use among students of different level of proficiency? 5.0 4.5 4.0 3.5 使用頻率 3.0 高分組 2.5 低分組 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 Q2 Q5 Q6 Q23 Q30 問卷試題 • Proficient learners use vocabulary learning strategies more frequently than less proficient learners.

Slide 26: Research Question 4: Are there any additional vocabulary learning strategies the sixth graders use to help their English learning?

Slide 28: The results indicated that these sixth graders use different types of strategies for vocabulary learning, including direct strategies: cognitive strategy and memory strategy; indirect strategies: metacognitive strategy, social strategy and affective strategy.

Slide 29: Research Results: • Major findings from this study were summarized as follows: • 1. The top five strategies that these sixth graders use are rote repetition, phonics, using imagery, word formation, and associating/elaborating. • 2. Gender is found significantly related to the use of memory strategies, female use memory strategies more frequently than males. • 3. More proficient learners using vocabulary learning strategies more frequently than less proficient learners.

Slide 30: V. PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS • As we know that the participants are elementary school sixth graders. The lowest frequency of using strategy is ‘placing new words into a context.’ Teachers or parents should teach these young learners ‘how,’ ‘when,’ or ‘why’ to use words into a context instead of directly giving them word list sheets because these young learners may put vocabulary into their short memory so that they could not be independent learners.

Slide 31: • In addition, after this research, I know students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of memory strategies so that I can select and use in classroom teaching. Most important, elementary school young learners can enjoy, have fun, and effectively memory English vocabulary.

Slide 32: IV. LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS • Limitations of the Study • The participants in this study were selected from one elementary school in Taipei city. The samples were not extensive; therefore, the results cannot be over-generalized.

Slide 33: VI. LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS • For Future Study • The researcher is also the English teacher to the participants; therefore, in order to avoid the subjective results, the recommendation for the further research can be conducted by triangulation, i.e., various resources, instruments, and methods.

Slide 34: VI. LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS • For Future Study • As a result, I would like to conduct more background variables that are years of study English, whether they go to English cram schools, whether they receive memory strategy instruction, and their self- awareness of motivation in learning English.

Slide 35: Reference: • Chen, Jing-Yi (2000). Junior high school students’ English learning strategies. Selected Paper from the 9th International Symposium on English Teaching. Taipei: The Crane Publishing Co. Ltd. • Ehrman & Oxford. R. L. (1990). Effects on sex difference, career choice, and psychological type on adult language learning strategies. The Modern Language Journal, 73, 1-13. • Green, J. & Oxford, R. (1995). A closer look at learning strategies, L2 proficiency and gender. TESOL Quarterly, 29 (2), 261-297. • Oxford, R. L. (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers. • Rosa Maria Jimenez Catalan (2003). Sex differences in L2 vocabulary learning strategies. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 13 (1), 54–77. • Schmitt, N. (1997). Vocabulary learning strategies. In N. Schmitt & M. McCarthy (Eds.), Vocabulary: Description, acquisition and pedagogy (pp.199-227). Cambridge: Cambridge. • Su, M.H. (2003). An investigation of Taiwanese Grade 5-6 studies’ EFL language learning strategies and language learning experience. Science Education Journal, 3(1), 138-177. • Sy, B. M. (1994). Sex differences and language learning strategies. Paper presented at the Eleventh National Conference of TESOL, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Slide 36: Thank You!