Investigating vocabulary learning strategies of Thai high school students: Science program, language program and English program. TITLE Investigating Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Thai High School Students: Science Program, Language Program, and English Program.
INTRODUCTION
- Background
- Purposes of the research
- Scope of the research
- Significance of the study
- Definitions of terms
There has been extensive research in the area of vocabulary learning strategies in the Thai context. 1 What are the most used and least used vocabulary learning strategies in Thai high school students.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Vocabulary
To summarize, vocabulary can be described as all kinds of words with their meanings that language users know how to use in a certain context. The latter, productive vocabulary, involves the vocabulary that language users produce to communicate in both spoken and written language.
Vocabulary Learning
Finally, vocabulary is essential in all language skills that both language teachers and learners need to pay attention to vocabulary learning. For a language user, it is worth learning vocabulary to apply in those language skills.
Vocabulary Size needed for High School Students in an EFL Context
The size of the English vocabulary of EFL learners is elaborated in the next part. It is difficult for L2 learners in the EFL contexts to acquire the same size of English vocabulary as the English native speakers.
Learning Strategies
Insufficient exposure to the English language and other factors such as teachers' English language proficiency and English language teaching are reasons why L2 learners cannot have a sufficient number of vocabulary. As such, language learners should be introduced to the knowledge of learning strategies to acquire vocabulary, thus improving their vocabulary size and overall language proficiency.
Language Learning Strategies
The next section will introduce another area of language learning to which learning strategies relate. In the next section, we will talk more about language learning strategies, which includes the strategies language learners use to learn English vocabulary.
Vocabulary Learning Strategies
Gu and Johnson (1996) investigated the use of vocabulary learning strategies used by Chinese language learners and classified the vocabulary learning strategies into eight categories as;. Nation (2001) states that language learners mostly encounter language difficulties when they do not have adequate knowledge of vocabulary learning.
Definition and classification of VLS by Schmitt
The structural knowledge of the language, such as parts of speech and word structure, can help language learners predict the meaning of the new word they encounter. However, using guesswork based on the word structures can lead to misunderstandings or giving the wrong meaning of the word. Using both bilingual and monolingual dictionaries helps language learners find the meaning of the words instantly.
Another way to discover a new meaning uses the social strategy of asking someone who knows the meaning of a word. This is still one of the vocabulary learning strategies that students use for a long time because it is inexpensive. Teachers who use metacognitive strategies can encourage students to develop the students' learning process.
Studies on Vocabulary Learning Strategies
The findings showed that metacognitive strategies played the most powerful role in vocabulary learning among excellent students in this study. Using the questionnaire method, adapted from that of Schmitt (1997), the finding revealed that the commonly used strategy was a bilingual dictionary, which falls under the determination strategies. Siriwan (2007) examined the types of vocabulary learning strategies used by students at twelve universities in Thailand.
Furthermore, the relationship between students' vocabulary learning strategies and their vocabulary size was investigated. Boonnoon (2019) explored vocabulary learning strategies used by Thai EFL university students and investigated differences between the students' VLS and their academic fields of study. Srimanee and Laohawiriyanon (2010) conducted a study of vocabulary learning strategies used by successful 9th grade students.
Summary of this research
Moreover, in the context of Thailand, where the urgency of learning English is crucial. Thai high school students must necessarily be equipped with appropriate and useful vocabulary learning strategies in order to aid their learning and ultimately support their future studies. Hopefully, it is intended to be an effective resource for further studies involving vocabulary learning strategies.
RESEARCH METHODS
- Participants and settings
- Research instruments
- Data collection procedure
- Data analysis
- Summary
According to Denscombe (2003), it is essential that the students understand the meaning of the questions. The administration of the vocabulary learning strategies questionnaire is the first method used to achieve the aim of the study. In order to obtain in-depth information about the vocabulary learning strategies of the high school student, the use of a semi-structured interview comes after the application of the questionnaire.
First, Thai high school students' overall use of vocabulary learning strategies is presented. It is noteworthy that the results of the study provide a better understanding of the vocabulary learning strategies used by Thai high school students, especially the use of vocabulary learning strategies among three different study programs. This also confirms the result of the previous study that the use of vocabulary learning strategies should be used as a combination rather than in isolation (Nie, 2017).
RESULTS
Thai High School Learners’ VLSs Used
Descriptive statistics, which included means and standard deviation (SD) for each item, were used to see the most and least used VLSs among Thai high school students. Thai high school students recorded memory strategies (MEM) as the lowest vocabulary learning strategy, with a mean of 47.83% (SD = .760). The current findings suggest that Thai high school students often utilize all vocabulary learning strategies.
Based on strategies to discover the meaning of a new word, the results showed that Thai high school students often use strategies in the determination category. In terms of social strategies involving other people to find out the meaning of a word, the results showed that Thai high school students usually ask their classmates about the meaning, with an average of 59.83% (𝑥 = 3.59, SD = 1.283). In terms of metacognitive strategies, the results indicated that Thai high school students often use these strategies when learning vocabulary overtime.
Comparing Strategies Used between Study Programs
As illustrated, Figure 1 summarizes the use of VLSs among three learning programs in this study. As shown in Table 14 and Figure 2, the results revealed that the use of four strategies by the high school students in three study programs differed significantly. According to Table 15, there were two pairs of study programs in which the mean scores of the use of determination strategies (DET) differed significantly.
According to Table 16, there were two pairs of study programs in which the mean scores on the use of social strategies (SOC) were significantly different. According to Table 17, there were two pairs of study programs in which the mean scores of using memory strategies (MEM) were significantly different at the 0.05 level. According to Table 18, there were two pairs of study programs in which the mean scores of the use of metacognitive strategies (MET) were significantly different.
Relationship between Vocabulary Learning Strategies
Summary
The results indicate that Thai high school participants used different frequency levels of vocabulary learning strategies. The results in this study were contrary to Phonhan (2016), who reported a non-significant difference in the use of vocabulary learning strategies between fields of study. These results imply that the use of all categories of vocabulary learning strategies can be applied separately.
Qualitative findings also revealed the variety of vocabulary learning strategies with multiple degrees of strategy use. Foreign language vocabulary learning strategies: Patterns of use among college students (Doctoral dissertation), Auburn University, Alabama. The use of vocabulary learning strategies by good and poor language learners: A case study of Chinese non-English sophomores.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Discussion of the current study
- Thai High School Learners’ VLS Use
- VLS Use in Different Programs of the Study
- The Relationship between Vocabulary Learning Strategies
The present results indicate that the participants in the study are substantially familiar with the application of contextual cues, structural knowledge, cognates and reference materials when discovering the meaning of the unknown words. On the contrary, the interview showed that memory strategies were employed at the least frequency in vocabulary retention of the high school participants. In response to research question 2, the analysis of the present finding showed that the participants in the English program outperformed the participants in the science and language program in all vocabulary learning strategies.
These can be explained by the disparity between the learning context of the three study programs. From the quantitative findings obtained from the questionnaire, the results showed that the vocabulary strategy use by the participants in the science program and the language program was similar. This phenomenon can also be explained by the learning context of the participants in these programs.
Conclusion of the current study
This result suggests that the strategies of memorization appear to be a foundation for other strategic vocabulary learning. The explanation of this finding may be due to the different characteristics of the two strategies. That is, DET or determination strategy is a strategy that occurs when learners discover the meaning of an unknown word on their own.
However, the statistical analysis revealed that there was no significant difference between the science program and the language program. Indeed, the learning condition and language exposure to language use indicate the similarity of the vocabulary learning strategy use between the science program participants and their language program peers. To conclude, the present study provided a clearer picture of the interrelationship of vocabulary learning strategy use, at least in a Thai high school EFL context.
Pedagogical Implication
Limitations for the study
Recommendations for future studies
Vocabulary learning strategies in an ESP context: The case of pre/medical English in Iran. Thai tertiary students' use of English vocabulary learning strategies in relation to fields of study and language learning experiences English vocabulary learning strategies used by Thai tertiary students of different genders and proficiency levels dictionary. A Survey Study of L2 Vocabulary Learning Strategies of 4th Year Students, Faculty of Fine Arts, Rajamangala University of Technology Tawan-Ok Chakrabongse Bhuvanarth Campus.
A Comparison of English Vocabulary Learning Strategies for Good and Weak Learners at King Mongkut's Institute of. The purpose of this questionnaire is to gather information about vocabulary learning strategies that can contribute to English language teaching. I always use an online dictionary (Google Translate, Longdo) to find the meaning in Thai because it is very easy and quick to access.
I use an online dictionary to find the meaning of the word because it is quick to find what I want, and it is also convenient for me. I also use a word's contexts and sentence structures to help me guess the meaning of a word.
