（英语语言文学专业论文）农村高中生词汇学习策略研究.pdf

vi 摘 要 近二十年来，随着人们较之以前更加重视词汇在语言系统中的地位，词汇学习策 略这个具体的研究领域也得到越来越广泛的关注。学者们进行了许多有关的研究，一 些国外的学者取得了突破性进展，然而，他们的大多数研究都局限于对某一种方法的 有效性进行探讨，另外他们多以西方的学习者为研究对象，这个占据世界最多数外语 学习者的中国学习者很少受到关注；国内关于词汇学习策略的实证研究比较少, 起步也 比较晚，而且大多以大学生和研究生为研究对象，而对基础阶段的高中生的词汇学习 策略的研究涉及很少，而针对农村高中生的更是少之更少。因此本论文针对农村高中 生的词汇学习策略进行实证性研究。作者试图回答以下问题： 1 . 农村高中生的词汇学习策略使用的总体情况是什么？ 2 . 高分组与低分组的同学在词汇学习策略的使用上有没有异同？ 3 . 男女生在词汇成绩以及词汇学习策略的使用上有没有异同？ 4 . 农村高中生的词汇学习策略与词汇成绩的关系怎样？ 本文运用了定量与定性相结合的研究方法对 1 8 6名来自威县一中的高中生进行了 调查分析。定量研究采用了根据 g u the domestic empirical research comes relatively later and mainly selects college or postgraduate students as their subjects. few studies have examined the vocabulary learning strategies used by senior high school students, even fewer study has touched the variables used by rural senior high school students, so the present study focuses on the investigation of the rural senior high school students vocabulary learning strategies. the author attempts to answer the following questions: 1. what is the overall pattern of rural senior high school students vocabulary learning strategies? 2. are there any differences between the high- score and low- score students in vocabulary learning strategies use? 3. are there any differences between male and female students in vocabulary test achievement and vocabulary learning strategies? 4. what is the relationship between rural senior high school students vocabulary learning strategies and their vocabulary achievement? the study was carried out on 186 senior high school students from no.1 senior high school in the county of weixian. a questionnaire adapted from vocabulary learning questionnaire 5 (vlq5) developed by gu vocabulary learning strategies; rural senior high school students viii list of tables table 2.1 direct and indirect strategies . .8 table 2.2 omalley and chamots classification of lls . .10 table 2.3 cohens classification of lls .12 table 3.1 categories, subcategories and the items of vls . . .26 table 4.1 key to understanding the participants learning strategies 30 table 4.2 descriptive statistics on vls of rural senior high school students .31 table 4.3 independent t- test on vocabulary test by high- score and low- score groups 34 table 4.4 independent t- test on vls by high- score and low- score groups .34 table 4.5 independent t- test on vocabulary test by male and female students .39 table 4.6 independent t- test on vls by male and female students .39 table 4.7 correlation analysis between vls and vocabulary test score . .41 ix list of abbreviations for the sake of brevity, the following abbreviations are used across the thesis. d- p response directed physical response lls language learning strategy l2 second language shsecs senior high school english curriculum standards sill strategy inventory for language learning spss statistical package for the social science vlb vocabulary learning beliefs vlq5 vocabulary learning questionnaire 5 vls vocabulary learning strategy iii 学位论文原创性声明 本人所提交的学位论文( a descriptive study on vocabulary learning strategies of rural senior high school students) ，是在导师的指导下，独立进行研究工作所取得的 原创性成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不包含任何其他个人或集体已经 发表或撰写过的研究成果。对本文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中标 明。 本声明的法律后果由本人承担。 论文作者（签名） ： 指导教师确认（签名） ： 年 月 日 年 月 日 学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解河北师范大学有权保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交学 位论文的复印件和磁盘，允许论文被查阅和借阅。本人授权河北师范大学可以将学位 论文的全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或其它复制手 段保存、汇编学位论文。 （保密的学位论文在 年解密后适用本授权书） 论文作者（签名） ： 指导教师（签名） ： 年 月 日 年 月 日 1 chapter 1 introduction try to find out the most effective way to improve the second language learners learning is the research aim of almost all the teachers and researchers in the field of second language acquisition. in the late 1970 s, it commenced to be understood that learner reacted diversely to teaching that learning was just as central to language learning as teaching itself (benson, 2005). since then, the emphasis of foreign language teaching has shifted from teaching- oriented to learning- oriented perspective. it in turn promotes more and more comprehensive study about individual learner differences which are usually accepted a s important variables in foreign language learning. according to larson- freeman (2001), various learner differences are mainly classified into three categories: 1) attributes, which indicate who learners are (e.g. aptitude, age, personality and social identities); 2) conceptualization, which indicates how learner conceptualize l2 acquisition (e.g. motivation, attitude and beliefs); and 3) actions, which indicate what they do (e.g. learning strategies). learning strategies are regarded as very important variables that influencing learning achievement (ellis, 1999). it also can be calculated into specific language learning aspect, e.g. vocabulary learning (nation, 2001). in the following chapter, the background of the study will be presented firstly. then follow significance and research questions of the study. finally come organization of the study. 1.1 background of the study as early as 1970s, research on language learning strategies began. rubin (1975) issued her research finding which analyzed and summarized successful language learners lls. from then on, learning strategies has attracted great attention. some linguists such as o malley, chamot, oxford and etc., carefully investigated and categorized the theory of lls. during the process of identifying and categorizing lls, there is the reemergence of newly interest in one aspect- learning strategy of language latest 25 years (schmitt, 2002). as the status of vocabulary is increased emphasized in language learning, ample studies are 2 carried out. some researchers explored and studied the effective learning strategies applicable to vocabulary. cohen gu wen qiufang 1996; ma guanghui 1997; wang wenyu 1998; gu yongqi ding yi 2006 et al). for most of them are some university teachers and scholars, they put their focus either on undergraduate students (ma guanghui 1997; wang wenyu 1998; ding yi 2006) or on graduate students (zhang ping 2002). they investigated the general pattern of university students vocabulary learning strategies and some other influencing factors. however, few studies (fu jie 2005; shen guohua, 2007) have examined vls used by senior high school students (wen qiufang, 3 2003), even fewer study has touched the variable used by rural senior high school students. thus, the present study is going to explore the vocabulary learning strategies adopted by senior high school students in rural area. 1.2 significance of the study after reviewing the related literature, which was conducted either among the western learners or chinese learners of college or graduate subjects, thus the present study on rural senior high school students vls is needed for providing more empirical support. another important reason for conducting this study is from the distinguish place of vocabulary in language learning and the special need of the subjects in rural area. as it s wildly known, vocabulary, as one fundamental component of the language system, plays very important role in the course of foreign language learning, which is acknowledged by many researchers. david wilkins (1978：11) said: “ without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” mccarthy (1990, viii) also pointed out: “ no matter how well the student learns grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of second language (l2) are mastered, without words to a wider range of meanings, communication in a l2 just can not happen in any meaningful way.” besides guarantee the fluency of communication, vocabulary also determines the achievement of the four skills of language learning including listening, speaking, reading and writing to a large extent. if you want to learn english well, mastering a great number of english words is absolutely necessary. it is the same as that building needs enough materials. a saying put forward by harmer: “ if we say structure is the skeleton of linguistics, then vocabulary is the important organ, flesh and blood” (wen qiufang, 2003:128) also verifies this point. therefore, vocabulary is critical importance to the language learners. in fact, vocabulary learning has long been considered as chinese learners big headache, on which they spend a lot of time, but the results are far from satisfactory. so students, especially those in senior high schools are eager to find out effective and efficient ways to learn vocabulary. this is even more true to the rural senior high school students. in rural area, education is quite backward. learning environment and learning resources can not compare with those in urban area, but the students confront the same learning tasks. they are required 4 to learn the same amount of vocabulary in the same level. when the newly- issued “ senior high school english curriculum standards” (shsecs) (2003) put forward, a higher demand is for students vocabulary ability, which do not only clearly state the significance of vocabulary for developing students basic abilities, but also make definite quantity for different grades. according to the shsecs, the students who want to take the college entrance examination should master 3500 words and 400 or 500 expressions and phrases. comparing to the previous english curriculum standard which just requires 2000 words, the students now are faced with bigger challenge. if some measures are not taken, students english achievement will be influenced and their learning confidence will be weakened. thus find out and introduce effective strategies to vocabulary learning become more and more necessary. however, in actual teaching, english teachers in rural area don t pay sufficient attention to vocabulary learning strategies. most of them still adopt the traditional teaching method and they usually read and explain the information of the new words to students according to the word list before each lesson. as to how to learn vocabulary efficiently, they take it as the students own matter. in such case, students just mechanically memorize new words, although which is improved to be time- consuming and inefficient by many researchers. that is why the result of vocabulary learning is often disappointing. as for the above mentioned reasons, the present study is quite necessary. hopefully this study may provide some suggestions and implications for the senior high school education in rural area, be beneficial to both english teachers and students in language teaching and learning. 1.3 statement of the research questions the present study is carried out mainly by the means of quantitative method. qualitative method serves as supplement for certain research question. its purpose is to find out the overall pattern of rural senior high school students vocabulary learning strategies, to determine whether the variables are related with students vocabulary achievement. in addition, the factors of different vocabulary achievement level and gender differences are also adopted to consider in investigation of the subjects vocabulary learning strategies. to 5 satisfy these purposes, four research questions are: 1. what is the overall pattern of rural senior high school students vocabulary learning strategies? 2. are there any differences between the high- score and low- score students in vocabulary learning strategies use? 3. are there any differences between male and female students in vocabulary test achievement and vocabulary learning strategies? 4. what is the relationship between rural senior high school students vocabulary learning strategies and their vocabulary achievement? 1.4 layout of the thesis the main body of this thesis is organized as follows: chapter one is the introductory part which illustrates the background of the research, rationale of the choice of the topic, the purpose and the organization of the thesis. chapter two provides an elaborated literature review. it starts with basic concepts used in the present study, followed by the classification of language learning strategies and vocabulary learning strategies. then the recent studies on vocabulary learning strategies both broad and at home are presented. chapter three focuses on the methodology employed in this research. it firstly puts forward the research questions, and then introduces information of participants, the instruments selected for eliciting data, procedures for data collection and methods used for data analysis. chapter four is the essential part of the thesis in which results for each research question are presented and discussed sequentially with the help of spss (statistical package for the social science). chapter five, the conclusion of the whole thesis, summarizes the major findings and pedagogical implications of this research and states limitations of the present study, as well proposes the suggestions for future research. 6 chapter 2 literature review this chapter provides a review about the relevant literature. it mainly consists of four parts. part one will introduce strategies about language learning which include definition, classification of language learning strategies and its comment; part two and part three will discuss vocabulary learning strategies and its research method, and finally some resent studies abroad and at home will be presented. 2.1 language learning strategies the issue of lls has been heated study area since the research focus shifted, as strategies that learner adopted in language learning play important role in improvement of language learning achievement. in the following part, the author will interpret the definition of lls and its classification. 2.1.1 definition of language learning strategies research about language learning strategies has become widely recognized in the field of l2 learning, especially after the extensive study by oxford and chamot and o malley. the definition of the concept is diversified accordingly, as the researchers have their own understanding and their own emphasis of language aspects. tarone (1981) defined learning strategies as “ an attempt to develop linguistic and sociolinguistic competence in the target language” (cited in visnja pavicic takac, 2008: 51). this is mainly from the point of functional use of language. rubin (1987) emphasized the learners role in language learning and defines the concept as “ what learners do to learn and do to regulate their learning” (takac, 2008:51). oxford (1989) claimed: “ language learning strategies are behaviours or actions which learners use to make language learning more successful, self- directed and enjoyable” (takac, 2008:51). some chinese researchers also defined this concept. wen qiufang (1996) claimed that lls included learners learning attitude and the methods that learners adopted to make their learning effectively. as the present study s subjects are senior high school students, strategies in newly issued english curriculum standards in senior high schools (educational ministry, 2003:18) are mentioned as: “learning strategies are actions and steps that students take to increase learning efficiency.” as there is so much 7 discrepancy in the notion of lls, ellis (1999: 532- 533) proposed a more reasonable method to solve such problem, that is listing their main features. strategies refer to both general approaches and specific actions or techniques used to learn l2. strategies are problem- orientated- - - the learner deploys a strategy to overcome some particular learning problem. learners are generally aware of the strategies they use and can identify what they consist of if they are asked to pay attention to what they are doing/thinking. strategies involve linguistic behavior (such as requesting the name of an object)and non- linguistic (such as pointing at an object so as to be told its name). linguistic strategies can be performed in the l1 and in the l2. some strategies are behavioral while others are mental. thus some strategies are directly observable, while others are not. in the main, strategies contribute indirectly to learning by providing learners with data about the l2 which they can then process. however, some strategies may also contribute directly (for example, memorization strategies directed at specific lexical items or grammatical rules). strategy use varies considerably as a result of both the kind of task the learner is engaged in and individual learner preferences. according to what mentioned above, the element of choosing and learners consciously usage of strategies are two distinct characters of learning strategies gain consideration of most researchers. the conclusion can be come to that lls are specific actions, steps, or techniques that learners consciously select to facilitate their learning in development of their competence of target language. lls cover a wide range: their using not only influence the learning of more complex tasks but also affect the simple tasks of learning (e.g. vocabulary learning) (takac, 2008), such as making plan or assessment of their learning, can be also used in vocabulary learning. most studies on vocabulary l earning are carried out correspondingly to the components of lls, based on which the definition of vls, can be calculated that these are specific actions and techniques utilized by students to aid their vocabulary learning and using in the target language.