Vocabulary Learning Strategy Use in An EFL Selected Reading Program

• Main Authors: Liang-Yu Tang, 湯良玉
• Other Authors: Yue-Mei Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/36179497410603605586

碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 外國語文研究所 === 92 === ABSTRACT This study explores vocabulary learning strategy use in an EFL selected reading program. It examines types of strategies used by junior high school students, students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the strategies used in this reading, and a selected reading program on vocabulary learning. Participants in this study were forty-three first-year junior high students in Taiwan. Data collected for this study came from students’ group discussions, questionnaire surveys, the teacher’s field notes, and interviews. Group discussions included eleven groups of two 45-minutes lessons, audio-taped in class and transcribed for analysis. The instructional design was divided into two stages: teacher modeling strategy use and group discussion about unknown words in print. The results revealed that students used seven types of strategies to acquire vocabulary knowledge in reading story books. The seven types are: asking peers for meaning (25%), interpreting illustrations (23%), guessing meaning from contextual clues (20%), skipping the word and rereading it later (13%), skipping the unknown words (10%), asking the teacher (7%), and reading repeatedly (2%). The findings indicate that students were supportive of the instructional strategies to get word meaning from context while reading. They appreciated the function of discussion about unknown words with group members and showed high interest in the selected reading program, which offered different aspects of life experiences to learn English. This study concludes that using selected reading texts to instruct vocabulary learning strategies can be useful. It further suggests EFL teachers employ selected reading texts to help students enlarge word power.