An Investigation Into The Perceptions And Effectiveness Of Various Vocabulary Learning Strategies Of Hong Kong Esl Learners With Low English Proficiency

Author : Ho-Sin Lok
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781361477854
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (778 download)

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Download or read book An Investigation Into the Effects of Vocabulary Learning Strategy Training on Secondary School Students in Hong Kong written by Ho-Sin Lok and published by . This book was released on 2017-01-27 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation, "An Investigation Into the Effects of Vocabulary Learning Strategy Training on Secondary School Students in Hong Kong" by Ho-sin, Lok, 樂可羡, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract of thesis entitled An Investigation into the Effects of Vocabulary Learning Strategy Training on Secondary School Students in Hong Kong submitted by Lok Ho Sin for the degree of Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics, the University of Hong Kong September, 2007. The research described in this paper investigates the effects of vocabulary learning strategy training on Chinese learners in a local EMI secondary school. A questionnaire adapted from Schmitt's taxonomy (1997) was administered to 68 secondary four students before and after a training program. It was found that students used discovery strategies more often than consolidation strategies. Repetition was used more commonly among learners. Certain mnemonic strategies were seldom used and not perceived as useful. A five-week training program which included five medium to low ranking strategies in terms of frequency of use and perceived usefulness in the questionnaire was carried out in regular class periods. A comparison of scores in the pre-training and the post-training tests in which students' receptive and productive knowledge of vocabulary items was assessed showed the subjects achieved a higher mean score in the post-test. As for the findings of the post training questionnaire, there was also an increase in mean scores and percentages in the frequency of use and perceived usefulness of most of the strategies. More in-depth qualitative data was obtained from individual interviews with six subjects. They expressed difficulties on vocabulary learning and little experience in vocabulary learning strategy training. The majority of them admitted not having made full use of the strategies presented in the training program. Conclusion on whether the training program helped learners learn more effectively could not be drawn in a clear-cut manner considering both the quantitative and qualitative data. Nevertheless, an important implication was that strategy training should be considered in the language classroom as the subjects agreed that receiving strategy training would be beneficial to them. It could raise their awareness of different strategies available and they could use them flexibly according to their learning styles. Recommendations are made for future research to look at the extent to which strategies are used, benefits and drawbacks, effects of explicit vocabulary strategy instruction on young learners, alternatives to enhance autonomous learning through the use of independent learning strategies and teachers' perspective of strategy use and training. DOI: 10.5353/th_b3871991 Subjects: Vocabualary - Study and teaching (Secondary) - China - Hong Kong Learning strategies High school seniors - China - Hong Kong - Attitudes