Alvin
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
The chapter gives reviews of the theoretical and empirical literature about vocabulary learning strategies. There are three sections in this chapter. In the first section, it defines the concept and importance of vocabulary learning strategies and provides taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies. In the second and third sections, it reviews the current studies examining junior and senior high school EFL students’ usage of vocabulary learning strategies, respectively.
English Vocabulary Learning Strategies
Definitions of Vocabulary Learning Strategies
Vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) is a method to help learners to understand and memorize the vocabulary. Vocabulary learning strategies are a series of specific actions used by learners to acquire, store, and retrieve information so as to enhance their progress in vocabulary learning (Oxford, 1990; Schmitt, 1997).
The importance of Vocabulary Learning Strategy
Vocabulary is the fundamental but important part foe any language; however, many people ignore its importance, or overlook the vocabulary size. In the second language (L2) reading process, either vocabulary knowledge or content knowledge plays a critical role in reading performances (Yeh, 2009). Similarly, Laufer (1986) argued that vocabulary adequacy and accuracy matter more than grammatical correctness in order to convey a message with relative ease and comprehensibility. These two researchers indicated the importance of vocabulary knowledge – if you have a large vocabulary size, you could be better on reading comprehension and easy to convey a message. Yeh(2004) pointed that the subjects’ vocabulary sizes and their reading performances on the SAET(Scholastic Aptitude English Test) test had a positive and significant correlation. Furthermore, the way to promote the vocabulary size effectively is decided on the helpful vocabulary learning strategies. Cheng (2006), for example, stated that junior high school EFL
LITERATURE REVIEW
The chapter gives reviews of the theoretical and empirical literature about vocabulary learning strategies. There are three sections in this chapter. In the first section, it defines the concept and importance of vocabulary learning strategies and provides taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies. In the second and third sections, it reviews the current studies examining junior and senior high school EFL students’ usage of vocabulary learning strategies, respectively.
English Vocabulary Learning Strategies
Definitions of Vocabulary Learning Strategies
Vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) is a method to help learners to understand and memorize the vocabulary. Vocabulary learning strategies are a series of specific actions used by learners to acquire, store, and retrieve information so as to enhance their progress in vocabulary learning (Oxford, 1990; Schmitt, 1997).
The importance of Vocabulary Learning Strategy
Vocabulary is the fundamental but important part foe any language; however, many people ignore its importance, or overlook the vocabulary size. In the second language (L2) reading process, either vocabulary knowledge or content knowledge plays a critical role in reading performances (Yeh, 2009). Similarly, Laufer (1986) argued that vocabulary adequacy and accuracy matter more than grammatical correctness in order to convey a message with relative ease and comprehensibility. These two researchers indicated the importance of vocabulary knowledge – if you have a large vocabulary size, you could be better on reading comprehension and easy to convey a message. Yeh(2004) pointed that the subjects’ vocabulary sizes and their reading performances on the SAET(Scholastic Aptitude English Test) test had a positive and significant correlation. Furthermore, the way to promote the vocabulary size effectively is decided on the helpful vocabulary learning strategies. Cheng (2006), for example, stated that junior high school EFL