A Survey Study on Academic Vocabulary Learning Strategies by EFL University Students

Abstract

The development of the Academic Word List by Coxhead (2000) has drawn attention of the academia to teaching and learning academic vocabulary as well as the creation of more word lists for different majors. However, most of the research in the field of vocabulary has focused on the learning strategies for general vocabulary only (e.g. Gu & Johnson, 1996; Lawson, & Hogben, 1996; Nation, 2001; Schmitt & McCarthy, 1997). Little has been done to investigate strategies for academic vocabulary (Nushi & Jenabzadeh 2016). Given the importance of academic vocabulary in comprising some 8%-10% of running words in academic texts (Nation, 2001), the present study was set out to investigate EFL university students’ strategies for learning academic English words. The participants included 132 EFL university students. The study adopted the taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies by Schmitt (2000) and strategies for learning academic words by Bramki and Williams (1984) and Chung and Nation (2003). The findings reveal that the respondents tended to use on-line dictionaries and other applications more than cognitive strategies in learning academic words. Based on the findings of the study, suggestions were put forward to a systematized list of academic vocabulary learning strategies as well as what teachers and learners should do when encountering new academic words.