Awareness-Raising of Vocabulary Learning Strategies: Does It Make a Difference?

Abstract

This study presents the results of the impact of a short training on vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs). The aim was to raise participants’ awareness of a wide range of VLSs and consequently to encourage and motivate them to utilize these strategies in their vocabulary learning. The participants were 29 Saudi male students in their first semester majoring in English as a foreign language in the Department of English and Translation in the College of Languages and Translation at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. The data collection tool was a questionnaire which consists five main categories of VLSs with 8 sub-strategies under each type with a total of 40 sub-strategies. The same questionnaire was administered twice: before and after training. The results showed an awareness-raising impact as reflected in the increase use of VLSs following the training. The increase was in all five strategy categories with statistically significant differences in three categories; Determination, Memory, and Cognitive strategies. Furthermore, the participants of this study reported that they benefited a lot from the training and they not only increased their exploitation of the strategies in this course but this training led them to utilize these strategies in other courses, such as reading and grammar. Although the training was short, the effect was evident, thus it is assumed that longer period of training will be conducive to better results in terms of the use of VLSs and consequently vocabulary knowledge. It is recommended that such intervention should be implemented in other courses as an initial step in understanding learning strategies in general with the goal of enhancing learners’ autonomy in different types of learning strategies.