Effect of Vocabulary learning Strategies on Academic Achievements of Pre-University Libyan EFL Learners

Abstract

The present study is focused on identifying the effects of vocabulary learning strategies on academic achievement of students who learn English as a foreign language in Libya. The primary assumption made in this study is that the high achieving students in a class make use of a particular strategy or set of strategies for learning, including learning vocabulary items in a foreign language, different from the low achieving students, which help them learn new vocabulary items faster, retain them permanently and recall them in appropriate contexts. The secondary assumption made is that the set of strategies, used by low achievers is not suitable for effective learning in the given contexts as reflected in their achievement grades. The study was conducted by collecting data through a questionnaire which was adopted from Rebecca Oxford’s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (1990) and which elicits information about the use of six language learning strategies used by learners. The sub-strategy questions were focused on eliciting responses about learning new vocabulary items in English, their retention and recall in context. The collected data were analysed statistically to calculate frequency of use of different vocabulary learning strategies among high, medium and low achievers in the same class. As hypothesized, the results showed that high achievers and low achievers use different strategies to learn, retain and recall new vocabulary items, strengthening my belief that the use of a particular strategy is the major drawback in the learning process of low achieving students in the same learning conditions.