How Do They Do It? Vocabulary Learning Strategies Used by Hungarian EFL Learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Recently, there has been a growing interest in the ways people with autism spectrum disorder learn. Previous studies, however, have not dealt with language learning strategies. This paper, based on my MEd thesis, aims to portray the approaches of a group of adults with autism spectrum disorder towards vocabulary learning, as well as the vocabulary learning strategies they implement. Data were collected at the beginning of 2023 after a very detailed review of available literature on the topic. Participants (N=10) took part in sixty-minute-long deep interviews online. According to the results the most participants are not visual learners contrary to some of the literature reviewed. They have varied individual strengths, needs and preferences in their English as a foreign language studies. On the one hand, some respondents have and use very strong mental associations. On the other hand, they might struggle with the social aspects of language learning. Among learning strategies, mostly guessing and context-based ones were mentioned. Half of the participants felt that they would like to improve the way they learn vocabulary items.