Strategies of Learning English Vocabulary and Grammar by Freshmen University Students: A Case Study of An-Najah National University and Palestine Technical University-Kadoorie(PTUK)\ Tulkarm

Naser Amin Kamel Abu Saa,Abd-Al-Hameed Mustafa Mahmoud Jabsheh,Jafar Wasfi Abu Saa

doi:10.32996/ijllt.2022.5.2.7

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the learning strategies practised by Palestinian Arabic-speaking freshmen students of An-Najah National University-Nablus, and Palestine Technical University-Kadoorie (PTUK) - Tulkarm Campus while learning English vocabulary and Grammar. To achieve the purpose of this study, the researchers followed a descriptive quantitative approach, and as a result, a 20 -item questionnaire was constructed and distributed to a random sample of (260) freshmen students who were enrolling in English introductory courses. Findings of this study indicated that students mostly exploit learning strategies that require the minimum effort and toil, and, by the same token, they -the students- follow the same paradigm in enhancing learning strategies that mainly depend on repetition and rote learning, especially while learning English grammar. Findings of this study indicate that the learning strategies practised by students; while learning English grammar and vocabulary are mostly under the effect of those learning strategies which have been acquired during school education. Findings of this study also indicate that there were no statistical differences in regard to the variable of gender, university, and college because of the geographical, cultural, and attitudinal proximities among the subjects of this study. Depending on the findings of this study, the researchers have come to various sets of conclusions and recommendations.

Highlights

1.1 Background Learning English has not been an easy task, especially in a foreign setting
"it can be stated that the use of language learning strategies, in a foreign setting, seems to be unavoidable due to the complexity of the learning context of the foreign language, the facilitating and aiding nature of such learning strategies, because of the proposed gains a learner gets as a result of using these learning strategies, and, in addition, the essential role they play as stated by Maryam and Hashemi (2016) that "Learning strategies play an important role in the development of language skills."
This study bears the limitation of confining research to two of the Palestinian universities, the researchers followed a quantitative approach and built a questionnaire which was distributed to a sample of freshmen students of two Palestinian universities, namely, An-Najah National University in the city of Nablus, and Palestine Technical University – Kadoorie (PTUK) in the city of Tulkarm; the two universities are located in the southern part of Palestine, and both of them are relatively near in a geographical sense

Summary

Introduction

1.1 Background Learning English has not been an easy task, especially in a foreign setting. It can be stated that one facet of the significance of this study lies in the fact that it can orient the attention of educators, teachers, and English language curriculum planners a wider scope of understanding in regard to those strategies that are practised by Palestinian students who learn English as a foreign language; another facet of the significance of this study is the fact that it can offer some formidable account of how students or learners sometimes erroneously use a given strategy while learning English vocabulary and grammar; another facet of the significance of this study is that, and as far as the researchers know, it will be the first of its kind especially in a Palestinian setting

Objectives

Results

Conclusion