Vocabulary Learning Strategies Used by Elementary-Level Students of English

Abstract

This article presents the results of a research project carried out in 2017 at the Agricultural High School of Universidad Autónoma Chapingo in Texcoco, Mexico, with the aim of determining which vocabulary strategies students used, as well as the frequency of their use. A Likert-scale questionnaire with 5 points, adapted from Easterbrook (2013), was distributed to 107 students with an elementary level of English proficiency (i.e., Level A2), corresponding to the Common European Framework of Reference of Languages (CEFRL) (Council of Europe, 2001). The results showed that the participants used vocabulary-learning strategies (VLSs) at a medium level based on the mean statistical measure used. Out of the 51 VLSs included in the questionnaire, 13 experienced a high level of use, 21 a medium level of use and 17 a low level of use. Identifying new words in different sources and predicting their meaning from context stood out among the high-use strategies. More than half of the medium-use strategies were of mnemonic type and various memorization approaches. Most low use strategies involved organizing vocabulary information by theme, rote memorization and review. Overall, the pattern of strategy use suggests that the participants in this study did invest time in discovering the meanings of new words they encountered in context, but their effort was less focused reviewing vocabulary as a means to commit them to the long-term memory. This diagnostic examination of VLSs showed that students may not possess effective means to acquiring vocabulary and therefore, instruction need to include familiarizing students with strategies for them to effectively acquire, store and retrieve vocabulary items.