Vocabulary Learning Strategies词汇学习策略.doc

1Vocabulary Learning StrategiesNorbert SchmittUniversity of NottinghamIntroductionIn the last 25 years, the field of second language acquisition has seen the reemergence of interest in one area of language study, vocabulary (Meara, 1987), and the appearance of a newly recognized aspect - learner strategies. Appreciation of the importance of both these areas has led to considerable research in each, yet the place where they intersect -vocabulary learning strategies- has attracted a noticeable lack of attention. The research which has been done on vocabulary learning strategies has tended to deal with individual or small numbers of strategies, with very few studies looking at the group as a whole. The current state of the area is typified by the lack of a comprehensive list or taxonomy of lexically-focused strategies. This chapter will first overview some general conclusions about vocabulary learning strategies which can be made from prior strategy research. Then a taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies will be proposed and the individual strategies discussed in more detail. Finally, there will be a report on the results of a large-scale study undertaken to assess which vocabulary learning strategies learners actually use and how helpful they believe them to be.General Conclusions About Vocabulary Learning Strategies Research into the area of language strategies began in earnest in the 1970s as part of 2the movement away from a predominantly teaching-oriented perspective, to one which included interest in how the actions of learners might affect their acquisition of language (acquisition and learning will be used interchangeably in this chapter). Concurrently, there was a growing awareness that aptitude was not the governing factor in language learning success, implying that language achievement depended quite heavily on the individual learner's endeavours. This naturally led to a greater interest in how individual learners approached and controlled their own learning and use of language. (For summaries of the development of language strategy research, see Rubin, 1987; Skehan, 1989; for book-length treatments of learner strategies, see Wenden and Rubin, 1987; O'Malley and Chamot, 1990; Oxford, 1990; McDonough, 1995). In the beginning, the emphasis was on identifying beneficial language strategies. Stern (1975) developed a list of ten strategies based on introspection, but most researchers tried to identify the strategies that 'good learners' use (ie. Rubin, 1975; Naiman et al., 1978; Wong-Fillmore, 1979; O'Malley et al., 1985). While a variety of strategies were being identified, researchers were also attempting to develop a categorization framework which could adequately describe them. O'Malley and Chamot (1990) divide language learning strategies into three major types: metacognitve (strategies for overviewing the processes of language use and learning, and for taking steps to efficiently plan and regulate those processes), cognitive (strategies which involve the manipulation of information in an immediate task for the purpose of acquiring or retaining that information) and social/affective (strategies dealing with interpersonal relationships and those which deal with controlling one's emotional constraints). Each of these major categories describe a large number of strategies, so more detailed taxonomies are possible. Oxford (1990) has attempted one of the most comprehensive classification systems to date. It includes six major strategy categories, including Memory, Cognitive, Compensation, Metacognitive, Affective and Social.In the process of identifying and categorizing language strategies, many studies dealt indirectly with strategies specifically applicable to vocabulary learning. In fact, as O'Malley et al. (1985, p. 561) note, "Training research on learning strategies with 3second languages has been limited almost exclusively to cognitive applications with vocabulary tasks". Despite this, few individual vocabulary strategies have been researched in any depth, the main exceptions being guessing from context (Huckin, Haynes, and Coady, 1993) and certain mnemonics like the Keyword Method (Pressely, Levin, and Miller, 1982; Pressely et al., 1982a. Nevertheless, combining the results from general learning strategy research with those from more vocabulary-specific studies allow us to derive a number of tentative general conclusions about vocabulary learning strategies.First, it seems that many learners do use strategies for learning vocabulary, especially when compared to more integrated tasks. Chamot (1987) found that high school ESL learners reported more strategy use for vocabulary learning than for any other language learning activity, including listening comprehension, oral presentation, and social communication. This might be due to the relatively discrete nature of vocabulary learning compared to more integrated language activities, like giving oral presentations,。