A Look into the Effectiveness of Vocabulary Learning Strategies by Foreign Language Students in Undergraduate Classes

Abstract

One of the foremost challenges encountered by students of foreign languages in the course of acquiring a foreign language is the acquisition of vocabulary. The significance of vocabulary in language acquisition has been acknowledged, as inadequate vocabulary proficiency among learners can impede their progress in acquiring a second language. The present investigation employed Schmitt's (2000) taxonomy of Vocabulary Learning Strategies, which encompasses five distinct categories of strategies, namely "determination", "social", "memory", "cognitive", in addition to meta-cognitive" methods. The primary objective of this study is to analyze and explore the implementation of contemporary techniques for instructing and acquiring vocabulary across students that study foreign language in diverse undergraduate courses. The research goals prompted the selection of a quantitative analysis design as the optimal approach to comprehensively examine the utilization of VLS among the targeted student population. This research employed a questionnaire to examine the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of foreign language vocabulary among an aggregate of 230 undergraduate students. Specifically, the study sought to elucidate the participants' attitudes towards vocabulary learning as well as their employment of learning strategies. The participants for the study were chosen using a randomized method, and the survey was conducted via an online platform. Additionally, upon conducting a statistical evaluation on the results, it was discovered that the metacognitive strategy was highest utilized strategy, with the greatest frequency, while the cognitive strategy was utilized least frequently. The findings suggest that this research's respondents would benefit from additional instruction in Vocabulary Learning Strategies in order to enhance their proficiency with various types of foreign language vocabularies. It is imperative to integrate efficacious strategies for both the acquisition and instruction of vocabulary into the vocabulary learning process of learners.