Preferred Vocabulary Learning Strategies among Malaysian Students

Abstract

Vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) are essential to acquire and mastering English language skills. Previous research in the Malaysian context mainly takes students at the tertiary level, with few only done on secondary students and thus has been unable to thoroughly investigate the preferred VLS of secondary and tertiary ESL students. Examining the vocabulary-learning strategies preferred by ESL secondary and tertiary students in Malaysia is significant. VLS is important in determining Malaysian ESL students' English language communication performance. Quantitative convenience sampling methods were employed to determine the preferred VLS among Malaysian students. Data was gathered from 320 secondary and tertiary Malaysian ESL students using a revised Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaires (VLSQ) version 6.4. Findings indicated that secondary and tertiary Malaysian students preferred metacognitive compared to other dimensions. Regarding gender, results showed significant differences between male and female students in meta-cognitive and cognitive VLS dimensions. In addition, secondary students preferred to use dictionaries, whilst tertiary students preferred using meta-cognitive regulation to learn new English vocabulary. These results show that students employed different VLSs in learning new vocabulary. Also, it demonstrated that genders played a significant role when students learn vocabulary, as results showed a significant difference between male and female students in VLS dimension preferences.

Malaysian Students' Vocabulary Learning Strategies in Acquiring English as Second Language

“…These findings indicate that students used various VLSs when acquiring a new language. Furthermore, it highlighted that gender had a key influence when students learned the language, as results revealed a significant variation in VLS dimension preferences between male and female students (Husin et al, 2022).…”

Preferred Language Learning Strategies Employed by Rural Secondary School Students in Learning English

“…Hence, from the definition given, writing can be regarded as one of the challenging skills to be mastered as it requires a lot of thinking processes before putting the ideas into words. Language students also need to pay attention towards the sentence structure, choosing the appropriate words to convey the intended meaning, as well as paying attention to the element of spelling and punctuation (Sa'adah, 2020;Hasan, 2023;Husin et al, 2022). Although the writing skill is taxing and writers often experience writer's block throughout the process, mastering writing skill is essential for effective communication in written form.…”

“…Some writing requires them to use specific words which they have no command of. This is a huge problem among many students in our school as they are lacking in vocabulary (Husin et al, 2022). Two students mentioned that they do not practise writing often which resulted in poor writing.…”