Vocabulary Learning Strategies Employed by Thai University Students across Four Academic Profiles

Abstract

The present study explored the use of vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) by undergraduate Thai EFL students doing an academic reading course at a comprehensive university in northeastern Thailand and examined if there was a significant difference between the students' use of VLS and their academic majors. A five-point Likert-scale questionnaire with 41 items adapted from Jones’s (2006) taxonomy of VLS which was categorized into 8 different strategies was administered to a group of 267 Thai undergraduate students purposively selected from across four academic majors–Business major (BM), Engineering major (EM), Agriculture major (AM), and Health science major (HM). The results revealed that the students were moderate users of VLS, with dictionary and note-taking strategies being reported as the most frequently used VLS and selective attention the least frequently used VLS. The results of One-way ANOVA showed that the students were significantly different (p<.05) in using five out of eight strategies. Post hoc comparisons using Scheffe test showed that health science students used VLS more frequently than the rest of academic majors.

Vocabulary Learning Strategies Employed by Korean Medical Students for Medical Terminology and General English Words

“…The result showed there was not much difference in learning two types of vocabulary sets. In particular, medical students adopted the strategy of using an online dictionary most often in both cases, which was similar to the results of many previous studies (Boonnoon, 2019;Hashemi & Hadavi, 2015;Wu, 2005). Thai students majoring in economics, engineering, agriculture, and health sciences used the dictionary strategy most often (Boonnoon, 2019)…”

“…In particular, academic and technical vocabulary is hardly encountered nor used in everyday life, which hampers accidental acquisition. Therefore, learners need assistance to learn unfamiliar academic or technical vocabulary (Boonnoon, 2019) and VLS can serve that goal (Coady & Huckin, 1997). Notably, learning strategies have a positive impact on academic achievement by helping learners become more involved in monitoring their learning process (Green & Oxford, 1995;Scharle & Szabo, 2000).…”

“…In a study that involved 89 nursing students in Taiwan, by using Schmitt's (1997) taxonomy, Yang (2005) found that the most preferred strategies among nursing students to learn medical terminology were written repetition, verbal repetition, and bilingual dictionary strategies; the most proficient students used other types of strategies more often than the less proficient ones. In a comparative study about VLS use among four different groups of learners in their major, including medicine, economics, engineering, agriculture, and health sciences, Boonnoon (2019) found Thai EFL students used dictionary and note-taking strategies most often and health sciences students used VLS more frequently than others.…”

Vocabulary Learning Strategies Used by Thai High School Students in Science, Language, and English Programs

“…The current findings showed that the English program participants outperformed the science and language program participants in all VLS. These findings are in line with previous research, which reported significant differences in the use of VLS across academic majors (Bernardo & Gonzales, 2009;Boonnoon, 2019). These findings might be explained by the disparity in the learning contexts of the three study programs.…”

“…Moreover, when learners are equipped with various methods, they can adapt the strategy according to the learning context. Several long-term studies have been conducted to examine VLS in EFL contexts at a tertiary level (Fan, 2003;Kongthong, 2007;Siriwan, 2007;Bernardo & Gonzales, 2009;Mustapha & Asgari, 2010;Zhang, 2011;Heng, 2011;Pookcharoen, 2011;Komol & Sripetpun, 2011;Han, 2014;Nirattisai & Chiramanee, 2014;Boonkongsaen & Intaraprasert, 2014;Saengpakdeejit, 2014;Rojananak & Vitayapirak, 2015;Phonhan, 2016;Nie & Zhou, 2017;Panduangkaew, 2018;Boonnoon, 2019). Other studies have assessed the frequency of VLS use and the relationship between VLS and other aspects such as academic field of study, learners' English proficiency, and gender.…”