Almost all students participated in the survey questionnaire have been learning English for more than seven years (83.7%). The rest of students (16.3%) have been learning English from five to seven years. This means that they started learning English since they were in primary school. Therefore, they have a rather long time getting familiar with English in general and English vocabulary in particular.
It is very essential for each student to recognize the role of vocabulary learning in learning English. Figure 2 below presents information for this issue.
As can be seen from figure 1, all the students recognized the importance of vocabulary learning. 65.2% of the students agreed that vocabulary learning played a very important role in learning English. Other 29.3% find it important. However, there is still 5.4% of the participants underrate the role of vocabulary learning in learning English.
The issue of knowing vocabulary learning strategies could not reach the consensus among students who were asked. There were 37% of them said that they had ever heard of vocabulary learning strategies while approximately 63% said that they had never heard of anything like that. The researcher believes that this term may be strange to most of them. In addition, some students employed several vocabulary learning strategies, as they answered all the remained questions in the survey questionnaire, they were not aware of it.
It is interesting to notice that although many students who have no idea what vocabulary learning strategies are, 100% students asked agreed that vocabulary learning strategies should be taught in class. When being questioned why they thought so, some students left the answer blank, some of them answered that they did not want to depend totally on the vocabulary learning taken place in class. They wanted to make vocabulary learning process more effective and enjoyable.
Figure 2: Student's awareness of the importance of vocabulary learning
It can be concluded that the students were all aware of the importance of and the need to learn and to be taught vocabulary learning strategies.
2.4.4.2. Strategies used for discovery a new word’s meaning (1) Determination strategies
N
o. Strategies
Degree of Frequency Always use Often use Sometimes X
use Seldom use Never use
N % N % N % N % N %
1. Analyze the part of
speech. 5 1.8 8 2.9 28 10.1 86 31.2 149 54 0.67
2. Analyze prefixes,
suffixes and roots. 0 0 0 0 16 5.8 49 17.8 211 76.4 0.29 3. Guess meaning of
words from textual context.
14 5.1 31 11.2 68 24.6 37 13.4 126 45.7 1.17 4. Analyze any available
pictures or gestures. 34 12.3 51 18.5 100 36.2 46 16.7 45 16.3 1.94 5. Use an English -
Vietnamese dictionary.
35 12.7 129 46.7 89 32.2 19 6.9 4 1.4 2.62 6. Use an English -
English dictionary. 0 0 4 1.4 12 4.3 81 29.3 179 65 0.42
Table 8: Descriptive statistics of students’ use of Determination strategies It can be seen from the table 8, not many of the students used the first strategy (X = 0.67). There are only 1.8% of the participants always used this strategy while 54% of them never employed and 31.2% seldom did so.
There is the similar situation to the second strategy with the mean = 0.29.
Even worse, only 5.8% of the students employed this strategy while 76.4% (means 211 participants) said that they did not use it.
The third strategy (X = 1.17) asks if the participants discover a new word‟s meaning by guessing it from textual context. Although 45.7% of them never used it, there are 11.2% of them often employed this strategy.
The majority of the respondents answered the forth strategy with low frequency (X = 1.94). There are 36.2% of them sometimes adopted this strategy and 16.7% of them seldom used it.
As for using an English – Vietnamese dictionary (strategy 5), most of the students (46.7%) often used this strategy. 12.7% of them always employed it. Only 6.9% of them used this strategy with low frequency. So the mean of this strategy is 2.62.
Over half of the students asked, approximately 65%, admitted that they do not use the last strategy in Determination strategies (X = 0.42). There is only 1.4%
of the students often employed this strategy and no one always used it.
In short, among Determination strategies, respondents most frequently used the strategy 5 (Use an English - Vietnamese dictionary) to find the meaning of new words (X = 2.62). Meanwhile, the least employed strategy was strategy 2 (Analyze prefixes, suffixes and roots) with X = 0.29.
(2) Social strategies
N
o. Strategies
Degree of Frequency Always use Often use Sometimes X
use Seldom use Never use
N % N % N % N % N %
7. Ask the teacher for the
meaning. 24 8.7 50 18.1 120 43.5 70 25.4 12 4.3 2.01
8. Ask classmates for the
meaning. 25 9.1 102 37 102 37 33 12 14 5.1 2.33
9. Ask teacher for paraphrase or synonym of new word.
9 3.3 36 13 76 27.5 63 22.8 92 33.3 1.3
10. Ask teacher for a sentence including the new word.
15 5.4 37 13.4 94 34.1 70 25.4 60 21.7 1.55 11. Discover new
meaning through group work activity.
9 3.3 38 13.8 70 25.4 85 30.8 74 26.8 1.36
Table 9: Descriptive statistics of students’ use of Social strategies (Discovery)
From table 9, we can see clearly that in strategy 7, there are 43.5% of the students sometimes asked their teacher translate a new word into Vietnamese.
18.1% often and 8.7% always did that. Less than a half of them seldom or never wanted the same help from their teacher. So this strategy is with the mean of 2.01.
Most of the students preferred asking their classmates for meaning, which is strategy 8 with the mean of 2.33. It concluded 9% always used this strategy. 37%
often and the same number sometimes employed. Only 5% never did so.
Asking teacher for paraphrase or synonym of new word is used one strategy to discover the meaning of words (Strategy 9). However, up to 45.7% of the participants revealed that they never use this strategy. Only 6.9% always and 11.2%
often did so. Therefore this strategy is only with X = 1.3.
Apart from those strategies, the students can ask teacher for a sentence including the new word (Strategy 10, X = 1.55). The result shows that 34.1% of the students informed that they sometimes used this strategy. 25.4% seldom and 21.7%
never did so.
When asked whether they discovered new meaning through group work activity (Strategy 11), 13.8% of the participants reported that they often used while more than a half of them seldom (30.8%) or never (26.8) applied it. So this strategy is with X = 1.36.
In brief, according to the frequency of Social strategies for discovery, the results show that ask classmates for the meaning was the strategy 8 which students used most frequently. (X = 2.33). While the least used strategy was strategy 9 (Ask teacher for paraphrase or synonym of new word) with mean X = 1.3.
2.4.4.3. Strategies used for consolidation a word in memory