Which learning strategy is the best for the intentional learning of vocabulary?
Graduation Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Department of English Language and Literature Notre Dame Seishin University
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree Bachelor of Arts
by Mamiko Inukai 2013 Contents
Abstract 1
Chapter One: Introduction of learning strategies
1.1 Introduction 2 1.2 Vocabulary learning strategies 3 1.2.1 Mnemonics 3 1.2.3 Non-mnemonic learning strategies 6 1.3 General conclusions about vocabulary learning strategies 8 1.4 Survey on how learners feel about learning strategies 10 1.5 Research Questions 12 1.6 Summary 13
Chapter Two: The Experiment 2.1 Introduction 14 2.2 The experiment 14 2.2.1 Introduction to the experiment 14 2.2.2 Method 15 1) Subjects 15 2) Word selection 15 3) Test instrument 16 4) Procedure 18 2.2.3 Results 19 2.3 Summary 22
Chapter Three: The discussion 3.1 Introduction 24 3.2 Summary of the results 24 3.3 Discussion of the results 25 3.3.1 Interview data 25 3.3.2 Research question A 26 3.3.3 Research question B 28 3.3.4 Research question C 29 3.4 Implication 30 3.5 Limitations of the Experiment 30 3.6 Conclusion 32
References 33
Appendices 35 Abstract
When we study a foreign language, we meet a lot of new words and have to remember them in order to speak it. However, especially in Japan, there is not enough opportunity to memorize words naturally, through reading books or listening conversation in the language, for many learners so they try to remember foreign words by incidental learning, such as by word lists, writing repetition and saying aloud many times. The way of incidental learning is various depending on the learner and the effectiveness is unclear.
Thus, in this thesis, an experiment was conducted to find out which learning strategy is better for memorizing words. The four kinds of tests were prepared. They had different learning strategies (Keyword method, Saying aloud method, Writing repeatedly method and
Dictionary method) and ten French words to remember.
The results suggested that the keyword method was the best effectiveness but, as with the result of Schmitt’s survey (1997, pp. 217-226), the best strategy is could be vary depending on the ability of the learner and it is important to use a strategy which learners feel best for them. Chapter One: Introduction of learning strategies
1.1 Introduction
How do we study when we try to remember new words? When people remember new words, most of them will have some trouble retaining the new words for a long time or for just a minute. Especially, in Japan, word form learning is very important in English class, so it is important to memorize words. For example, when we were high school students, to pass a word test in English class, we may have suffered from remembering English words because we could not simply memorize some of them by learning strategies. On certain occasions, though we might have studied the English words very hard once, we might not remember them for the second time and feel frustration. Also, we might have experienced the situation that we were told to get some foods by our mother and, at home, we remembered what to buy, but, when we arrived at the grocery store, we couldn’t remember.
As mentioned above, remembering words is very hard and difficult for many people, so they sometimes try to remember a word using their own specific way and try not to forget it. For example, some people try to remember words with rhythm or some people try to remember words by writing them down repeatedly. These specific ways are generally called
“the learning strategies.” There are many kinds of strategies and in the next section, some examples of the learning strategy will be explained. Also, some researchers’ opinions of learning strategies will be given in this chapter later.
1.2 Vocabulary learning strategies
A vocabulary learning strategy is the method to remember words. There are many learning strategies to remember words. In this section, we will look at some examples of the vocabulary learning strategy. First, the explanation about the mnemonics will be given.
1.2.1 Mnemonics
The mnemonics is one kind of vocabulary learning strategy. They are little memory aids which help people remember things much easier. They often involve a phrase, a short song or a mental image and make people remember words, which would be difficult to remember, easier. For example, some people may use a phrase to remember a series of numbers, such as the mathematical sequence of the circular constant (3.14159 etc.). They would first remember an easy phrase, “May I have a large container of coffee?” Then they would remember “3.1415926” counting the letters in each word of the phrase (“May” has three letters so it means “3”, “I” has one letter so it means “1,” “have” has four letters so it means “4,” “a” has one letter so it means “1,” “large” has five letters so it means “5,”
“container” has nine letters so it means “9” and so on). In the UK, schoolchildren are taught
“Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain” to remember the colors appear in the rainbow because the phrase is easy to remember and the first letters help students remember the colors – Red,
Orange, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet (Psychologist World and partners, 2006). In Japan, schoolchildren remember the year, 1192, when the Kamakura Shogunate was established, saying that “IIKUNItukuro Kamakura Bakuhu” and the phrase helps remember the year,
1192.
There are many kinds of mnemonics and we will look at some of them in the following sections.
Some example of mnemonics
Keyword method
It helps people remember a target word with a keyword to stimulate them to. Here are some examples from Hulstijn (1997, pp. 205-6).
i. An English learner of German, trying to remember the meaning of Raupe
(“caterpillar” in German) could associate Raupe with the English word rope (sound
similarity), and construct a mental image representing a caterpillar stretched out in
more than its fullest length (exaggeration help!) on a rope.
ii. An English learner of French could use English keyword fascist to
remember French fàché (“angry”), linking sentence: “A fascist makes me ‘fàché.’”
iii. An ESL learner may learn the target word barb (“the sharp curved point of a
hook”) with the aid of the L2 carrier sentence “A barb is barbaric!”
Image of a word’s meaning
Learners can remember new words easier because the method can help create the concrete
image of a word. For example, to remember a word reel, English learner would have
imagine that “a reel is like a wheel” to remember because the sounds of the words are
similar and the images of the objects are similar too (Hulstijn, 1997, pp. 205).
Figure 1: The image of reel and wheel
reel wheel Semantic maps
This method helps learners memorize new words connecting with words which they
already know. Learners can draw the tree diagram of words in the brain. For example, to
remember legal, learners would connect it with law, lawyer, constitution or illegal, which
they already know.
One example of a semantic map of legal
1.2.3 Non-mnemonic learning strategies
In this section, let’s look at some strategies other than mnemonics.
Saying aloud
This is the method to memorize a word saying it aloud. By saying a word aloud, learners
can remember it. For example, Japanese learner would say aloud ‘Apple, apple, apple,
apple, apple…’ to memorize English word, apple.
Bilingual dictionary use
Learners can memorize a word looking it up in a bilingual dictionary. For example,
Japanese learner would look up a word in English-Japanese dictionary and check the
Japanese meaning, the pronunciation or the example sentences to remember it. Written repetition method
It is a method that helps learners memorizing words by writing them down on pieces of
paper again and again. For example, to remember English word estimate, Japanese
learner would write down estimate repeatedly on some pieces of paper.
Word list method
Learners use a piece of paper which has many words and their meanings and can
memorize words by looking at them. For example, Japanese learners would use some
word lists with English words written and, on the back, the Japanese meanings are
written. Learners would check the word lists many times until they remember the words.
Study spelling method
Learners focus on the pronunciation of a word at first. Then they study its spelling. They
remember the word by connecting the pronunciation and the spelling. For example, first
learners only hear the sound of a word and memorize it, then try to remember the spelling
of the word by writing down it later.
Connect word with synonyms/antonyms method
Learners can remember a word by connecting it with its synonyms/antonyms. The
method can help learner remember some words at the same time. For example, to
remember dependent, a learner would remember its antonym independent and its
synonym reliance as well.
Guessing from context This helps learners remember words in natural way. While they are reading books,
learners can guess the meaning of a word they do not know, and they gradually remember
the word incidentally. For example, a learner would come across the unknown English
word assailant while he was reading a book. However, he would guess the meaning from
the context partially and he could become to find out the meaning more clearly while he
came across it many times in the book.
1.3 General conclusions about vocabulary learning strategies
The research into language strategies began in earnest in the 1970s and the history is not so long, but some opinions were discussed about beneficial learning strategies.
O’Malley et al. (1985, pp. 21-24) found that repetition was the most commonly used strategy and much less frequent strategies require more active manipulation of information, such as imagery, inference, the Keyword method. So, his idea implied that more mechanical strategies are often favored over complex ones, or mnemonics.
Opinions about deeper and shallow vocabulary strategies were discussed and some benefits were found. According to Cohen and Aphek (1981, pp. 221-36), and Pressley, Levin and Miller (1982, pp. 50-70), the research into some ‘deeper’ vocabulary learning strategies
(such as forming associations and using the Keyword Method) have been shown to enhance retention of target words. Also, relatively shallow strategies can be effective, according to
Nation (1982, pp. 14-36). He surveyed research into word lists, and concluded that they are an effective way for learning a great deal of vocabulary in a short time. O’Malley and Chamot
(1990) said that even rote repetition can be effective if students are accustomed to using it.
However, Horwitz (1988, pp. 283-94) and Wenden (1987) mentioned that we must consider our learners’ feelings, and take note of what they think of the various learning strategies. In addition, Hosenfeld (1976, pp. 117-29) notes that, ‘Too often our focus has been on what students should be doing; we must being by asking what students are doing’ So,
Schmitt conducted a survey to continue the research into learning strategies, which focused on learners’ feelings (1997, pp. 217).
1.4 Survey on how learners feel about learning strategies
Schmitt conducted a survey study to research which vocabulary strategies learners were using, and to ask them how effective they believed those strategies were. The survey was conducted in Japan and 600 subjects were collected. All of the subjects spoke Japanese as an L1, and they had taken or were taking EFL classes. The survey was given to four groups; junior high school students, high school students, university students and adult learners. In each group, there were 150 subjects. The result of the survey was tallied up into the next section.
The tables below show the results of Schmitt’s survey.
Table 1: Most- and least-used strategies Most-used strategies Rank/40 Discover meaning % Consolidate meaning % 1 Bilingual dictionary 85 2/3 Verbal repetition 76 Written repetition 76 4/5 Study spelling 74 Guess from textual context 74 6 Ask classmates for meaning 73 7 Say new word aloud 69 8 Take notes in class 64 Least-used strategies 36 Use physical action 13 37 Check for L1 cognate 11 38 Use cognates in study 10 39 Use semantic maps 9 40 Teachers check flash 3 Cards for accuracy Table 2: Most helpful and least helpful strategies
Most helpful strategies Rank/40 Discover meaning % Consolidate meaning % 1 Bilingual dictionary 95 2/3 Say new word aloud 91 Written repetition 91 4 Connect word with 88 synonyms/antonyms 5/6 Continue over time 87 Study spelling 87 7 Ask classmates for 86 paraphrase/synonym 8/9/10 Take notes in class 84 Analyze pictures/gestures 84 Verbal repetition 84 Least helpful strategies 37 Use cognates in study 34 38 Keyword method 31 39 Image word form 22 40 Skip or pass new word 16
Comparing the most used list of Table 1 with the most helpful list of Table 2, the results showed that there were some commonly highly-rated strategies; ‘bilingual dictionary’,
‘written repetition’, ‘say a new word aloud’ which were good for word form studying, or incidental learning, and they showed how Japanese learners thought that they were important.
At the same time, Table 2 showed that learners do not regard the Keyword method as helpful strategy or they were unaware of it.
On the other hand, dividing the result into ages, the following results emerged. Table 3: Trends of vocabulary strategy use
Strategy JHS (%) HS (%) U (%) A (%) Written 91 89 75 50 repetition 89 77 70 60 Study spelling 67 67 50 33 of word 66 57 42 29 Word lists 51 29 12 10 Use textbook 77 73 95 97 vocabulary 47 69 93 89 section 37 47 57 58 Flash cards 25 37 46 61 Bilingual 25 29 55 57 dictionary 20 29 37 43 Guess from 17 33 45 53 textual context 12 27 40 41 Image word’s meaning Ask teacher for paraphrase or synonym Skip or pass new word Analyze part of speech Connect word to personal experience Part of speech (remembering) JHS = junior high school student (years 7-9), HS = high school (years 10-12), U = university, A = adult
Table 3 showed that the patterns of strategy use can change over as learners mature and become more proficient in the target language. It seemed that the strategies change over for deeper understanding as learners mature (Schmitt, 1997, pp. 217-26).
1.5 Research Questions
From the literature review, it was shown that there was high possibility that the learning strategy can change depending on the learner’s cognitive maturity and language proficiency and awareness of alternative strategies. Furthermore, the results showed which learning strategy learners used as they matured in English skill. Therefore, Chapter Two will focus on the practicability and the effectiveness of the learning strategies.
There are three research questions for the experiment.
(A) Which learning strategy is more helpful for immediate learning for university learners?
(B) Which learning strategy’s effectiveness lasts longer?
(C) Does the effectiveness of each strategy differs depending on the part of speech?
1.6 Summary
In this chapter, some learning strategies and ideas about strategies were given.
Schmitt’s results implied that the learning strategy use can change over time depending on learners’ maturity of language learning.
Thus, in Chapter Two, an experiment will see which learning strategy is effective, how long each strategy lasts and whether strategies differ depending on parts of speech. Chapter Two: The Experiment
2.1 Introduction
Chapter One introduced some learning strategies and some researchers’ opinion about them. Also, the result of the survey in Chapter One showed how learners feel about learning strategies.
The experiment reported in this chapter examined the effectiveness of some learning strategies and tried to find out whether the effectiveness of the strategy corresponds with the learners’ feeling about it or not. Thus the experiment will find out which learning strategy is better for remembering new words.
2.2 The experiment
2.2.1 Introduction to the experiment
The aim of this experiment was to find out which technique is the best to help people remember new words and how long the memory would last. Also, this experiment could help find out the best memorizing technique for each part of speech, and give us data about their productive and the receptive knowledge. The immediate post-test helped to determine which memorizing method was better for immediate memorizing, and the delay test helped to find out which memorizing method helped remember longer.
2.2.2 Method
In this section, we will look at the overview and the aim of the experiment, the subjects, the word selection, the experiment, the procedure and the results. The experiment was conducted in the form of a memorizing test. The subjects remembered ten French words using four memorizing techniques. After memorizing the words, the subjects were asked to
14 write down the French words and the Japanese meanings. About one month later, the subjects took a delay test of the French words.
1) Subjects
28 Japanese females who are 20 to 22 years old were selected as the subjects for this experiment. All the subjects agreed to take part in this experiment voluntarily. The subjects were the third year and fourth year students of Notre Dame Seishin University. They have studied English, linguistics and literature for at least two years and their major is English linguistics. Some of them had studied French for more than one year but a test identified which French word they had previously known. They were divided into four groups and each group had seven subjects.
2) Word selection
In this experiment, to get clear results of which memorizing technique is better, the subjects remembered French words because it was expected that most of the subjects had known few French words, but they would be familiar with the French alphabet, so they would feel less resistance remembering French words. Also, the experiment used parts of speech as variables because there may be a possibility that some parts of speech were easier to memorize depending on memorizing techniques. 16 French verbs, 12 French nouns and 12
French prepositions, which are not similar spelling to English, were selected from a French-
Japanese dictionary. Thus the four kinds of tests, each of them had different memorizing techniques and words, were made.
3) Test instrument
15 This experiment aimed to discover which memorizing technique was better, so four representative memorizing techniques, the keyword method, the saying aloud method, the writing down repeatedly method and the dictionary method, were used in the experiment and four kinds of tests were prepared in book form. The tests had different French words and different memorizing techniques each other (Table 4). Each of them had pretest page, making memorize page, productive test page and receptive test page.
16 Table 4: The groups of words used on the test
Group technique verbs nouns prepositions Keyword faire, grosser, A cheveu, jambon, piste pendant, dans, sans method domineer, parler Saying dormir, effacer, B été, gàteau, légume avant, en, entre aloud voler, chanter Writing rire, courir, C cadeau, noix, hiver selon, sous, chez down pleurer, mettre Dictionary lire,gagner, D printemps, soleil, camarade après, hors, par method boire, conduire
Firstly, the immediate post-tests were prepared. On the pretest, the subjects had to
answer whether they already knew the ten French words. Next, the subjects were asked to
remember the ten French words using the assigned memorizing technique. Then, the subjects
took the productive and the receptive tests. To determine which memorizing technique helps
the subjects answer the productive test and the receptive test better, two kinds of tests were
given.
The words on the productive test and the receptive test were randomized on the
learning page, and the words (verbs, nouns and prepositions) were shuffled when the subjects
were tested and the subjects couldn’t return to the previous pages.
Also, the delay tests were taken to survey which memorizing technique worked in the
long term. The test had only the productive test and the receptive test, which were the same
content as the immediate post-test. It also helped to find out which memorizing technique has
longer effects on the memorizing of each part of speech.
On the productive and the receptive test, each of the words was assigned one point
and the maximum score was ten. If the subject misspelled a word, but it was not so serious,
the word was given 0.5 points. The max score of the verb was four and the max score of the
noun and the preposition were three, because there were four verbs, three nouns and three
prepositions on the one test.
17 4) Procedure
The procedure of the immediate post-test is as follows. On the first page, the subjects took the pretest to check whether they already knew the French words. They were shown ten
French words and, if they knew them, they were asked to write down their meanings in
Japanese. On the second page, the subjects were instructed to remember the listed ten French words with Japanese meaning using the specified memorizing technique. The subjects took as long as they liked. Then, on the third page, the subjects took the productive test. Japanese meanings were written on the left side and the subjects were asked to fill the blanks in the right side with French words they remembered. On the fourth page, the receptive test was taken. French words were written down on the right side and the subjects asked to fill in the
Japanese meaning, which they remembered, in the blanks on the right side. Table 5 summarizes the procedure and the tests are in the Appendix.
18 Table 5: The immediate post-test procedure
Page Group A Group B Group C Group D number 1 pretest memorize words memorize words memorize words Memorize words 2 by original by saying them by writing them by dictionary keyword method aloud down repeatedly way 3 productive test (write Japanese words in French) 4 receptive test (write Japanese words for French) After about one month, the subjects took only the productive test and receptive test, which they had taken before to collect delay data. They could take as long as they liked. Table
6 summarizes the procedure.
Table 6: The delay test procedure
Page Group A Group B Group C Group D number
1 productive test (write Japanese words in French)
2 receptive test (write Japanese words for French)
2.2.3 Results
In this section, the result of the experiment will be reported. First, we will look at the result of the four immediate post-tests and delay test, Test A, Test B, Test C and Test D, on the productive and receptive tests.
The data in Table 1 show that the mean scores of the immediate post-productive and post-receptive tests. Comparing the mean score of the four tests, Keyword method was the highest score, 8.14, and, on both of the productive and the receptive, Keyword method got the highest score of the four methods. Writing repeatedly method had second highest score on both test. Saying aloud method and Dictionary method had no significant difference.
19 Table 7: Mean scores of the immediate post-tests (Max point: 10)
Productive test Receptive test Mean score Test A (keyword) 6.71 (1.93) 9.57 (0.53) 8.14 Test B (saying aloud) 3.43 (0.53) 5.93 (0.73) 4.68 Test C (writing repeatedly) 5.86 (3.02) 6.86 (2.48) 6.36 Test D (dictionary) 3.64 (1.91) 7.43 (2.30) 5.54 s.d in parentheses
The data in Table 7 shows the mean scores of the delay productive and the delay receptive tests. All four tests had low scores, but Dictionary method was the highest score of all tests, 1.71. Also, Dictionary method had the highest score of the productive and the receptive tests. It is noteworthy that Keyword method had the second highest score on the receptive tests, but, on the productive test, it had the lowest score of all the four tests. There was no significant difference between Saying aloud and Writing repeatedly method.
20 Table 8: Mean scores of the delay tests (Max points: 10)
Productive test Receptive test Mean score Delay Test A (keyword) 0.14 (0.38) 2.14 (1.68) 1.14 Delay Test B (saying aloud) 0.43 (0.45) 1.86 (1.57) 1.14 Delay Test C (repeated writing) 0.43 (1.13) 1.43 (1.40) 0.93 Delay Test D (Dictionary) 0.71 (0.81) 2.71 (1.89) 1.71 s.d in parentheses
Focusing on parts of speech of the immediate post-tests, in Table 9, we can see nouns had the highest mean scores both on the productive and receptive tests comparing the scores with the max score. The mean score of verbs and prepositions showed no significant difference in the productive test and the receptive test.
Table 9: The mean score of the immediate post-tests, focusing on parts of speech (Max point: 4 or 3)
Productive test Receptive test verbs nouns prepositions verbs nouns prepositions (Max: 4) (Max: 3) (Max: 3) (Max: 4) (Max: 3) (Max: 3) Test A 2.71 (1.11) 1.86 (0.80) 2.14 (0.63) 3.90 (0.38) 2.90 (0.38) 2.70 (0.49) Test B 1.07 (0.45) 1.57 (0.35) 0.79 (0.57) 2.14 (0.69) 2.71 (0.49) 1.07 (0.61) Test C 2.21 (1.22) 2.07 (0.98) 1.57 (0.98) 2.29 (1.38) 2.71 (0.49) 1.86 (1.07) Test D 1.43 (0.98) 1.29 (0.95) 1.07 (0.73) 2.86(1.07) 2.57 (0.79) 2.00 (0.58) Mean 1.86 1.70 1.39 2.80 2.72 1.91 s.d in parentheses
Table 10 shows the result of the delay tests for the parts of speech. All of the scores were low. However, comparing the scores with the max score, nouns got the highest mean score in the productive test and the receptive test than the other parts of speech as on the immediate post-tests.
Table 10: The mean score of the delay tests, focusing on parts of speech (Max point: 4 or 3)
Productive test Receptive test preposition verbs nouns verbs nouns prepositions s (M: 4) (M: 4) (M: 3) (M: 3) (M: 3) (M: 3)
21 Delay Test A 0.14 (0.38) 0.00 (0.00) 0.00 (0.00) 0.43 (0.53) 1.29 (0.95) 0.43 (0.79) Delay Test B 0.14 (0.24) 0.00 (0.00) 0.00 (0.00) 0.57 (0.79) 1.14 (1.07) 0.14 (0.38) Delay Test C 0.00 (0.00) 0.29 (0.76) 0.14 (0.38) 0.14 (0.38) 1 .00(1.00) 0.29 (0.49) Delay Test D 0.29 (0.49) 0.43 (0.73) 0.00 (0.00) 0.71 (0.76) 1.29 (0.95) 0.71 (0.76) Mean 0.14 0.25 0.04 0.46 1.18 0.39 s.d in parentheses
The s.d in parentheses was data which shows us how much the scores were scattered.
In this experiment, almost all of the results of Writing repeatedly method showed relatively higher s.d scores than the other tests.
2.3 Summary
In Chapter Two, we looked at an experiment about memorizing techniques. In the experiment, 28 subjects were divided into four groups and the subjects took the word- memorizing test. The target words were French verbs, nouns and prepositions and the subjects were asked to memorize these French words using specified techniques. The immediate post- test and the delay test were taken, and the data was collected. In the immediate post-test and the delay test, the test showed some specific results. Also, the test helped lead some specific results about parts of speech memorizing.
In the next chapter, we will look at the data more precisely and discuss the effective memorizing techniques for immediate learning and for remembering longer. Also, we will focus on parts of speech memorizing, and productive and receptive learning.
22 Chapter Three: The discussion
3.1 Introduction
In Chapter One, we looked at the learning vocabulary strategies, such as the keyword method, the written repetition method, the saying aloud method and the bilingual dictionary method. Also, we looked at some opinions of researchers and the result of a survey on how learners feel about learning strategies. To find out which is the best strategy for learners, an experiment was conducted. The method of the experiment and its result were shown in
Chapter Two.
In this chapter, we will focus on the result of the experiment and discuss about the tests in more detail.
3.2 Summary of the results
In Chapter Two, the aim, the subjects, the method and the results of the experiment were presented. 28 subjects took the memorizing test. Four kinds of tests were prepared and subjects were divided into four groups. Each group took a test which had different kinds of learning strategies. The representative strategies were chosen for the four tests. The strategy of Group A was the keyword method, Group B was the saying aloud method, Group C was the writing repetition method and Group D was the bilingual dictionary method. There were ten French words to remember and the delay tests were conducted about one month later.
The result of the tests shows there are some specific differences in learning strategies. In the immediate post-test, the keyword method had the highest score and the saying aloud method had the lowest score. In the delay test, all of the four tests got low scores but the dictionary method was the highest score of the four methods. Focusing on each part of
23 speech, nouns had high scores and verbs and prepositions had no significant difference in the immediate post-test. In the productive delay test, all scores were low, but nouns got a higher score than the other parts of speech.
3.3 Discussion of the results
In Chapter Two, we looked at the results of each point briefly. Thus, in this chapter, let us look at the results more deeply and discuss the results. First, the results of the interview data will be discussed to confirm that the subjects in this experiment had the same feeling about learning strategies as the subjects in Schmitt’s survey.
3.3.1 Interview data
An interview was conducted in order to find out whether the subjects in this experiment and in Schmitt’s survey (1997, pp. 217-226) had the same feelings about vocabulary learning strategy. The interview questions were like this:
Which learning strategy is helpful or useful in your vocabulary learning, the dictionary, the repeated writing, the saying aloud or the keyword method?
As the result, the most used and helpful strategy was the dictionary method. The second was the saying aloud method, the third was the repeated writing method and the lowest was the keyword method. The second and the third was a narrow margin, so it can be said that the results of how subjects feel were not different each other between this experiment and Schmitt’s survey.
3.3.2 Research question A
Research question A was Which learning strategy is more helpful for immediate learning for
24 university learners?
In Chapter Two, Table 7 shows that the mean scores of the immediate post-tests.
Looking at the result, the keyword method was the highest score in the productive and receptive test and the lowest score was the saying aloud method. The repeated writing method was the second highest score but the s.d scores were high. The saying aloud method and the dictionary method had no significant difference in the mean score, but the s.d scores of the saying aloud method was the lowest of all.
Considering these results, it can be said that the keyword method is more helpful than the other methods in immediate learning. It seemed that the second helpful strategy was the repeated writing method because it had the second highest score, but the s.d scores were higher than the other methods, so it implies that whether the repeated writing method is effective or not depends on the adaptability of the learner.
In contrast to the repeated writing method, the s.d scores of the saying aloud method were low. The mean score was the lowest of the four methods, but the s.d scores were remarkably lower than the others, so this result implies that the saying aloud method is difficult learning strategy for learners but the effectiveness of the method works equally regardless of the adaptability of the learner. As for the dictionary method, the s.d scores were relatively high, so it can be said that it depends on the adaptability of a learner whether the dictionary method works effective.
We can conclude that the best learning strategy was the keyword method for immediate learning but we could not clearly decide the second best strategy. The reason is that the other methods had not only some effectiveness but also defects (some of them depended on the acceptability of the learner or were difficult to learn).
Comparing the result of this experiment with the results of the survey taken by
Schmitt in Chapter 1.4, it can be said that the effectiveness of the strategy does not correspond
25 with the trend of vocabulary strategy use by university students. Table 3 in Chapter 1.4 showed that the most useful strategy was the dictionary method. However, according to this experiment, the most effective method was the keyword method and the dictionary method did not have significant effectiveness in the four strategies.
3.3.3 Research question B
Research question B was Which learning strategy’s effectiveness lasts longer? Table
8 in Chapter 2 shows that the mean score of the delay tests, which were taken about one month later.
Looking at the data, all of the scores were low. Especially, in the productive test, most subjects got zero. Considering the result, it can be said that these four learning strategies do not work effectively for a long time if learners simply use these strategies once. Then this result implies that the importance of ‘principle of expanding rehearsal’ when learners try to remember words. This principle suggests that learners should review new material soon after the initial meeting, and then gradually increase the learning intervals (Pimsleur, 1967, pp. 73-
5; Baddeley, 1990, pp. 156-8). If learners use a learning strategy repeatedly with some intervals, they would be able to remember words more certainly (Schmitt, 1997, pp. 216).
However, carefully looking at the mean scores, the dictionary method had the highest score on the productive and the receptive test, so it might be said that the dictionary learning is the most effective method which lasts longer than the others. Furthermore, in the receptive test, the keyword method got the second highest score, so the keyword method is more effective than the saying aloud and the repeated writing method when learners remember words for receptive tests.
Comparing these results with the results of the Schmitt’s survey, the most effective method which works longer and the most used strategy were the same, it was the dictionary
26 method. Considering this result, we can say that learners might notice the best learning strategy is the dictionary method which works longer and they prefer to use it practically.
3.3.4 Research question C
Research question C was Does the effectiveness of each strategy differs depending on the part of speech? In Chapter 2, Table 9 shows the mean scores of the immediate post-test focusing on the parts of speech. Four verbs, three nouns and three prepositions were chosen for each four kinds of tests.
Looking at the data, on productive test, each test got almost more than half score of the max score of the noun, though, on the verb and preposition, most tests got less than half score of the max score of them. On the receptive test, in the same way with the productive test, nouns got the highest scores as the percentage of the maximum on each method.
Considering these results, it can be said that nouns are easy to remember, regardless of the four strategies - the keyword, the saying aloud, the repeated writing and the dictionary method in immediate learning.
When we look at the long term effectiveness of the strategies on parts of speech, the similar tendency as the immediate one was revealed. In Chapter 2, Table 10 shows the scores of the delay tests focusing on parts of speech. All of the score were low, but the mean score of nouns was the highest of all. However, the score was really low, so it is difficult to say that the learning strategy have different effects depending on the parts of speech in the long term.
As a conclusion, it can be said that the effectiveness of the learning strategies does not differ depending on parts of speech, but nouns are easy to remember with all of the four learning strategies.
3.4 Implication
27 According to Schmitt’s results (1997, pp. 217-226) and the interview in Chapter Two, the dictionary method was the most used strategy for university students but the keyword method was the most effective of the four strategies for immediate learning and the dictionary method was the most effective in the long term learning. Thus, we can say that learners accurately know which strategy is the best to remember new words for long time and, in practice, they use it when they learn new words.
3.5 Limitations of the Experiment
There were some problems when testing in this experiment. First, the number of subjects who took the tests was not enough and they were all female. Furthermore, they were all from the same university, so the subjects’ abilities of the vocabulary learning were not so variable.
Second, the words used in the tests were ten French words and the number of words is small. In the pre-test, almost all of the subjects did not know the French words, but not all.
Furthermore, on the receptive and productive test, there were some subjects who could answer all ten French words. Considering these facts, the effectiveness of the learning strategy cannot be found from this data accurately. Thus, if the word was chosen from more unfamiliar language, the number of words was more than ten and the subjects were more variable, we could find out more interesting data.
Third problem is the delay. In this test, the delay test was taken about one month later and the result was insufficient because the data did not become what expected. The score of the delay test was extremely low and it was difficult to find out how long the effectiveness of the strategies last. We could realize the importance of ‘principle of expanded rehearsal,’ but if the delay test was taken twice or three times with shorter periods than one month, more interesting results could be found.
28 Therefore, if I were to do the experiment again, I would like to test more subjects - around 500 and a lot of kind learners who go to different universities. I would choose words from a completely unknown language such as Arabic and I’d have a later data set – say 15 words. Also the delay test would be taken three times, one day later, one week later and one month later.
3.6 Conclusion
In this thesis, first we focused on vocabulary learning strategies and some researchers’ opinions about the strategies. The memorizing tests were taken to find out which strategy is the best and works longer. In the result, the strategy which learners use most corresponded with the most effectiveness strategy which lasts longer. Furthermore, it became clear that all of the four strategies would not work more than one month. Also, it was clear that the learning strategy’s effectiveness did not differ depending on parts of speech and the noun was the easiest to remember with these strategies.
Considering these results, we cannot clearly say which strategy was the best, but it could be said that the best strategy can be different depending on the acceptability of learners and learners should use a strategy which they think best for their purpose, for example whether the memorizing is for immediate or long term learning. As Horwitz (1988, pp. 283-
94) and Wenden (1987) mentioned, the most important consideration must be how learners feel about the strategy when learning new vocabulary. If a learner found the best learning strategy, the strategy would help the learner facilitate to remember words in daily life.
29 References
Baddeley, A. 1990. Human Memory: Theory And Practice. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Cohen, A. D. and E. Aphek. 1981. Easifying Second Language Learning. Studies In Second Language Acquisition 3 (2): 221-36.
Horwitz, E. K. 1988. The Beliefs About Language Learning Of Beginning University Foreign Language Students. The Modern Language Journal 72: 283-94.
Hosenfeld, C. 1976. Learning About Learning: Discovering Our Students’ Strategies. Foreign Language Annals 9 (2): 117-29.
Hulstijn, J. 1997. Mnemonic Methods In Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning. In James, C. and Thomas, H (Eds.) Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition, Cambridge University Press. pp. 203-224.
Nation, I. S. P. 1982. Beginning To Learning Foreign Vocabulary: A View Of The Resarch. RELC Journal 13(1): 14-36.
O’Malley, J. M., A. U. Chamot, Stewner-Manzares, L. Kupper and R. P. Russo. 1985. Learning Strategies Used By Beginning And Intermediate ESL Students. Language Learning 35 (1): 21-24.
O’Malley, J. and A. U. Chamot. 1990. Learning Strategies In Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: University Press.
Pimsleur, P. 1967. A Memory Schedule. Modern Language Journal 51 (2): 73-5.
Pressley, M., J. R. Levin and G. E. Miller. 1982. The Keyword Method Compared To Alternative Vocabulary Learning Strategies. Contemporary Educational Psychology 7: 50-60.
Psychologist World and partners. 2006. Using Mnemonics To Improve Your Brain. 16 Aug. 2012.
Wenden, A. 1987. How To Be A Successful Learner: Insights And Prescriptions From L2 Leaners. In A. L. Wenden and J. Rubin (Eds.) Learning Strategies In Language Learning. New York: Prentice Hall.
30 Appendices
Appendix 1: The written test
Test A
Pre-test: Do you know below French words? If you know, write the meaning in the blank.
Example: fraise いちご
1. cheveu
2. faire
3. jambon
4. grossir
5. pendant
6. dominer
7. parler
8. dans
9. piste
10. sans
31 Keyword method is one way of the remembering words. You can associate each of the words with the keyword and it will help you remember the target word.
French Japanese One original association
manger [マンジュ] 食べる マンジュウを食べる。 Remember these French words and the meaning.
French Japanese Write your own association cheveu [シュブ] 髪の毛 faire [フェル] 作る jambon [ジャンボン] ハム grossir [グロスゥイル] 太る pendant [パンダン] …の間に dominer [ドミネ] 圧倒する parler [パフレ] 話す dans [ダン] …の中に piste [ピスト] 手がかり sans [サン] …なしに
32 TEST 1: Write the Japanese words in French.
Example: いちご → fraise
11. 作る →
12. …なしに →
13. ハム →
14. 圧倒する →
15. 太る →
16. 話す →
17. …の中に →
18. 髪の毛 →
19. 手がかり →
20. …の間に →
33 TEST 2: Write the Japanese for these French words.
Example: fraise → いちご
21. grossir →
22. faire →
23. sans →
24. jambon →
25. pendant →
26. cheveu →
27. parler →
28. dans →
29. dominer →
30. piste →
34 Test B
Pre-test: Do you know below French words? If you know, write the meaning in the blank.
Example: fraise いちご
1. été
2. gàteau
3. dormir
4. effacer
5. avant
6. en
7. légume
8. voler
9. entre
10. chanter
35 Remember the French words by saying new words aloud several times.
été [エテ] 夏 gàteau [ガト] 菓子 dormir [ドルミル] 眠る
effacer [エファセ] 消す
avant [アヴァン] …より前に
en [アン] …に、…へ légume [レギュム] 野菜 voler [ヴォレ] 飛ぶ
entre [アントル] （二つのもの）の間に chanter [シャンテ] 歌う
36 TEST 1: Write the Japanese words in French.
Example: いちご → fraise
11. 消す →
12. 眠る →
13. （二つのもの）の間に →
14. …より前に →
15. 野菜 →
16. 夏 →
17. 飛ぶ →
18. …に、…へ →
19. 歌う →
20. 菓子 →
37 TEST 2: Write the Japanese for these French words.
Example: fraise → いちご
21. légume →
22. en →
23. effacer →
24. gàteau →
25. chanter →
26. dormir →
27. été →
28. avant →
29. entre →
30. voler →
38 Test C
Pre-test: Do you know below French words? If you know, write the meaning in the blank.
Example: fraise いちご
1. cadeau
2. noix
3. selon
4. rire
5. hiver
6. courir
7. sous
8. pleurer
9. mettre
10. chez
39 Remember the French words by writing them many times. (Use the blanks)
cadeau [カド] プレゼント
noix [ヌワ] 胡桃
selon [スロン] …に従って
rire [リル] 笑う
hiver [イヴェル] 冬
courir [クゥリル] 走る
sous [スゥ] …の下に
pleurer [プルレ] 泣く
mettre [メットル] 置く
chez [シェ] …の家に(で)
40 TEST 1: Write the Japanese words in French.
Example: いちご → fraise
11. 置く →
12. 胡桃 →
13. プレゼント →
14. 冬 →
15. …の下に →
16. 走る →
17. …の家に(で) →
18. 泣く →
19. 笑う →
20. …に従って →
41 TEST 2: Write the Japanese for these French words.
Example: fraise → いちご
21. noix →
22. rire →
23. courir →
24. cadeau →
25. chez →
26. pleurer →
27. sous →
28. hiver →
29. mettre →
30. selon →
42 Test D
Pre-test: Do you know below French words? If you know, write the meaning in the blank.
Example: fraise いちご
1. lire
2. après
3. printemps
4. soleil
5. gagner
6. camarade
7. hors
8. boire
9. conduire
10. par 1.
43 Remember the French words. lire [リㇽ] 読む (英: read) e.g. lire un roman (read a novel) 「小説を読む」 après [アプレ] …の後に、…の後で (英 : after) e.g. Ils’est couché après minuit. (He went to bed after midnight.) 「彼は真夜中すぎに寝た。」 printemps [プランタン] 春 (英: spring) e.g vacances de printemps (spring vacation) 「春休み」 soleil [ソレイュ] 太陽 (英: sun) e.g. lever du soleil (sunrise) 「日の出」 gagner [ガニュ] 稼ぐ (英: earn) e.g. gagner cinq mille euros par mois (earn five thousands euros per a month ) 「月に５千ユーロ稼ぐ」 camarade [カマラド] 友達 (英: friend) e.g. camarade de classe (classmate) 「同級生」 hors [オル] …の外に、…の外で (英 : outside) e.g. hors de la ville (outside the village) 「町の外に」 boire [ブワル] 飲む (英 : drink) e.g. boire une tasse de café (drink a cup of coffee) 「コーヒーを一杯飲む」 conduire [コンデュイル] 連れて行く(英: take) e.g. conduire un enfant à l’école (take a child to the school) 「子供を学校へ連れて行く」 par [パル] …を通って (英 : through) e.g. entrer par le jardin (enter through the garden) 「庭から入る」
44 TEST 1: Write the Japanese words in French.
Example: いちご → fraise
11. …のあとに、…の後で →
12. 春 →
13. 読む →
14. 太陽 →
15. …の外に、…の外で →
16. 稼ぐ →
17. 友達 →
18. …を通って →
19. 飲む →
20. 連れて行く →
45 TEST 2: Write the Japanese for these French words.
Example: fraise → いちご
21. après →
22. soleil →
23. gagner →
24. lire →
25. camarade →
26. par →
27. hors →
28. boire →
29. conduire →
30. printemps→
46 Appendix 2: The result of the immediate and the delay test
Test A (keywords) Delay test A
Pretest Productive Receptive Productive Receptive
A1 0 9.5 9 0 0 A2 0 6.5 10 1 1 A3 0 7 10 0 3 A4 0 9 10 0 5 A5 0 5.5 10 0 2 A6 0 5 9 0 1 A7 0 4.5 9 0 3 Average score 0.00 6.71 9.57 0.14 2.14 s.d 0.00 1.93 0.53 0.38 1.68
Test B (saying) Delay test B
Pretest Productive Receptive Productive Receptive B1 0 4.5 6 0 2 B2 0 3.5 6.5 0 0 B3 1 3 5 1 1 B4 0 3 6 0 0 B5 0 3.5 7 0.5 3 B6 0 3.5 5 1 3 B7 1 3 6 0.5 4 Average score 0.29 3.43 5.93 0.43 1.86 s.d 0.49 0.53 0.73 0.45 1.57
47 Test C (writing) Delay test C
Pretest Productive Receptive Productive Receptive C1 0 7.5 10 0 1 C2 0 4 6 0 2 C3 0 7.5 8 0 1 C4 0 10 10 3 4 C5 0 7.5 5 0 0 C6 0 2 4 0 0 C7 0 2.5 5 0 2 Average score 0.00 5.86 6.86 0.43 1.43 s.d 0.00 3.02 2.48 1.13 1.40
Test D (dictonary) Delay test D
Pretest Productive Receptive Productive Receptive D1 0 5.5 10 1.5 6 D2 0 5.5 8 0 3 D3 0 0.5 8 0 1 D4 1 5 8 0.5 1 D5 1 4 9 2 4 D6 0 2 6 0 3 D7 0 3 3 1 1 Average score 0.29 3.64 7.43 0.71 2.71 s.d 0.49 1.91 2.30 0.81 1.89
48 Appendix 3: The result of the immediate test focusing on parts of speeches
productive (immediate test) receptive (immediate test)
verb noun preposition verb noun preposition
A1 4 3 2.5 3 3 3 A2 2.5 2 2 4 3 2 A3 3.5 2.5 1 4 3 3 A4 4 2 3 4 3 3 A5 1.5 1.5 2.5 4 3 3 A6 1.5 1.5 2 4 2 3 A7 2 0.5 2 4 3 2 Average score 2.71 1.86 2.14 3.9 2.9 2.7 s.d 1.11 0.80 0.63 0.38 0.38 0.49
productive (immediate test) receptive (immediate test)
verb noun preposition verb noun preposition B1 2 1.5 1 2 3 1 B2 1 1 1.5 3 2 1.5 B3 1 2 0 2 2 1 B4 1 2 0 3 3 0 B5 1 1.5 1 2 3 2 B6 1 1.5 1 1 3 1 B7 0.5 1.5 1 2 3 1 Average score 1.07 1.57 0.79 2.14 2.71 1.07 s.d 0.45 0.35 0.57 0.69 0.49 0.61
49 productive (immediate test) receptive (immediate test)
verb noun preposition verb noun preposition C1 2.5 3 2 4 3 3 C2 1 2 1 3 2 1 C3 3 2.5 2 2 3 3 C4 4 3 3 4 3 3 C5 3 2.5 2 1 3 1 C6 1 1 0 1 2 1 C7 1 0.5 1 1 3 1 Average score 2.21 2.07 1.57 2.29 2.71 1.86 s.d 1.22 0.98 0.98 1.38 0.49 1.07
productive (immediate test) receptive (immediate test)
verb noun preposition verb noun preposition D1 2.5 2 1 4 3 3 D2 2 2.5 1 3 3 2 D3 0 0.5 0 3 3 2 D4 2.5 1.5 2 3 3 2 D5 1.5 2 0.5 4 3 2 D6 0.5 0.5 1 2 2 2 D7 1 0 2 1 1 1 Average score 1.43 1.29 1.07 2.86 2.57 2.00 s.d 0.98 0.95 0.73 1.07 0.79 0.58
50 Appendix 4: The result of the delay test focusing on parts of speech
productive (delay test) receptive (delay test)
verb noun preposition verb noun preposition
A1 0 0 0 0 0 0 A2 1 0 0 1 0 0 A3 0 0 0 0 2 1 A4 0 0 0 1 2 2 A5 0 0 0 0 2 0 A6 0 0 0 0 1 0 A7 0 0 0 1 2 0 Average score 0.14 0.00 0.00 0.43 1.29 0.43 s.d 0.38 0.00 0.00 0.53 0.95 0.79
productive (delay test) receptive (delay test)
verb noun preposition verb noun preposition B1 0 0 0 0 2 0 B2 0 0 0 0 0 0 B3 0 1 0 0 1 0 B4 0 0 0 0 0 0 B5 0 0.5 0 2 1 0 B6 0.5 0.5 0 1 1 1 B7 0.5 0 0 1 3 0 Average score 0.14 0.29 0.00 0.57 1.14 0.14 s.d 0.24 0.39 0.00 0.79 1.07 0.38
51 productive (delay test) receptive (delay test)
verb noun preposition verb noun preposition C1 0 0 0 0 0 1 C2 0 0 0 0 2 0 C3 0 0 0 0 1 0 C4 0 2 1 1 2 1 C5 0 0 0 0 0 0 C6 0 0 0 0 0 0 C7 0 0 0 0 2 0 Average score 0.00 0.29 0.14 0.14 1.00 0.29 s.d 0.00 0.76 0.38 0.38 1.00 0.49
productive (delay test) receptive (delay test)
verb noun preposition verb noun preposition D1 1 0.5 0 2 2 2 D2 0 0 0 1 2 0 D3 0 0 0 0 0 1 D4 0 0.5 0 0 1 0 D5 0 2 0 1 2 1 D6 0 0 0 0 2 1 D7 1 0 0 1 0 0 Average score 0.29 0.43 0.00 0.71 1.29 0.71 s.d 0.49 0.73 0.00 0.76 0.95 0.76
52