The Comparison of Korean Students' Vocabulary Learning Strategies

1、26edsl 617, teaching and learning l2 vocabulary edsl 617teaching and learning second language vocabularyprofessor: dr. thomas cobbstudent: seong man park (260043746)due date: june 27, 2004.the comparison of korean students vocabulary learning strategies (word form analysis, guessing from the context

2、, bilingual dictionary use with written repetition)mcgill universitytable of contentsintroduction3-5word form analysis (affixes and word roots)5-8guessing the meaning of new words in the context8-10bilingual dictionary use (pocket electronic dictionary)10-11experiment12-17conclusion17-18references19

3、-20appendix 1 (test)21appendix 2 (word form analysis)22-23appendix 3 (guessing)24-25appendix 4 (bilingual dictionary)26introductionit is obvious that vocabulary learning has been regarded as one of the most important parts in a second or foreign language acquisition. along with the growth of interes

4、t in vocabulary acquisition, a lot of researches have been done in the field of second language acquisition in the last few decades (schmitt, 1997). however, most researches have been done in the field of the instruction and learning of second language vocabulary without focusing on the vocabulary l

5、earning strategies (e.g., schmitt, 1997; park, 2001). even though there have been some researches in the area of vocabulary learning strategies, they could not attract any noticeable attention from the researchers due to the lack of comprehensive researches in this field (schmitt, 1997). but most te

6、achers and researchers agree with the fact that vocabulary development should be the basis of acquiring good reading, speaking and listening skills in the field of second language learning. in order to enhance learners vocabulary knowledge, our attention should be focused on finding the most effecti

7、ve and necessary ways in the learners vocabulary development (chin, 1999). with the above reasons, i am going to focus on finding and exploring the most effective strategies in learners second language learning through this paper. on the basis of the above notion, i am going to explore the korean st

8、udents three major learning strategies in their english vocabulary learning through the comparison of these strategies using literature review and a small experiment. actually english is not a second language in korea. english is one of the major foreign languages. but the importance of english can

9、not be neglected, because english is given a great deal of weight on the university entrance examination and employment entrance examinations all over the country. with this reason, successful learning of english is an indispensable factor in korea. and for the successful learning of english, englis

10、h (henceforth english will be referred to l2) vocabulary knowledge should be a prerequisite factor. however, regardless of the importance of l2 vocabulary learning, very few researches related to l2 vocabulary learning have been done in korea (park, 2001). through schmitts article (1997) related to

11、vocabulary learning strategies, i found out the fact that there were lots of vocabulary learning strategies in the field of second language learning. but i think that different priorities should be given to those strategies depending on learners different learning situations. korean learners of engl

12、ish normally can not access to enough resources of english language because english is rarely spoken in korea. with this reason, it is inevitable that korean learners of english are placing their main reliance on strategies to overcome this weakness. through an analysis of the surveys related to the

13、ir strategy reliance, park (2001) reveals that korean learners of english too much depended on learning strategies in their l2 vocabulary learning. all things considered, i came up with the following two questions.1. which strategies are more effective than others for korean learners of english?2. w

14、hich strategies should be taught in the korean efl classrooms?through this paper, i am going to try to explore the above questions through literature. and i am also planning to do a small experiment with six korean students to test my findings, even though the result will not be statistically signif

15、icant due to the small sample size. but i expect that the result will be able to show me some teaching implications for the korean students effective development of l2 vocabulary. with regard to the strategies that i am going to compare, chin (1999) mentions that word form analysis, guessing the mea

16、ning of new words from the context, and dictionary use are traditional techniques which have been widely used and employed in l2 language classrooms. and these strategies are also commonly used in korea. so i will do literature review about these three strategies to compare and do a small experiment

17、 using these strategies in this paper. word form analysis (affixes and word roots)it is suggested that korean learners of english should learn english vocabulary through analyzing affixes and word roots, even though this method is not commonly taught in the english language classrooms. there are lot

18、s of vocabulary books using this strategy in korea. i am accustomed to this strategy, because i also learned l2 vocabulary mainly through this strategy. this strategy is normally perceived as a useful way in their l2 vocabulary learning for most korean learners of english and me as well (park, 2001)

19、. schmitt and meara (1997) make the attempt to reveal the relationship between affix and word size through the empirically study. they conduct a study with the subjects consisted of 95 japanese students. through this study, they reveal that “there were weaker, but still significant, correlations bet

20、ween receptive derivative suffix knowledge and vocabulary size” (schmitt & meara, 1997, p. 30). this means that there are interrelationships between affix and vocabulary size in l2 learning. but they just dealt with suffixes without prefixes and word roots in their study. in this respect, their resu

21、lts are limited to the relationships between a verb and its permissible suffixes neglecting prefixes and word roots. however, their results show that the amount of suffix knowledge can enhance learners overall vocabulary size with the easy access to a new word. mochizuki and aizawa (2000) also insis

22、t that affix knowledge plays an important role in enhancing and facilitating learners vocabulary knowledge. they investigate the relationship between learners vocabulary size and their affix knowledge with the subjects consisted of 403 japanese high-school and university students. the results show t

23、hat the amount of prefixes and suffixes knowledge is positively correlated with the amount of learners l2 vocabulary size. this means that learners affix knowledge develops along with the development of their vocabulary knowledge in the efl context such as japan and korea and so on. this result can

24、be matched with the result of schmitt and mearas (1997) empirically study showing the correlation between affix knowledge and vocabulary size. with regard to the use of affix knowledge in learning l2 vocabulary, mochizuki and aizawa (2000) mention that “the lexical meaning of a prefix and the syntac

25、tic role of a suffix” (p. 302) can facilitate the development and increase of learners vocabulary size. in spite of the above advantages using affix knowledge in learners l2 vocabulary development, there are also some disadvantages using this strategy. this means that we should be very cautious of u

26、sing this strategy depending on different learners and various situations. regarding the misuse of this strategy, chin (1999) warns that word form analysis should not be used for low level students due to the fact that they might make a mistake caused by wrong guessing solely based on form analysis

27、neglecting the meaning of the word in the context. this means that low level learners may be under disadvantages with this strategy, because they can not integrate the meaning guessed from analyzing a word form into the contextual meaning of the word. in addition, she also mentions that teachers sho

28、uld not teach students a whole bunch of affixes apart from the relevant contexts. i agree with this idea. i think that affixes should be taught within the contexts, because learners are not likely to use the context to guess the meaning of a new word if they mainly rely on word form analysis. this m

29、eans that learners might pay attention to the word form itself not to the meaning of the word within the context. concerning the disadvantages of using word form analysis, clarke and nation (1980) provide several reasons. the first reason is similar to my above argument. they argue that the use of w

30、ord form analysis can make learners guess too quickly even before they consider the role of the word within the context they encounter. based on this quick guess only from the word form analysis, learners might try to interpret the whole context with this initial meaning. the second reason is that s

31、ome affixes and word roots cannot be easily analyzed and broken into parts because they have more than one meaning, even though “25%-30% of the vocabulary above the 3,000 word level can be broken into prefixes, roots, and suffixes” (clarke & nation, 1980, p. 215). this means that we cannot analyze a

32、ll words which seem to have familiar affixes and roots because they may have different meanings. in this respect, they recommend that only 20 or so prefixes should be learned among the most useful and prominent prefixes (p. 215). notwithstanding the disadvantages mentioned above, clarke and nation (

33、1980) say that the ratio of the advantages to disadvantages of word form analysis strategy is becoming identical in vocabulary learning. in this regard, i think that word form analysis in isolation cannot be regarded as the most effective strategy in vocabulary learning even though this strategy is

34、commonly used and also it plays an important role in the korean efl context.guessing the meaning of new words in the contextwith regard to the importance of context in l2 language learning, nagy (1997) mentions that l2 language learners will have difficulties in using context due to their low level

35、of l2 language proficiency. however, this also means that they are likely to encounter new words more often than native speakers do and they can have more chances to acquire vocabulary through context. concerning this matter, chin (1999) also insists that the more often learners are exposed to new w

36、ords through various contexts, the more vocabulary they can get through guessing the meanings of new words from contexts. but the successful learning of l2 vocabulary through context, of course, should be based on learners high level of l2 proficiency because of the correlation between two factors (

37、e.g., nagy, 1997; chin, 1999). in regard of korean students vocabulary learning strategies, park (2001) conduct a survey with 600 korean subjects who have different academic backgrounds from elementary school to university students. the results show that korean learners of english widely use guessin

38、g strategy regardless of their age differences. but the one thing to be noted here is that even elementary school students are actively using guessing strategy (park, 2001). this result is against the general notion that the ability to guess the meaning of a new word through the context is positivel

39、y correlated with the learners level of l2 proficiency. with this reason, this strategy has been encouraged for the learners who have a certain level of second language proficiency to use (park, 2001). but this result can be attributed to the promotion of communicative approach in english education

40、by the ministry of education in korea. according to schmitt (1997), the use of guessing the meaning of a new word from context has been encouraged, because this strategy has been regarded as the most comfortable strategy with “the communicative approach than others” (p. 209). one of the most signifi

41、cant english education policy changes in the 6th and 7th national english curricula of korea (1995-) is the adoption of communicative english language teaching in english language education (kwon, 2000). with the adoption of communicative english language education introduces big changes in the area

42、 of english language teaching in korea. i think that the major change can be found in the length of contexts in the university entrance examination in korea. the length of contexts in this test has been getting longer with the introduction of communicative approach. so learners cannot rely on the tr

43、aditional word form analysis in this situation due to the lack of time to understand the whole text within the very limited time. for this reason, even elementary school students are utilizing guessing strategy to catch up with this tendency of english learning in korea. as i mentioned several times

44、 above, it is clear that a certain level of second language proficiency level is required for the successful guessing through contexts. so i am not sure that elementary students can have benefits with this strategy in their l2 vocabulary learning. in this respect, coady (1997) argues that teachers s

45、hould instruct learners, especially beginners, a list of highly frequent words so that “at least 3,000 word families” can be acquired for their independent vocabulary learning (p. 235). with regard to the amount of vocabulary knowledge for using guessing strategy, clarke and nation (1980) also menti

46、on that around 3,000 words would be required for second language learners to guess 60-70% of the new words in the given context (p. 212). nagy (1997) also says that a high level of second language proficiency should be acquired before they can correctly guess the meaning of a new word from the conte

47、xt. in addition, nagy (1997) mentions the knowledge of the words around a new word encountered is very important to guess the meaning of the new word in the context. this means that learners insufficient knowledge of other words in the context can make learners hard to guess the meaning of a new wor

48、d because of the interference caused by other words in the context. according to clarke and nation (1980), there are some values to use guessing strategy in second language vocabulary learning. the first main value is that guessing strategy can make learners learn vocabulary by themselves without te

49、achers assistance through extensive reading. the second value is that learners can save time and continue reading without interference, because they do not have to refer to a dictionary through guessing strategy while they are reading. bilingual dictionary use (pocket electronic dictionary)according

50、 to park (2001), korean learners of english too much depended on the use of bilingual dictionary (english to korean) especially in the stage of discovering the meaning of a new word regardless of different age groups. nowadays, the use of pocket electronic dictionaries is drastically growing in kore

51、a. tang (1997) also says that many asian students in vancouver are utilizing pocket electronic dictionaries in their l2 vocabulary learning. concerning this issue, tang (1997) analyzes chinese students use of the pocket bilingual electronic dictionaries in the esl classroom in canada. she concludes

52、that there is no correct answer, because the use of the bilingual dictionaries has the strengths and weaknesses in sl2 vocabulary learning. as tang (1997) mentions, excessive use of dictionaries might deprive the second language learners of the chances to guess or predict the meanings of new words t

53、hrough context. in addition, the excessive use of dictionaries might hinder the flow of writing and reading, and might provide numerous vague definitions per word. dictionary look-up does not mean that learners will retain the meaning of the words they found in the dictionary. especially pocket elec

54、tronic dictionaries can provide learners with too quick definitions without learners any efforts to find words. nevertheless, the result shows that second language learners use pocket electronic dictionaries for their l2 vocabulary learning (tang, 1997). however, it is obvious that the use of a bili

55、ngual dictionary is very useful in second language learning. the main strength of the bilingual dictionaries is the possibility to enable learners to facilitate their individual learning through the bilingual dictionaries, because the bilingual dictionaries “can serve a bridging purpose” (tang, 1997

56、, p. 56) between two different languages. if learners are provided with the proper guidance of using the bilingual dictionaries, it might be an efficient way of developing second language vocabulary. as an effective strategy of bilingual dictionary, chin (1999) suggests that dictionaries should be u

57、sed “to verify their educated guesses about the meanings of unknown words disclosed from context or word form analysis” (p. 3). experimenttill now, i have reviewed three major vocabulary learning strategies through literature. and now i am going to do a small experiment with these three strategies.

58、for this experiment, i replicated chins empirical study (chin, 1999) with different subjects and different methods. my research questions are also not the same with her study. as i mentioned before, here are my research questions for this small experiment.1. which strategies are more effective than

59、others for korean learners of english? (based on word form analysis, guessing the meaning of new words in the context, and the use of pocket electronic dictionary with written repetition)2. which strategies should be taught in the korean efl classrooms?methodsubjectsthis experiment has 6 participants who are studying at c