Vocabulary Learning Strategies for Success - Profiling Four Korean College Students

Vocabulary Learning Strategies for Success

  For second or foreign language learners, lexical acquisition can be a learning burden which takes a learner"s enormous effort and time. In recent years there has been a growing interest in L2 vocabulary learning strategies (VLS), but few have explored Korean EFL college students" use of VLS. Through a qualitative analysis of both written self-reports and interviews conducted with four advanced students, this study found that their lexical approaches were similar in terms of "macro-strategies," whereas being dissimilar in light of "micro-strategies." Namely, there were both similarities and differences in the ways and means that they mobilize in learning English vocabulary. At the same time, the four students revealed some patterns of strategy use that were different from those reported on other learning contexts. Another noteworthy finding was that all four tried to produce the learned words in appropriate contexts. Some pedagogical implications are suggested for teaching practice.