Professional Documents
Culture Documents
07/29/2016
Shuhui Yao
Strategies for Improving Chinese EFL Learners Vocabulary Learning
I. Introduction:
To begin with, there is no doubt that words play a fundamental role in the world
of language. What is well acknowledged is that the first stage of language learning is
vocabulary learning. Depending on the vocabulary learning, EFL learners can develop
other language skills including reading, listening, speaking, and writing. The core
component of language proficiency is vocabulary and it makes the basis for how well
learners of a language speak, listen, read, and write (Richards & Renandya, 2002).
Furthermore, Lotfi Ghazal (2007), the writer of Learning Vocabulary in EFL Contexts
through Vocabulary Learning Strategies, holds that words are the building blocks of a
language since they label objects, actions, ideas without which people cannot convey
the intended meaning. Vocabulary builds a bridge for users to convey their desired
specific, if EFL learners have enormous capacity of the vocabulary knowledge and are
In the last 30 years, the English language has been gaining importance at an
accelerated rate in China because of the policy of opening to the outside world and the
drive to modernization (Xu, 2006). For keeping pace with the development of
the Chinese Ministry of Education, English education should start in grade three at the
primary school level and students from primary school to high school have to take at
least four periods of English education weekly. Moreover, English also has become
one of the three required core subjects in high school curricula and College Entrance
Examinations. Besides, with the stronger international connection, the ability of using
English skilfully is becoming one of the requirements for employment. Therefore, it is
challenge for a majority of Chinese EFL learners. On the one hand, because of the
cultural differences between China and the West, most Chinese EFL learners have
Johnson (1998), language teaching cannot be understood apart from the socio-cultural
environments in which it takes place and the processes of establishing and navigating
cultures and social values may influence EFL learners vocabulary understanding and
learning.
On the other hand, there are several problems existing in vocabulary instruction
in China. Firstly, instead of learning the meaning of vocabulary more precisely and
deeply, instructors prefer to ask students pay more attention to spelling words
correctly and enlarging their vocabulary. Traditional teaching mode put more
developing their lexical competence (Ma, 2012). Secondly, related research shows
exposure to authentic language input, and so on forth, it is hard for Chinese EFL
learners to keep improving their vocabulary learning and developing their language
skills.
In conclusion, since there are a huge number of EFL learners in China and
of great necessity to improve Chinese EFL learners vocabulary learning. Only the
solid foundation of vocabulary knowledge is established can other language skills be
should be taken to improve Chinese English vocabulary learning and instruction. And
also these are the reasons why the question how to improve Chinese EFL learners
vocabulary learning should be studied. It is an urgent task to find more advanced and
China.
II. Methodology
their lexical competence and improve their vocabulary learning. It is not only focused
on the change of vocabulary learning materials and strategies, but also the
Chinese EFL learners. Therefore, the following research questions and hypothesis
were proposed:
Q1. Compared with official English textbooks, can authentic materials help EFL
competence?
H1: Authentic materials can help EFL learners better enhance their
understanding of vocabulary.
competence.
In this study, 100 Chinese EFL learners will be divided into 2 groups. Each
group has 50 members. One group is experimental group, while another one is control
group. The experimental group will use authentic materials to learn target
vocabularies while the control group is still using textbooks. Additionally, foreign
teachers and students will be invited to learn collaboratively with the experimental
group. But the control group still learn vocabulary in the traditional Chinese EFL
will be conducted to ask for reflections and suggestions. Pre- and post-test will be
compared to identify the growth of their vocabulary learning. Based on the careful
observation, research journal will kept to reflect and trace the change during the
research.
C. Participants
The data collection for the research question requires 100 Chinese EFL learners,
aged from 12 to 16. The reason why these EFL learners are chosen to participate in
this study is that these EFL learners had studied English more than 2 years in the
school, which means they are elementary English learners who focus on vocabulary
learning currently. Then, these students will be divided into 2 groups with 50
members. One group is experimental group, while another one is control group.
D. Data collection
these EFL learners. By conducting interview questions with careful and meticulous
during this research. Interviewees names and thoughts will be explicitly recorded.
Questions concerned about their vocabulary learning, such as their current strategies
posed to obtain these EFL learners experience and ideas of vocabulary learning.
This method is used to assess whether these EFL learners could enhance the
lexical competence and memorize English words more effectively. In the pre-test,
students will be asked to finish a thirty-word test that choose the most appropriate
word to complete the sentence. Based on the results of the pretest, participants would
be assigned to different groups in order to increase the accuracy of the final result of
this experiment. Moreover, this pretest is also used to test the participants current
vocabulary knowledge for designing other research contents and steps appropriately.
After this experiment, depending on what they have learnt during the research, the
post-test, which will be similar to the pre-test and also contain 30 English words, will
Keeping research journal is for recording and reflecting the ideas, changes,
process and development during the research. Based on the reflection and record, the
E. Data analysis
According to methods used to collect data in this study, firstly, qualitative
analysis is appropriate for analyzing the data from the interview and the journal, while
quantitative analysis is suitable for analyzing the data from pre- and post-test. When
significance. In addition, the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) will be
used to analyze the scores of the pre- and post-test of both groups. By comparing the
differences between two groups and two tests, changes and growth can be determined
III. Discussion
cultural background for EFL learners to link English words to the practical use.
Textbooks, as official tools for Chinese EFL learners to learn English, are essential
materials can play a supportive role to enhance students understanding and using
beneficial for Chinese EFL learners to improve their vocabulary learning. I suppose
that inviting foreign teachers and students to learn collaboratively can motivate
irregular usage of the vocabulary can be correct and the pronunciation also can be
perfected.
suggest the school to seek collaboration with some international schools for setting up
EFL learners vocabulary learning, it is still of guidance and reference significance for
other level EFL learners in China, even foreign EFL learners to improve the
vocabulary learning.
References:
[2] Ghanbari, N., & Esmaili, F., & Shamsaddini M. R. (2015). The Effect of Using
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[5] Ma, R. (2012). Vocabulary Proficiency Instruction for Chinese EFL Learners.
http://search.proquest.com.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/docview/1330861330?pq-
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Xu, X. (2006). Review: Dingfang Shu: FLT in China: problems and suggested
[8] Zheng, L., & Huang, J. (2010). A Study of Chinese EFL Learners Pragmatic
Failure and the Implications for College English Teaching. Polyglossia, 18, 41-54.
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