Determination strategies and Social strategies. The latter comprised Social, Memory, Cognitive and Metacognitive strategies. Among the strategies classified by Cook and
Mayer, some mentioned the dimension of sound:(1) Ask someone who knows the L1 translation, and pronunciation of the target word or any combination of these. ( from the Social strategies subsumed under
Discovery strategies)
(2) Link unrelated words together by the utilization of rhymes and images2. (from the
Memory strategies subsumed under Consolidation strategies)
(3) Study word’s orthographical or phonological form3. (from the Memory strategies subsumed under Consolidation strategies)
Next, even though Sanaoui’s classification (1995) was far from a full-blown taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies, she identified two approaches to
vocabulary learning: a structured and an unstructured approach as two extremes of a continuum. With regard to sounds, word learners who employed a structured approach to learn new words took initiatives in creating opportunities for learning vocabulary by listening to the radio, watching videotapes, and speaking with friends.
The first investigation of vocabulary learning strategies as a whole was carried out by Stoffer (1995). Her categorization, consisting of 53 Vocabulary Learning Strategy Inventory items, was divided into nine groups, one of which was in relation to sounds, i.e. visual / auditory strategies.
Gu and Johnson’s (1996) study developed a survey questionnaire to compare Chinese EFL learners’ frequency of vocabulary learning strategy use with their beliefs
2 For instance, Peg Method is that a word learner first memorizes a rhyme like “zero the hero, one is a bun, two are shoes, three standing trees, four knock on door, five bees in hive, etc” and then creates an image of the word to be remembered and the peg word. This method is good for students with stronger auditory preferences.
3 Keyword Method is an example of the use of word’s phonological form, which was investigated most extensively. It entails a word learner associating the word in L1 which sounds like the target word, and then create an image to combine the two concepts.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
about vocabulary learning, level of development of learners’ vocabulary and learning success. The 91 strategies in the questionnaire statements proposed by Gu and Johnson could be grouped into seven major dimensions, i.e. “Metacognitive
regulation,” “Guessing strategies,” “Dictionary strategies,” “Note-taking strategies,”
“Rehearsal strategies,” “Encoding strategies,” and “Activation strategies” (Cheng, 2006). Among those strategies devised by Gu and Johnson (1996), three were
sound-related. One was oral repetition, which was subsumed under the dimension of
“Rehearsal strategies,” another was auditory encoding, which was included in the dimension of “Encoding strategies,” and the other was establishing an acoustic and
image link between an L2 word to be learned and a word in L2 that sounds similar,
which was under the dimension of “Activation strategies.” In addition, their research finding also pointed out that Chinese learners were generally less likely to use auditory encoding strategies than other strategies.The classification proposed by Schmitt (1997) was adopted from Oxford, who grouped learning strategies but did not categorize strategies specifically for
vocabulary learning. Schmitt’s (1997) taxonomy comprised 58 individual strategies, which were divided into two major groups, i.e. Discovery and Consolidation
strategies, and were subdivided into five categories, i.e. Determination (DET), Social (SOC), Cognitive (COG), Memory (MEM) and Metacognitive (MET) strategies. Even
though his taxonomy was one of the most comprehensive classifications ofvocabulary learning strategies, the discussion regarding sounds was quite limited for only six out of the fifty-eight strategies were relevant to sounds. More specifically, the categories in his taxonomy related to sounds are “study the sound of a word,” “Say
new word aloud when studying,” “Use Keyword Method,” “Verbal repetition,” “Listen to the tape of word lists,” and “Use English-language media (songs, movies,
newscasts, etc.),” none of which was proposed with explication. All of the above
‧
sound-related strategies belonged to Consolidation strategies in Schmitt’s taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies. Furthermore, Schmitt’s (1997) research also
indicated that older people tended to make use of deeper processing strategies such as the Keyword Method, making word associations through sounds.
In addition to Schmitt’s work, Lin (2001) identified 73 vocabulary learning strategies in her research on Taiwanese children’s vocabulary learning, which were categorized into three parts: Metacognitive, Cognitive, and Socio-affective, each of which had its subcategories. There were four subcategories under Metacognitive category: Advanced preparation, Selective attention, Monitoring, and
Self-management. There were ten subcategories under Cognitive category: Written repetition, Verbal repetition, Segmentation, Phonics application, Association, Resourcing, Predicting, Elaborating, Recalling, and Others. There were three
subcategories under Socio-affective category: Asking for help, Cooperation, and Other.
In Lin’s taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies, 22 out of 73 strategies were relevant to sound4. They are (1) Write down the KK phonetic symbols of English
vocabulary, (2) Divide the target words into segments according to their sounds, (3) Check L2 pronunciation of the target words, (4) Pay attention to silent letters in the target word, (5) Listen to English textbook cassettes, (6) Use English learning media,
(7) Repeat entire lexical item or difficult parts of a lexical item letter by letter, (8)Repeat entire lexical item by sounds, (9) Make it easier for letter-by-letter verbal or written repetition, (10) Memorize the target word by its sounds, (11) Apply phonics intentionally when the patterns of phonics work, (12) Apply phonics automatically,
(13) Apply false phonics patterns intentionally when the patterns of phonics do notwork, (14) Create a pattern of phonics when the learned phonics patterns do not work,
4 The strategy Listen to English textbook cassettes was listed under both Self-management category and Resourcing category in Lin’s taxonomy. Likewise, the strategy Sound association was listed under both Association category and Recalling category.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
(15) Sound association, (16) Auditory recall, (17) Read English texts aloud, (18) Ask
teachers, family members or classmates for L1 meaning and/ or L2 pronunciation, (19) Read aloud lessons in English textbooks with family members, and (20) Speak to family members in simple English phrases or sentences.
Finally, in Wang’s (2004) review of important vocabulary learning strategies in her research on vocabulary learning strategies used by senior high school students in Taiwan, she noted that using aural imagery strategies means that learners can use similar sounds or rhymes to remember a new word in the target language. Wang (2004) indicted that due to the culture factor or the influence of the current electronic media, many word learners are not aural learners but rather visual ones or combination ones.
In conclusion, except for the related studies mentioned above, as far as the researcher is concerned, other taxonomies of vocabulary learning strategies such as Kudo’s (1999), Nation’s (1990; 2001), O’Malley and Chamot’s (1990), and Williams’
(1985) classification systems seldom included strategies relevant to sounds. To sum up, few studies on taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies dealt with sounds in depth in literature. Even if sound category was included in the classification schemes, it was not elaborated.
Sound Symbolism
In the previous section, it is noted that to date, most research on vocabulary learning strategies lays great emphasis on word meaning; little, if any, stresses the investigation of sound-related dimension. Consequently, the present research places sound symbolism in the spotlight. Generally speaking, linguistic theories presume that the link between sound and meaning is arbitrary. Saussure (1959) considered language to be system of signs in which there is an arbitrary relationship between sound and meaning, claiming that sound is not directly related to its meaning and vice versa. He
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
even claimed that sound does not have intrinsic meanings itself. This perspective of language was accepted by the later Structuralists. However, a small number of words were found as counterexamples for this viewpoint, such as onomatopoeias. Another counterexample was some of children’s earliest words, which belong to the
non-arbitrary category, like moo cows. The Generative Phonologists thus held an opposite opinion to Structuralists toward this issue, contending that the link between sound and meaning is not arbitrary, and thereafter had a tremendous influence on the following research on the sound-meaning relationship.
In literature, a great number of cross-linguistic data have been reported on sound symbolism with the belief that onomatopoeias are not the only exception to Saussure’s (1959) arbitrariness argument. In this section, the related studies on sound symbolism were discussed from three aspects: (1) the definition of sound symbolism, (2) the categories of sound symbolism, and (3) research on sound symbolism.