4. Results
4.5 Students’ Reflection on Strategy Use
4.5.2 Effectiveness of Vocabulary Learning Strategies
Table 4.27 Learning Difficulties by Male and Female Students
Male Female Gender
Difficulties Number % Number %
Pronunciation 39 32.50 37 36.27
4.5.2 Effectiveness of Vocabulary Learning Strategies
This subsection focuses on the most and the least effective strategies to the participants.
To answer the question, participants were encouraged to offer more than one answers with reasons why they chose this strategy. A total of 137 answers were offered by male students in replying the most effective strategies and 122 by female students. At the same time, male students also provided 125 answers about the least effective strategies and female students offered 96. All these strategies were ranked according to the percentage of appearance in the total amount. The overall results shown in Table 4.22 illustrated only the five most effective strategies and those in Table 4.23 displayed the five least effective strategies.
4.5.2.1 Five Most Effective Strategies
The top five most effective strategies were mentioned by both male and female students, including verbal repetition, listen to English songs, study the spelling of a word, study the sound of a word, and written repetition. To male and female students, the five top effective strategies were the same ones but with a different ranking order. Except the third and fifth strategy, the other three were in the identical order. Whereas male students thought written repetition the fifth, female students regarded it as the third.
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Table 4.28 Five Most Effective Strategies by Male and Female Students
Male Female
Rank
Strategy % Strategy %
1 Verbal repetition (COG) 18.25 Verbal repetition (COG) 18.03 2 Listen to English songs
(MET) 11.68 Listen to English songs
(MET) 13.93
3 Study the spelling of a word
(MEM) 8.76 Written repetition (COG) 13.93
4 Study the sound of a word
(MEM) 5.84 Study the sound of a word
(MEM) 10.66
5 Written repetition (COG) 5.54 Study the spelling of a word
(MEM) 6.56
In addition, both male and female students shared the same reasons for the most effective strategies. In verbal and written repetition, they both agreed that these two strategies were helpful, efficient and easier in enhancing their impression and memory of new words. It is evidenced by the student’s answers below:
“When I say the word, the impression of the word is enhanced, consequently
helping the retention of the word” (C3S8).
“It is easier to memorize the word by writing it many times” (C6S32).
With similar reasons, studying the spelling or the sound of a word also made the word more impressive, simple and convenient to remember. It also seemed useful to spell the word correctly if they knew how to say the word accurately. This could be seen from the students’
replies:
“Easy, convenient, and time-saving” (C4S26).
“After knowing the sound, I will know how to spell the word correctly” (C1S11).
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* The coding system in the present study code-names all the students. C represents the class they belong to and S shows the numbers of the students. S1 to S20 are female students and S21 to S40 are male students.
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國立 政 治 大 學
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N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
As for listening to English songs, both groups thought that it could arouse their interests in finding out the meanings of unknown words if they intended to understand the lyrics.
They might also sing along with the melody and learn new words at the same time. Here are two replies from one male student and one female student.
“I love to listen to English songs and sing with the melody” (C5S28).
“When listening to English songs, I would look up the new words in the dictionary
actively in order to understand the lyrics” (C6S15).
4.5.2.2 Five Least Effective Strategies
On the other hand, the choices of the least effective strategies were different between male and female students. The results in Table 4.23 showed that two out of the five strategies were the same but in different ranking order by both male and female students: configuration, using keyword method, and reading English novels. Male students regarded reading English novels the least effective strategies, while female students believed configuration to be the least one. As for the other two different strategies, male students thought listening to English songs and imaging word form as two of the least effective strategies. Nevertheless, female students’ list of the least effective strategies included English-English dictionary and asking family members for meaning.
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國立 政 治 大 學
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N a tio na
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Table 4.29 Five Least Effective Strategies by Male and Female Students
Male Female
Rank
Description % Description %
1 Read English novels (MET) 10.4 Configuration (MEM) 8.33 2 Configuration (MEM) 7.2 English-English dictionary (DET) 6.25 3 Listen to English songs
(MET) 6.4 Use Keyword Method (MEM) 6.25
4 Use Keyword Method (MEM) 5.6 Read English novels (MET) 5.21 5 Image word form (MEM) 5.6 Ask family members for meaning
(SOC) 4.17
When it comes to the reasons for the least effective strategies, male and female students shared slightly different opinions. In configuration, male students believed it was less useful and less effective while female students thought it was complicated and confusing. The differences could be seen from their replies below:
“I would rather spend time on the spelling than notice the rising or the falling of
the letters in the word” (C2S34).
“Words with similar configuration might cause confusion” (C5S1).
As for reading English novels, male students supposed it was too difficult to understand the story while female students believed the contents were very hard and it was
time-consuming to look up such many unknown words. The following students’ answers show the differences.
“Too difficult for me to understand the content” (C4S25).
“If I don’t understand any words, I have to look them up in the dictionary or ask
teachers’ for meanings. It takes too much time” (C6S4).
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國立 政 治 大 學
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In using keyword method, male students did not consider it was common to match Chinese sounds with English words; nevertheless, female students thought Chinese sounds might blur the real pronunciation of the English words, probably causing incorrect spellings.
The differences could be illustrated as follows.
“Not every English word could be created with a similar Chinese word” (C3S29).
“The keyword method is likely to cause confusion” (C1S7).
In addition to the three strategies above, male students, especially those in I-S, believed English songs were sung so fast that the contents were beyond their comprehension.
Consequently, they could not acquire vocabulary efficiently.
“English songs are too fast. I couldn’t understand them at all” (C3S31).
They also treated imaging word form as an impractical and arduous strategy to use, only resulting with a short-term memory.
“It is time-consuming. It is not suitable for abstract words” (C4S39).
For female students, English-English dictionary not only reduced their interests but also caused trouble in understanding the English explanation of the word they tended to know.
Moreover, they expressed that their family members either spent little time answering their English questions or had lower English proficiency than themselves.
“I look up words in the dictionary because I don’t understand the word. If the
explanation is in English, then I have to look up more words” (C3S10).
“My parents’ English is not better than mine” (C4S1).
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國立 政 治 大 學
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N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
To conclude the findings above, male and female students did not reach a consensus as strongly as they did on the most effective strategies. On one hand, while male and female students shared all the most effective strategies, only three out of the five least ones were shared by them. On the other hand, the percentages of the five least effective strategies were not as high as those of the most effective ones. Over 50% of answers by male and female agreed to the five most effective strategies, but the total of the five least effective strategies were only slightly higher than 30% by male (35.2%) and female students (30.21 %). This might indicate that opinions on the least effective strategies varied a lot among not only male students but also female students. It is also interesting to note that the strategy, listening to English songs, was regarded as the most effective and the least effective strategy at the same time by male students.