5. Discussion
5.1.3 Comparison between the Present Study and Cheng’s (2006) Study
5.2.2.2 Frequencies of Cognitive Strategies by Male and Female Students 109
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However, among all dictionary strategies, electronic dictionary is most popular one to both male and female students. According to students’ response in open questions, both genders regarded electronic dictionary as a useful, portable and time-saving device that offers not only Chinese explanation but also the articulation of the word. Based on the findings of dictionary use above, when training strategies of dictionary use, teacher should keep in mind that no dictionary use is perfect to every student unless he or she is capable of using it effectively.
5.2.2.2 Frequencies of Cognitive Strategies by Male and Female Students
As stated earlier, cognitive strategies were the secondly frequently used category by male and female students. Even though previous studies (Cheng, 2006; Kudo, 1999; Oxford, 1990; Wang, 2004) advocated that cognitive strategies are the most frequently used
strategies by language learners, the finding of the current study revealed no coincidence, however.
The frequencies of individual cognitive strategies could also be seen from two views:
the most frequently used strategies and the least ones. Firstly, both male and female students used verbal repetition the most often, followed by taking notes in class. The two strategies were reported with a high use by both genders. Cook (2008) suggested that learners write or say a word repeatedly until they know it by heart. Therefore, male and female students favored repetitive practice like verbal repetition quite frequently to maintain the target word.
Besides verbal repetition, both genders also took notes in class quite often. According to
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students’ response, they benefited from taking notes in class because it was more convenient to review new words by jotting down notes. Schmitt (1997) confirmed the response by stating that “[t]aking notes in class invites learners to create their own person structure for newly learned words, and also affords the chance for additional exposure during review”
(p. 215). In addition to the effectiveness and convenience, male and female students rely much on rote learning and the use of individualized study aids possibly due to strategy training they have received in class (Moir & Nation, 2008). This also suggests that verbal repetition after teachers and taking notes in class might be two of those popular activities in language classrooms now.
Secondly, the two least frequently used strategies by both genders are keeping a vocabulary notebook and putting English labels on physical objects. The result is consistent with Cheng’s (2006) finding that students tended to pay little attention to strategies of applying study aids which are not ready-made. She continued to illustrate the discovery by stating that junior high school learners are reluctant to spend extra time or efforts creating study aids, such as a vocabulary notebook or English labels. Besides, the participants are ninth graders of junior high school whose vocabulary size covers most concrete words in their daily life, thus lessening their needs or motivation to create English labels on physical objects. From the findings above, it is reasonable to conclude that young male and female learners tended to depend a lot on cognitive strategies related to practicing repeatedly but not those on which study aids might cause inconvenience.
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5.2.2.3 Frequencies of Memory Strategies by Male and Female Students
As stated earlier in Section 4.2, memory strategies, the third most frequently used category, were sometimes applied by male and female students. The finding is in consistent with those in previous Taiwanese studies that college students and senior high school
students favor the category in the third place (Liao, 2004; Wang, 2004). Besides, the medium use of memory strategies implies that male and female students both preferred memorization techniques in vocabulary learning. Compared with other categories, memory strategies contain the most items which belong to medium use: 12 items by male and 14 by female.
That is, male and female learners rely much on memory strategies in retrieving new information from the place where they store verbal materials (Oxford, 1990). Through the help of these strategies, students could recall necessary lexical items easily in order to communicate with others successfully.
After examining the twenty-two strategies closely, the researcher found three noteworthy findings of the strategy use by both genders. First, the strategy, studying the spelling of a word, was the most frequently used, followed by studying the sound of a word.
The two strategies belonged to high frequency use. The finding corroborates with the results in Cheng’s research (2006) that junior high school students “favor explicitly studying the form of a word, i.e. spelling and pronunciation, to facilitate recall” (p. 107). The possible explanation could be that, according to students’ response, it is easier and more convenient to remember the word if they directly dig into the spelling or pronunciation of the word.
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Their response seems to corroborate with Wang’s (2004) finding that both male and female students treat the two strategies as instant mnemonics, which only take them little effort and could be processed with ease. Despite that the effect of the strategies might not last long, the intricate application of the two, spelling and pronunciation, are found to be the most popular combination of strategy use among students (Cheng, 2006; Gu & Johnson, 1996; Schmitt, 1997; Fan, 2003; Wang, 2004).
Secondly, the five least frequently used memory strategies by both genders are the same.
The least favored is configuration, followed by imaging word form, using physical action when learning a word, grouping words together within a storyline and underlining initial letter of the word. The mean scores of these strategies, lower than 2, imply that they attract little attention from both genders. The possible explanation could be that the participants were not familiar with configuration, a strategy which students were surprised at when knowing it could be one strategy. As for the other four least used strategies, they are known by the participants but thought to be time-consuming, ineffective and impractical when learning a word. The participants even expressed that they would rather study the spelling or the sound of a word directly than create an image based on the form of the word or make up a story with several words.
Moreover, female students generally used memories strategies more frequently than male students, except three strategies, imaging word’s meaning, connecting word to a personal experience, and part of speech (remembering). The findings are consistent with the
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results in Jiménez Catalán’s (2003) study that male students had a higher percentage on the use of part of speech (remembering) and imaging word’s meaning. Being the third frequently used memory strategy, part of speech (remember) could be considered as an important strategy to male students in vocabulary learning. As for the other two strategies, imaging word’s meaning and connecting word to a personal experience, were used more often by male students, but the mean differences did not indicate much differences between both genders. Taking the result into consideration that the two strategies both belong to medium use by both genders, male and female students might not differ much from each other on the use of the two strategies.
5.2.2.4 Frequencies of Social Strategies by Male and Female Students
Based on the results, social strategies were the second least frequently used strategy category with a low use by both male and female students. The finding is in agreement with those in previous studies that learners do not apply social strategies very often (Cheng, 2006;
Kudo, 1999; Schmitt, 1997; Wang, 2004). Two possible factors could explain the result.
First, Schmitt (1997) claims that the corporative work on vocabulary learning is not
commonly believed to be achieved by learners themselves. Therefore, compared with other strategy categories, social strategies are favored less because learners could not benefit on their own. Besides, another explanation of the result could be cultural factors. Social interaction is not highly encouraged in Taiwanese classrooms while it is part of learning behaviors in western classrooms. It can also be seen from Politzer and Mcgroaty’s (1985)
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and Bremner’s (1999) statements that interaction with others is not a popular learning style to Asian students.
With the regard to the frequency use of individual social strategies by male and female students, the discussion could stress on three foci. First, the strategy, asking classmates for meaning, was the most used social strategy, followed by asking teacher for L1 translation, studying and practicing meaning in a group and asking family members for meaning. The finding agrees with those of Cheng’s (2006) and Wang’s (2004) that students interact with classmates, teachers or family members for the meaning of a word. Nation and Meara (2002) recommended learning vocabulary from meaning-focused output and stated that students could positively and successfully enlarge vocabulary size by negotiating the meanings of unknown words with each other.
Nevertheless, with a main focus on meaning negotiation, male and female students almost never apply the strategies, teacher checks students’ flash cards or word lists for accuracy or interacting with native speakers. The possible reason for the former strategy might be that few male students or female students favor strategies which take extra effort to make study aids, such as word lists or flash cards, not to mention the interaction involving teachers’ check the accuracy of the study aids. As for the latter strategy, students have less access to native speakers than to classmates, teachers, or family members, resulting with less interaction with English native speakers.
Moreover, it is noteworthy that both male and female students tended to ask classmates
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for meaning the most, teachers the next, and family members the last. The possible reason could be seen from another frequently favored strategy, practice meaning in a group, especially with their peers. Also, among strategies involving teachers, male and female students both turn to teachers for L1 translation the most often, instead of synonyms or antonyms, which may cause larger vocabulary load to them.
5.2.2.5 Frequencies of Metacognitive Strategies by Male and Female Students
Metacognitive strategies are the least frequently used category by male and female students (see Section 4.2). The category was only reported to belong to low use, which means that male and female students seldom apply metacognitive strategies to control and evaluate their own learning. Cheng’s (2006) result also lends support to the finding in the present study that junior high students do not make an overview of their learning process by planning or monitoring. It might be that most junior high students are still not aware of the importance of autonomy. In Taiwan, junior high school students depend heavily on teacher’s instruction which is usually teacher-oriented. Students are encouraged to reach the mastery of knowledge from textbooks, thus ignoring the importance of learner independence or learner initiative, according to Kojic-Sabo and Lightbown (1999), which is especially true in language learning.
After the further examination of individual metacognitive strategies, there are three important findings worth more discussion. First, of the eight strategies, the most frequently used one is skipping or passing new word, which reached the high use. The finding implies
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that learners tend to skip unknown words when meeting them for the first time. As stated in Schmitt’s (1997) study, the strategy is popular with his Japanese participants; however, he also found that the strategy is frequently used but not helpful to the users. It is reasonable to infer from Schmitt’s discovery that skipping the unknown words might not hinder the fluency of vocabulary learning but it might not be beneficial to learners if they do not come back to the new words later.
Secondly, the second and third most frequently used metacognitive strategies are
listening to English songs and watching English movies. These two strategies include the use of English-language media. In line with the results in Wang’s (2004), the finding could be that western music, especially those in USA, is popular with Taiwanese. The participants expressed that, unlike the use of other English-language media, English songs and movies brought them joy of entertainment instead of pressure of studying.
Nevertheless, the least frequently used strategies in this category are also related to the use of English-language media: reading English newspapers, reading English novels and watching English TV news. A possible explanation for the result is that the contents in English newspaper, English novels and English TV news are far beyond junior high students’ comprehension in general. Though these three strategies could offer much input, Nation and Meara (2002) cautioned that unknown vocabulary in a learning passage, either through reading or listening, should only contain a small portion, “preferably around two percent” (p. 40). Therefore, the three strategies attracted little attention from both male and
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female students due to the overwhelming difficulty in the content.
5.3 Gender Differences of Vocabulary Strategy Use
This section discusses gender differences on the use of VLS in answering Research Question 3: Are there any differences of the use of vocabulary learning strategies between genders of junior high school students in Taipei? If yes, what would the differences of vocabulary learning strategy uses be? The discussion contains two parts: (1) gender
differences on the use of overall strategy and strategy categories, and (2) gender differences on individual strategy use.