Use of Individual Strategies by Male and Female Students

Table 4.9 Frequencies of Overall Strategy Use by Male and Female Students

N Mean SD Comments

Male 116 2.46 0.48

Overall

Strategy Use Female 87 2.66 0.45 Medium Use

Figure 4.1 below showed how frequently male and female students use the five strategy categories. The results could be seen from four aspects. First, female students had higher mean scores than male students in all the five categories. Second, male and female students shared the same pattern of preference on strategy categories: determination strategies were used the most, followed by cognitive strategies, memory strategies, social strategies and metacognitive strategies. Moreover, the mean scores of most categories were lower than 3.0, except that of determination strategies by female students. The top three categories belonged to medium use, while the other two cateogires belonged to low use. Fourth, the mean scores of social strategies and metacognitive strategies by both genders were lower than 2.4, which indicates male and female did not generally use these two strategy categories.

2.21

1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 Mean

Female

Figure 4.1 Frequencies of Strategy Category Use by Male and Female Students

4.2.2 Use of Individual Strategies by Male and Female Students

In the following subsections, the frequencies of individual strategy use by male and female students are presented.

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4.2.2.1 Frequencies of Determination Strategies by Male and Female Students

The nine determination strategies used by male and female students are displayed in Figure 4.2 below. Generally speaking, female students had a higher frequency use than male students, except the strategy of analyzing affixes and roots. To examine each individual strategy in detail, the mean score of guessing from the textual context and analyzing any available pictures and gestures of both male and female was higher than 3.5. This indicates that male and female students both frequently applied these two determination strategies.

Besides the two strategies, male and females students just sometimes utilized another five strategies with mean scores ranging from 2.73 to 3.57. As for the remaining two strategies, the use of bilingualized dictionary and English-English dictionary of both male and female students was lower than 2.5.

1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50

Online dictionary Analyze any available pictures and gestures Analyze affixes and roots

Figure 4.2 Frequencies of Determination Strategies Use by Male and Female Students

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It should also be mentioned that male students showed their various preferences on dictionary use and so did female students. Of the five dictionary strategies, electronic dictionary was favored the most by male and female students, followed by conventional Chinese-English dictionary and online dictionary. However, dictionaries which contain English explanations were favored the least by both groups, especially English-English dictionary.

4.2.2.2 Frequencies of Social Strategies by Male and Female Students

Figure 4.3 below shows the results of frequencies of social strategies by male and female students. In this category, the use of all strategies by female students was higher than male students. Among these strategies, asking classmates for meaning was the most frequent use strategy by both male and female students. By contrast, teacher’s checking students flash cards or word lists for accuracy, interacting with native speakers, and practicing new words with family members were regarded as the least frequent use.

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1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00

Practice new words with family members Interact with native speakers Teacher checks students flash cards or word lists for accuracy Study and practice meaning in a group Ask family members for meaning Discover new meaning through group work activity Ask classmates for meaning Ask teacher for a sentence including the new word Ask teacher for synonym of new word Ask teacher for paraphrase of new word Ask teacher for L1 translation

Strategy Items

Mean Female Male

Figure 4.3 Frequencies of Social Strategy Use by Male and Female Students

In addition, three points deserve more attention. First, among strategies that involve interacting with others, classmates were the first choice, followed by teachers, family members and native speakers. Second, among strategies that require teacher’s help, the strategy, asking teacher for L1 translation, was favored the most while the strategy, teacher checks students flash cards or word lists for accuracy, was employed the least. Moreover, the use of asking family members for meaning by both male and female students belonged to medium use, while practicing new words with family members only belonged to low use.

4.2.2.3 Frequencies of Memory Strategies by Male and Female Students

As can be seen in Figure 4.4, the results displayed that both male and female students favored studying the spelling of a word the most, followed by studying the sound of a word.

As for the seldom used strategies, five strategies were reported with mean scores even lower

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than 2.0 by both genders. The least one is configuration, followed by image word form, use physical action when learning a word, group words together within a storyline, and underline initial letter of the word.

1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00

Use physical action when learning a word Learn the words of an idiom together Paraphrase the word＇s meaning Part of speech (remembering) Affixes and roots (remembering) Use Keyword Method Configuration Underline initial letter of the word Image word form Say new word aloud when studying Study the sound of a word Study the spelling of a word Group words together within a storyline Use new word in sentences Group words together spatially on a page Group words together to study them Use scales for gradable adjectives Connect the word to its synonym and antonyms Associate the word with its coordinates Connect word to a personal experience Image words meaning Study word with a pictorial presentation of its meaning

Strategy Items

Mean Female Male

Figure 4.4 Frequencies of Memory Strategy Use by Male Students

In addition to the results presented above, two aspects deserve more attention. First, generally speaking, female students had higher frequency use of most strategies than male

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立 政 治 大 學

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N a tio na

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students, except three strategies, imaging word’s meaning, connecting word to a personal experience, and part of speech (remembering). Second, three strategies showed large mean differences between male and female students: grouping word together to study them,

grouping words together spatially on a page, and saying new word aloud when studying. The mean differences of these strategies not only favor female students but also show that male students might differ from their female counterpart in a great deal, especially on the strategy, saying new word aloud when studying, which had mean difference at 0.79.

4.2.2.4 Frequencies of Cognitive Strategies by Male and Female Students

Figure 4.5 below shows the frequencies of cognitive strategies by male and female students. Of the eight strategies, male and female students employed verbal repetition and taking notes in class the most frequently. However, the findings also showed that male and female students favored two cognitive strategies the least: putting English labels on physical objects and keeping a vocabulary notebook. The mean scores of the two strategies were lower than 2.0, indicating that they were seldom applied by both genders. In addition to the most and the least frequently used strategies, two strategies showed large mean differences between male and female students: word list and written repetition. This might demonstrate that male students are not likely to use written strategies as often as female students.

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1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00

Keep a vocabulary notebook Put English labels on physical objects Listen to the CD of word lists Use the vocabulary section in your textbook Take notes in class

Figure 4.5 Frequencies of Cognitive Strategy Use by Male and Female Students

4.2.2.5 Frequencies of Metacognitive Strategies by Male and Female Students

As Figure 4.6 shows, male and female students generally did not use metacognitive strategies frequently. The mean score of six strategies was lower than 2.4, which is considered as low use of the strategies. Among them, reading English newspaper was the least used strategy, followed by watching TV news and reading English novels. In contrast, skipping or passing new word was the most frequently used, and the second frequently used strategy by both gender is listening to English songs. Interestingly, except the most

frequently used one, female students had higher frequency use of most strategies than male students.

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1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00

Continue to study new word over time Skip or pass new word Testing oneself with word lists Watch English TV news

Figure 4.6 Frequencies of Metacognitive Strategy Use by Male and Female Students