namely discovery strategy and consolidation strategy.
In china, acquisition strategies researcher, Wen Qiufang(1996) thought：English learning strategy includes concept and method. What is concept? It means the acquaint learners to how to learn English well. And the method refers to the actions that learners take to learn English well. The method can be classifying two categories: manage method and learning method. Wuxia, Wangqiang(1998) draw lessons of classification of learning strategies from O’Malley&Chamot’s and thing that the majority of students can not depend on the mechanical memorizing to learn English vocabulary. Wenpeng (2000) utilize “the level of processing approach of memory” to do an empirical research on different words meaning.
Willians and Burden (2000) stress metacognition is central to effective learning. Wenden(1987) says that metacognitive is “the process that underlines the efficient use of strategies and the essence of intelligent activity” (p573). Quicke (1994) similarly views that metacognitive awareness is crucial in learning strategies. In addition, most of the studies (O’Malley and Chamot1990, Wenden and Rudin 1987; Oxford andCrookall1989) founder the learners who were particularly taught metacognitive knowledge to help them assess the needs, evaluate process and give directions to their learning.
After summarizing the theories of the vocabulary acquisition strategies, I express my opinions about vocabulary acquisition strategies. These theories or opinions have their merits and demerits. I am in favor of O’Malley& Chamot’s theory of the classification of vocabulary acquisition strategies: metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, affective strategies. The metacognition represents strategies of acquiring knowledge, namely the ability to understand pour method for learning and assimilating information. It concerns “the knowledge of your thoughts”. In addition to how various factors influence psychological thought processing.
As far as I am concerned, vocabulary really plays an essential role in language learning. For example, when we communicate with others, vocabulary is the basic component between your talking. Without words, without communication. In the school, every student should learn vocabulary, the more vocabulary you acquire, the
more knowledge you will get. In the process of our study, every skill needs vocabulary. (Listening, speaking, reading, and writing). Especially, in the extensive reading, the vast majority vocabulary can be learned gradually through repeated exposures in various discourse contexts. However, not all methods are appropriate for all levels of learners. Thus, I deem that different levels of learners should choose different strategies of vocabulary acquisition strategies.
When talking about second language vocabulary acquisition strategies, we may talk it from pro-school children. Chenhua, zhangyifang (2001) analysis the narrative approach of memory process of vocabulary. The study discovers the majority of Chinese children acquire vocabulary with repeat memory strategy. That is to say children memory Chinese meaning through the Chinese- English bilingual. When memorizing vocabulary, Chinese children seldom utilize the Keyword strategy and Semantic coding strategies. They do not use metacognitive strategy. In my opinion, children can be helped to acquire vocabulary in the form of games. Meanwhile, vocabulary acquisition of pro-children should be carried out in a real context. It has a long progress. According to different age, children acquire vocabulary in different strategies. For the lower class, children acquire the single word. For the middle class, the children begin to acquire the double or three words. When the children are nearly 6 six years old, they form a semantic system. The teacher can help children acquire vocabulary in the context or games. 4. Cognitive strategy
4.1 Using dictionary strategies
Check the dictionary is the most common strategy of acquires vocabulary. And it also an important manner to learn English. It has been shown that students who use a bilingual dictionary learn more vocabulary than students who read without a dictionary (1993:263-287). However, when students turn to a dictionary for every word they do not understand, they lose sight of the meaning within the text as a whole. Teachers and textbook designers have realized this, and they argued that learning strategies such as guessing from context should be employed in order to read the text fluently and smoothly for an overview of the whole text. Researchers have
commented that this movement may have gone too far, and today’s literature implies that good language learners rely on dictionaries less than poor language learners and are more successful at employing contextual guessing strategies.
These researchers found that dictionaries were used equally by both good and poor English achievers. There was, however, the notable difference in the way students used their dictionaries: Dictionary used by high achievers involved a series of questions: “Was it necessary to consult the dictionary? What information in the dictionary was relevant? Was the information worth copying down, and if so, in Chinese or in English?” Low achievers, on the other hand, followed” a relatively inflexible set of procedures for dictionary use rather than a decision0 making process”(wen, Q.,& Johnson, R. K., 1997:36 ).
4.2 Semantic guessing strategy
Huckin, Hnynes & Coady (1993) deeply study the context-based meaning. Guessing strategy plays an important role in acquiring vocabulary, cultivating their guessing words ability can improve their reading speed, and save time. So it can stir up their reading interests and enlarge their page views. Skills for guessing unfamiliar English words tell us how to guess words. Getting meaning from inference means that you infer, or guess, meaning from the clues provided by the context –the sentence or passage in which the word appears. There are four steps. First, decide what part of speech of speech the unfamiliar words. Next, make out what the sentence or passage is about. Then, find out the words or phrases that help you get the idea. Finally, use these clues to guess the meaning of the word. For an example:
The soldiers were ordered to fire at the enemy. Questions:
1. What part of speech is “fire”? _________.
2. Does the sentence talk about war, business, or a bale? ___________. 3. What words in the sentence helped you answer Question 2? _________and_________. 4. Fire means__________
a) to let someone from a job b) to shoot
c) red-hot flames
The sentence contains two clues to the meaning of “fire”. First, “fire”
is a verb. Second, he sentence talks about war; the word “soldiers” and “enemy” help you understand this. You can immediately eliminate the choice “red-hot flames”, since it is a noun answer that refers to blame. Although the choice “to let someone go from a job” is a verb answer, it refers to business and should be eliminated. The choice “to shoot” is a verb answer that talks about fighting; it is the correct answer.
4.3 Memory strategy of vocabulary acquisition
The so-called memory strategy refers to various memorizing methods or skills for students, its principles are: tide up, organize and relate to the content. In China, memory method is a traditional strategy to learn vocabulary. In order to deal with the examinations, the students adopt the memory strategy. The common memory strategies are: keyword strategy, word list, context strategy.
4.4 Keyword strategy
The key word strategy can benefit a wide variety of students with language needs in the areas of vocabulary, comprehension of academic language, sentence structure, organizing and explaining information, and transferring information across settings. When the strategy is routinely used, students can master its basic mechanics and key word review during direct language intervention sessions can be a foundation for increasingly complex and challenging practice and review of a variety of curriculum based language skills. Keyword strategy is put forward by Atkinson (1975). The method includes two steps: first, the learners find out the similar sounding word between the mother langue and the second language. Second, build up a metal image. Paivio (1991), Pressley (1982) think that keyword strategy is important. However, it has its limitation, which is difficulty to find the same pronunciation of each word. In China, Wangwenyu (1998) found that Chinese students seldom use the keyword strategy because of its complexity.
4.5 Word list
Nation (1982) makes a conclusion: word list is an efficient way to accumulate large number of vocabularies in a short time. O’ Malley &Chamot (1985) think that
mechanical memorizing is the efficient way to memory vocabulary. Decontextualized word list have been used extensively to teach vocabulary. Presenting vocabulary in list form is an efficient study method in which students can learn large numbers of words in a short time (Meara P.1995:8-10). Such list, however, having been stripped of context, are difficult to deal with. A majority of language learners prefer decontextualize word lists just because the application of such list seems to be more practical and much easier to deal with, saving more time.
In addition to facilitating memorization and learning, word list serve another purpose in the reading class: motivation. Upon adopting a corpus-based list of the 3,000 most frequently used words. List is much more effective to help students focus on less-frequently encountered words that require more intensive study and organized review.
4.6 Context strategy
The second language vocabulary acquisition can not be separate from context. Context is a main factor of vocabulary acquisition. It is an efficient method to acquire vocabulary in the context. From the semantics point of view, James Inhofe announced the regularity of acquiring vocabulary in From Paragraph to Essay. The basic principle of acquiring vocabulary focus on the context, so that we can know the relation between the form and meaning. By Krashen’s Monitor Hypothesis Theory, many researchers tend to acquire vocabulary in the context.
5. Other strategies
Researchers study the other strategies to acquire vocabulary. Contact method, Semantic coding method, assimilation strategy, self-text strategy.
When I was in the third year in the college, I have a lexical class. From the class, we know many strategies to acquire vocabulary:
Repetition, suited for kids and primary school students. Spelling and
pronunciation, suited for middle school students. Context, learning the new words in phrases, sentences, never learn it alone. Semantic: grouping words according to the meaning, sound, semantic field and so on. It is for all levels. Association: free association of antonyms, antonyms, homonyms, and homonyms. Emotion: learning