An Investigation of Vocabulary Learning Strategies Use of 40 Nursing Successful Indonesian Students

Year 2018, Volume: 9 Issue: 2, 1 - 15, 29.06.2018

Djihad Bouaoune Dyah Setyawati Ciptaningrum

Abstract

Researches indicated that the confusion in selecting the effective instructions and approaches for teaching vocabulary made this latter problematic for teachers especially in the field of English for specific purposes (ESP). The learners of ESP need an adequate vocabulary to read special texts concerning their area of specialism.  As a reflection to this matter, recent studies showed that Vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) are crucial tools for supporting the learners’ autonomy and facilitating the vocabulary learning. Therefore, the current pure qualitative case study aims at investigating the vocabulary learning strategies employed by 40 nursing Indonesian students as a case that needs exploration to provide deep insights concerning the use of VLSs in ESP field. Data have been collected through triangulating focus group interviews, observation, and a reading task to gain a thick overview of the way VLSs are used by the participants. Findings showed that the ESP students used different varieties of VLSs including the metacognitive and cognitive strategies, while they showed many lacks in terms of effective use of the mentioned strategies. Therefore, ESP field still needs more investigations and researches that shed the light on the way VLSs can be employed effectively to learn ESP vocabulary.

Keywords

Second language acquisition, vocabulary knowledge, language learning strategies, vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs), English for specific purposes (ESP) teaching and learning

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