Exploring Students’ Strategies of Vocabulary Learning at

Economic Faculty of Khairun University

Siti Zulaiha Abdullah and Anwar Ismail

Universitas Khairun, Ternate, Indonesia

Keywords: Exploring, strategy, Learning, Vocabulary.

Abstract: This research aims to investigate the use of vocabulary learning strategies used by Economic Faculty

students. This study was survey study and used mixed method to analyze the data. The techniques of data

collection of this study were questionnaire to collect the quantitative data and interview to collect the

qualitative data. This research data were collected by using Schmitt’s Vocabulary Learning Strategies

(VLS). The data analysis shows that the most frequently strategies used by the students were determination

strategies especially in by looking up a word in English-Indonesian dictionary while the least frequently

strategies used were social strategies through talking with a native English speaker.

1 INTRODUCTION

Vocabulary represents one of most important skills

necessary for teaching and learning a foreign

language. It is the basis for the development of all

the other skills: reading comprehension, listening

comprehension, speaking, writing, spelling and

pronunciation. Vocabulary becomes the main tool

for the students in their attempt to use English

effectively, such as when they are confronted with a

native English speaker, watching a movie without

subtitle, listening to a favourite English song,

reading a text or writing a letter to a friend, students

will always need to operate with words. Moreover, it

is impossible to think about a language without

words.

The vocabulary of English as foreign language is

seen as a significant component for foreign students,

Most students face difficulty in learning a foreign

language and they gradually lose interest in learning,

due to the limiting barrier of vocabulary. Especially,

for Students of English for specific purposes (ESP)

since they will often find specialized English words

in their program. Harding (2011: p. 53), as cited in

Desiana, (2014:p.1) explained that vocabulary is

crucial in ESP because students will meet many

technical or specialized words which are used to

explain materials in their specialism. Therefore,

understanding the meaning of the words could help

the students comprehending the lessons.

ESP students need VLSs (vocabulary learning

style) in order to increase their vocabulary

knowledge and understand the materials. VLS is

usually seen as a branch of language learning

strategies To say simply, VLSs help learners to cope

up with the difficulties of learning new words and to

learn the words more effectively. Besides that, they

need VLSs to achieve their future goal which is to

succeed in their specialism. It is also stated by

Akbari (2011: p.7), as cited in Desiana (2014) That

English facilitates ESP students to achieve their

future goals. Therefore, comprehending the

vocabulary can help the students to understand the

lessons and succeed in their specialism.

Based on the point above, this research was

conducted to explore Economic Faculty students’

strategies in learning English at 6

semester of

Economic Faculty in Khairun University.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 How to Teach Vocabulary

In teaching vocabulary, the teacher has an essential

role in helping students to improve their vocabulary.

Unfortunately, vocabulary teaching has not been

142

Abdullah, S. and Ismail, A.

Exploring Students’ Strategies of Vocabulary Learning at Economic Faculty of Khairun University.

DOI: 10.5220/0008898501420146

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Teaching and Learning (ICTL 2018), pages 142-146

ISBN: 978-989-758-439-8

 2020 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reser ved

enough responsive to such problems, and teachers

have not recognized the tremendous importance of

helping their students to develop an extensive

vocabulary.

By the beginning of 1970s, there was a major

change in teaching English. The focus turned from

the Direct Method and Audiolingualism to the

Communicative Approach which emphasized the

importance of teaching vocabulary. Nowadays, there

is more freedom in choosing the methods to be used

during English classes. The English syllabus is

organized around both vocabulary and grammar

structures. Since there is a certain number of classes

allotted for each item in the syllabus, teachers

usually have the necessary time to insist on teaching

and practiced vocabulary.

2.2 Defining Vocabulary Learning

Strategies

Vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) are the actions

taken by the language learners to learn new English

words (Safian, Malakar and Kalajahi, 2014 cited in

Bristi 2015:p.2). VLS help them to gain

grammatical, phonological, semantic and contextual

knowledge about words in the foreign language. To

say simply, VLS help learners to cope up with the

difficulties of learning new words and to learn the

words more effectively.

VLS can be used either consciously or

unconsciously. Oxford (2002) as cited in Bristi

(2015:p.2) stated that, effective learners are

conscious about their learning strategies and they

can successfully choose strategies needed for the

language activity. Moreover, the highly effective

learners can use both cognitive and meta-cognitive

learning strategies together. On the other hand, the

less effective students sometimes unconscious about

the strategies they are using. Sometimes, even if

they are aware, they cannot choose the necessary

strategies carefully.

2.3 Types of Vocabulary Learning

Strategies

In the area of vocabulary learning style taxonomy,

the most comprehensive effort has been that of

Schmitt’s (1997) adopted from Bristi (2015:p.3).

This research choose to use Schmitt’s taxonomy for

its comprehensiveness and wide use around the

world as the basis while another theory was used as

a support.

In Schmitt’s taxonomy the vocabulary learning

strategies are divided into two major areas by their

function in the learning process of L2 words: 1)

initial learning of a new word’s meaning (discovery)

and 2) studying and remembering the word’s

meaning once it is known (consolidation). These two

main categories are further divided into five

subcategories:

1. Determination strategies (DET): individual

strategies which are used to understand the

meaning of the words without any help from

others such as guessing context, guessing from

L1 cognate, using reference materials such as

dictionaries, analyzing affixes and roots, and

using dictionaries to convey a particular word.

2. Social strategies (SOC): Social strategies are

different with DET strategies. Strategies which

belong to this type will involve interaction with

others in learning the new words such as asking

the teacher or classmates.. Thus, the key note of

this type is involving interaction.

3. Memory strategies (MEM): These strategies are

also commonly known as mnemonics strategies.

The strategies are used to recall vocabulary

which has already known. In these strategies,

learners will relate their previously learned

knowledge with the target words by grouping the

words according to its form or topic, forming

imaginary, using physical action, connecting new

word to past experience, studying the spelling of

the words and speaking out loud the words while

studying them.

4. Cognitive strategies (COG): These strategies are

similar to Memory strategies but they do not

really focus on the mental process. Cognitive

strategies emphasize more on the mechanical

means to comprehend the known words. Thus,

strategies in Cognitive engage repetition and

tools to learn vocabulary. Strategies which

belong to COG are repeating words verbally and

written, making words lists, and labelling

English words on physical objects.

5. Metacognitive strategies (MET): Strategies

where the learners consciously decide the best

way to plan, monitor, and evaluate the strategies

to study the words. The examples of

metacognitive strategies are using English-

language media, skipping or passing new word,

continuing to study the words all over the time,

and test oneself by using word tests or games.

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3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Method

This research used mixed-methods. Hence, there are

both Quantitative and Qualitative approach.

Hirsjärvi et al. (2005) as cited in Graceas,

(2016:p.17) stated qualitative study includes a

comprehensive acquisition and the data is collected

in natural and real environment. It is also supported

by Creswell & Plano Clark (2011:p.534) a mixed

methods research design is a procedure for

collecting, analyzing, and “mixing” both quantitative

and qualitative methods in a single study or a series

of studies to understand a research problem.

However, this research is dominated with

quantitative (survey) approach. Close-ended

questionnaire and Interview was used as the

instrument in this research.

3.2 Participants

The participants of the study are students at

Economic Faculty of Khairun University in semester

who have experienced in English teaching and

learning process which consist of 87 students. These

students filled questionnaire and eight participants

were interviewed.

3.3 Technique of Data Collection

To collect data in the research, the researcher used:

3.3.1 Questionnaire

In this research, close-ended questionnaire was used

to collect the data. Close-ended questionnaire

consisted of thirty three statements of vocabulary

learning strategies (appendix 1). The questionnaire

was based on Schmitt Taxonomy adapted from

Desiana (2014). In the study, 4 likert-scale

questionnaires were used to collect the data. The

students will select an option from: 4 (always), 3

(often), 2 (rarely) or 1 (never) to respond to the

given statements.

3.3.2 Interview

The researcher used semi-structured interviews

with eight students who completed the written

questionnaire to obtain more information about their

beliefs and attitudes dealing with vocabulary

learning strategies.

3.4 Technique of Data Analysis

3.4.1 Questionnaire Data Analysis

The questionnaire is analysed in quantitative

analysis. The data obtained from the questionnaire

was coded for statistical analysis to answer the

research questions. The Statistical Package for the

Social Sciences (SPSS, version 25.0) was used for

statistical analysis. SPPS is a comprehensive system

for analyzing data. SPSS can take data from almost

any type of file and use them to generate tabulated

reports, charts, and plots of distributions and trends,

descriptive statistics, and complex statistical

analysis. Descriptive statistics (means, standard

deviation, etc.) were applied to obtain patterns of

demographic information from the questionnaires

and strategies use. Specifically, to identify the

vocabulary learning strategies employed and to find

out the most and least frequently used categories of

vocabulary learning strategies.

3.4.2 Interview Data Analysis

After the students completed the questionnaire,

personal interviews were conducted to seek more

information. The interview was analyzed in

qualitative analysis. Thematic analysis by Miles

&Huberman (1994) was used in interview data

analysis. The analysis consists of several activities

as data reduction, data display, and verifying

conclusion.

4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Overall Strategies Use of the Six Categories of

Strategies

Table below summarizes the strategies employed by

Economic Faculty students. The deeper discussions

on those findings will be elaborated afterwards.

Table 1: The Frequency of the Five Categories of VLS by

Schmitt taxonomy.

Category Mean Rank

Determination 2.6782 1

Social 2.2203 5

Memory 2.4920 3

Cognitive 2.3760 4

Meta-cognitive 2,6121 2

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The findings revealed that in five categories, the

Determination strategies (M=2.6782) were the most

frequently used by the students. The second strategy

most frequently used by students in learning

vocabulary were meta-cognitive strategy

(M=2.6121). The third strategy most frequently used

by students were memory strategy, then the fourth

strategy most frequently used by students were

cognitive strategy (M=2.3760). Meanwhile, the least

use strategies are social strategies with the lowest

mean score (M=2.2203).

This research investigated strategies in learning

vocabulary in Economic Faculty based on Schmitt

taxonomy. The objective of this study is to find the

most used strategy and the most activities do the

students do in their chosen strategies in learning

English vocabulary.

This study found that the most used strategy was

Determination strategy (M=2.6782). Whether, Meta-

cognitive strategy was the second preferences of the

students (M=2.6121), following by memory strategy

(M=2.4920), cognitive strategy (M=2.3760) and the

least is social strategies (M=2.3760).

This finding is in line with the result of Khasawneh

(2012) in the result of this research, Determination

strategy (M=3.22) was the most used strategy in

learning vocabulary. It also supported by the

research of Rizqi et al (2016) which found that the

most used strategy was determination strategy

(M=3.38). However, this research is in contrary with

the research conducted by Riankamol (2008) which

found that the most used strategy in learning English

vocabulary was Metacognitive strategies (M=2.61).

This research also reveals the most frequently

activities do the students do in their chosen

strategies. From determination strategy, the students

mostly choose item number five “Look up a word in

English-Indonesian dictionary” (M=3.14). The first

reason was because they did not use English in their

textbooks as well as their transfer language in

learning process. Therefore, they become unfamiliar

with it and finally, they have to open the dictionary

first to find the meaning to make them feel easier in

the learning process. This finding is in line with the

result of Khasawneh (2012) in the result of this

research, “Use bilingual dictionary.” (M=3.03) reach

high used among students. It is also in line with

Hendrawati (2015) which found that “Look up a

word in English-Indonesian dictionary” (M=3.78)

was one of the high frequency used strategies.

While in social strategies, the students mostly

choose item number ten “Ask classmates” (M=2.91).

The reason why most of the students choose item

number ten in this research was because they feel

scared to ask their lecturer besides, they also fear of

being rude when they tried to ask their lecturer

therefore they prefer to ask classmates about

something that they do not understood. This result

was also occurs in Khasawneh (2012). His results

show that “Ask classmate for meaning” (M=3.70)

also becomes the highest chosen activities.

Moreover, it is also in line by the research of

Hendrawati (2015) also found that “interact with my

classmates” (M=3.70) was the highest frequently

used activities.

Furthermore, item number seventeen “Remember

the new word by connecting with the words I have

learnt before” (M=2.79) was the most chosen

activities by the students in memory strategy. Some

students say that by connecting a new word with a

word they have learned, will make them not easy to

forget and will remember the word faster. They

added, arguably this strategy is an easy activities to

do. This result also supported by the research by

Desiana (2014). Her result found that the most

chosen strategy by the students was “Remember the

new word by connecting with the words I have

learnt before”

Then, it was followed by cognitive strategy that

the students mostly choose item number twenty

three “Say the word repeatedly” (M=2.80). Speak

fluently and easier to memorize be the reason why

this strategy become the most frequently choose by

the students. This result also supported by

Khasawneh (2012). In this research, “Verbal

repetition” (M=3.50) was the highest used in this

strategies. Riankamol (2008) also provide the same

result. His research found that the highest item in

this strategy was “when I try to remember a word, I

write or say it repeatedly” (M=2.70).

Whereas, in meta-cognitive strategy the most

frequently items that they choose was on item

number thirty one “Test myself with word

test”(M=2.95). The students believed that by doing

this strategy they can practice their English.

Therefore, their English will be better and makes

them be confidently in learning English. It is also in

line with the research was conducted by Desiana

(2014) who shows that item number thirty one “Test

myself with word test” also be the second frequently

used item in this strategy.

Exploring Students’ Strategies of Vocabulary Learning at Economic Faculty of Khairun University

145

5 CONCLUSION AND

SUGGESTIONS

5.1 Conclusion

The aim of this study was to find what Vocabulary

Learning strategies were used by Economic Faculty

students of Khairun University. It is obvious that the

students of Economic Faculty in Khairun University

used all of vocabulary learning strategies based on

Schmitt Taxonomy. Determination strategy

(M=2.6782) was most frequently used strategy by

Economic Faculty students of Khairun University,

especially by “Looking up a word in English –

Indonesian dictionary” activities. Then, Meta-

cognitive strategy was the second preferences of the

students (M=2.6121) through “testing themselves

with word test” activities, followed by memory

strategy (M=2.4920) through “remembering the new

word by connecting with the words they have learnt

before”, the next strategy was cognitive strategy

(M=2.3760) by “saying the word repeatedly and the

least frequently used vocabulary strategy was Social

strategies (M=2.3760), especially through “Talking

with Native English speaker” activities.

To conclude, all strategies are necessary to help

students learning vocabulary. When they are aware

of these strategies, they will become more motivated

to learn and take part in learning process more

actively.

5.2 Suggestions

1) By exploring students’ vocabulary learning

strategies lecturers can decide how to teach and

what strategies to use in teaching vocabulary

properly.

2) To make the students aware about their learning

styles and become familiar with different types

of vocabulary learning strategies that can help

them learn the meaning of new words more

efficiently and much better.

3) Gives opportunity to be improved for the

prospective research. The further study can

examine the effectiveness of the vocabulary

learning strategies found in this study

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