A comparative study of ELF vocabulary learning strategies used by extroverted and introverted Vietnamese university students

• Main Author: Son, Tran Thai
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2007
• Subjects: English language—Study and teaching—Vietnamese speakers; Second language acquisition; Language and Literacy Education
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/6862; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_masteral/article/12740/viewcontent/CDTG004202_P.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study aimed at finding the (1) vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) used by extroverted (E) and introverted (I) Vietnamese university students in learning EFL vocabulary and (2) the similarities or differences between the VLS use of E Vietnamese university students and that of I ones in learning EFL vocabulary. A total of 56 Vietnamese university students recruited from two national universities in Ho Chi Minh City participated in the study. The Eysenck personality questionnaire (Eysenck & Wilson, 1976), VLS survey questionnaire (Schmitt, 1997) and think-aloud protocols were used as instruments and methods to gather data. Descriptive and statistical tools used for data analysis included frequency counts, percentages, Mann-Withney test, and independent-Sample t-test. The results of the study indicate that the number for the always, seldom, and never used VLS by both E and I participants is more than those by respective E or I participants. This implies that there are more similarities of VLS use than the differences of VLS use of the E and I participants and that the participants employ a wide variety of strategies to learn English vocabulary. Additionally, the participants in the think-aloud protocols explored four steps in learning English vocabulary; understanding the main idea of the text by highlighting and guessing unknown words in the first reading, consulting the dictionary, jotting newly learned words into vocabulary notebook, and reading the text second (last) time. For the correlational results, there is no significant difference between the VLS use of extroverted participants and that of introverted ones. Finally, recommendations were made for Vietnamese teachers of English from grade schools to university and for future research. The grade school English teachers teach at least the VLS always used by the participants to their pupils, while college and university teachers review them and/or teach more new VLS to their students in order to widen their vocabulary. They both create ways to motivate their students to improve their listening and speaking skills. The latter include in-depth interviews focusing on VLS after the think-aloud protocols instead of retrospective interviews, more participants recruited from several and different universities in Vietnam, and vocabulary proficiency test variable.