The Frequency of use and Perceived effectiveness of Memorization Vocabulary Learning Strategies among university students of English Literature as a major in Pakistan
The Frequency of use and Perceived effectiveness of Memorization Vocabulary Learning Strategies among university students of English Literature as a major in Pakistan
Keywords: language learning strategies, vocabulary learning strategies, memorization, literature majors
Abdur Rashid
School of Literature and Linguistics, LUAWMS, Balochistan, Pakistan.
Bio
Abdur Rashid graduated from Kohat University of Science and Technology (2004) and obtained MA in Applied Linguistics with merit from the National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan. He then taught English language, becoming lecturer at Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences, Uthal, Pakistan. Obtained MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Essex before embarking on his PhD at University of Salford, Manchester from where he went to Pakistan for data collection and passed away in a car accident in 2012.
This study concerns the Memorization Vocabulary Learning Strategies (MemVLS) of an under-researched learner population, of university students majoring in English Literature at the masters level in Pakistan. 36 participants responded to a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews about frequency of use of MemVLS and their perceived effectiveness. The findings suggest that looking for chances to encounter newly learnt words in resources such as English language newspapers/magazines or books on literature, writing words in sentences, using words in everyday conversation in English, and listening to English-Language TV programmes are strategies both most frequently used and perceived to be most effective. The keyword method, followed by listening to words on computers/tape-recorders/mobile phones/mp3 or electronic dictionaries, and repeating words aloud are reported as the least-frequently used and considered least effective strategies. Comparisons are drawn with other populations in the interests of understanding how far VLS use is universally similar. Some common findings of other studies, such as the disuse of the keyword associative method, are replicated, but some interesting differences are also uncovered. These seem to be less due to our participants being literature specialists than to their level of proficiency, the English medium nature of their course, and their awareness of the need to learn vocabulary through and for integrative use in the four skills.
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