Thai EFL Undergraduates’ Vocabulary Learning Strategies: Perception and Practice

Main Article Content

Suphawat Pookcharoen

Abstract

This study investigates the use of vocabulary learning strategies among Thai EFL
university students. The aims of the project were threefold: (a) to identify the
strategies used most and least frequently by the students and those they perceive as most and least useful; (b) to examine how the students’ frequency of strategy use relate to their perceptions of the strategy usefulness; and (c) to document the factors contributing to their failure to employ certain strategies they consider useful. A total of 400 students from different academic disciplines participated in the study in which a questionnaire was administered. Follow-up semi-structured interviews were carried out with 20 students who each subsequently submitted a two-week vocabulary-learning journal. The results indicate that the students’ frequency of strategy use is strongly related to their perceptions about the usefulness of strategies. Findings of the study also shed some light on the complex factors that prevented them from utilizing the strategies they consider useful.


Key Words: vocabulary learning strategies, frequency of strategy use, perception
of strategy usefulness

Article Details

How to Cite
Pookcharoen, S. (2014). Thai EFL Undergraduates’ Vocabulary Learning Strategies: Perception and Practice. Journal of Studies in the English Language, 6. Retrieved from https://so04.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/jsel/article/view/21847
Section
Articles