Tertiary Students’ Usage of Vocabulary Learning Strategies: A case study

Abstract

Instructors often lament on students’ limited critical reading skills due to “vocabulary deficit.” Therefore, this study investigated the vocabulary size and vocabulary learning strategies of 120 ESL respondents in a tertiary institution in Malaysia. Data were collected using a vocabulary test, a questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that the most favoured strategies were “determination strategies” which reflected respondents’ usage of shallow thinking while least favoured were “cognitive strategies” that demanded higher-level mental processing. No significant difference was recorded in strategy use based on gender. No relationship was found between the respondents’ vocabulary size and vocabulary learning strategies.