Investigating Learning Strategies for Vocabulary Development: A Comparative Study of Two Universities of Quetta, Pakistan
Abstract
The primary purpose of this research is to investigate the vocabulary learning strategies employed by the undergraduate students of Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University (SBKWU) and University of Balochistan (UOB), Quetta, Pakistan. A quantitative design was employed in this study to answer the two research questions of the present study. The quantitative data was obtained from the responses of 180 undergraduates in a questionnaire adapted from the study by Noor and Amir (2009) on vocabulary learning strategies proposed by Gu and Johnson (1996). The questionnaire comprised of 45 close-ended items on four broad vocabulary learning strategies, metacognitive regulation strategy, cognitive strategy, memory strategy, and activation strategy. Descriptive statistics was run in SPSS to obtain the results. The independent-samples t-test was run to test for statistically significant differences if any in the use of vocabulary learning strategies across the undergraduates of two universities. However, cognitive regulation strategy, and activation strategy emerged as the most influential source of learning new English words. The findings also revealed that there were no statistically significant differences found in practicing vocabulary learning strategies between undergraduates of SBKWU and UOB. The findings of the study have implications on enhancing teaching and learning by acquainting students with vocabulary learning strategies that can enhance their vocabulary in English language and can result to boost up their proficiency in this language.
Keywords: Vocabulary development, learning strategies, gender difference
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