Korean University Students' Vocabulary Learning Strategies in the 21st Century more

Sat, Apr 30, 12:00-Tue, May 31, 23:55 Asia/Seoul

Foundational surveys of what vocabulary learning strategies English learners employ in their studies were completed twenty to thirty years ago. This presentation reports on a survey administered to 135 Korean university students to see if vocabulary learning strategies have shifted along with the shifts in technology and educational practices in the 21st century. The survey updated Schmitt’s taxonomy of strategies to include modern technology options, then presented it to contemporary students. Results from the study were compared to Schmitt’s results from the 1990s to look for differences in strategy use. Contemporary students seem more likely to employ vocabulary learning strategies, but newer technologies are used for meaning discovery much more than for vocabulary consolidation. Teachers should be aware of the changes in student vocabulary learning strategy implementation, and ways to use the findings to help students more easily learn vocabulary are presented.