The effectiveness of cognitive vocabulary strategy instruction in raising learners’ metacognitive awareness for lexis learning.

Abstract

Teaching and learning a foreign language deals straightforwardly with vocabulary for the reason that, the latter is associated to all the language skills: speaking, writing, reading, and listening. As soon as the students are confronted with English input they should provide an English output that has to do with words. When the vocabulary store is weak the students’ attempts to use the language will decrease. This paper reports on a study that investigates the value of learning vocabulary and the importance of intentionally instructing learners the techniques of vocabulary learning strategies. It examines a causal relationship between the direct instruction of vocabulary learning strategies and its impact on improving learners metacognitive strategies towards learning and retaining vocabulary. Our field work consists of a questionnaire designed in accordance and in reliance with Schmidt’s inventory of vocabulary learning strategies. After gathering preliminary data from the questionnaire analysis; a test is designed to serve the aim of spotting the vocabulary learning strategies frequency use, and sum of strategies displayed. The test guides the construction of a step by step procedure to teach more elaborate strategies and enable learners become autonomous. In between the questionnaires and the test there is an instructional phase with the aim of teaching students vocabulary learning strategies through the use of cognitive strategy instruction. The results obtained have demonstrated an increase of the experimental performance. We have observed a considerable leap in the level of the experimental group participants. Without a doubt, cognitive vocabulary strategy instruction has confirmed its significance and positive impact on learners’ metacognitive awareness in learning vocabulary. Consequently, based on the findings of our research, some pedagogical implications are recommended to make vocabulary teaching and learning an easier task.