A Survey on Vocabulary Learning Strategies: A Case of Iranian EFL University Students

Abstract

This study aims at investigating what strategies are more or less common for learning vocabulary among EFL university students at Hakim Sabzevari University in Iran. A questionnaire adapted from the taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) developed by Schmitt (1997) was administered to 74 EFL students (18 males and 56 females).Moreover, semi-structured interviews were also carried out with ten students who completed the written questionnaire to obtain more information about their beliefs and attitudes dealing with vocabulary learning strategies. The results revealed the following order of strategy use by the students from the most frequent to the least frequent one: determination (DET), cognitive (COG), memory (MEM), metacognitive (MET), and social strategies (SOC). In particular, findings indicated that guessing from context and dictionary use strategies were the most popular strategies, while asking the teacher or peers for meaning were rarely used.