Probe into the blind zones of Chinese EFL students' vocabulary learning

Abstract

This paper discovered the blind zones of English vocabulary learning by a series of surveys in a questionnaire. The survey involved hundreds of Chinese college learners in EFL and EL context. The findings of the research included that the avoidance of polysemants, positive words, phrasal verbs and collocations. The reasons for the avoidance were elaborated, namely, low-level motivation of learning a foreign language, inappropriate instructional strategies and information from EFL educators, and out-of-date learning materials. A number of pedagogical suggestions on how to teach vocabulary were provided. © 2011 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland.