An Investigation of the Factors Contributing to Iranian EFL Learners' Difficulties in Learning EFL Vocabulary

Vocabulary, as the main aspect of language learning, has received much attention in these years (Nation, 2001; Read, 2000). The researchers have paid due attention to this major aspect particularly its learning strategies. However, in EFL contexts, especially in Iran, vocabulary learning strategies in their actual and practical modes have not attracted much attention. Therefore, this study attempted to explore the most effective vocabulary-learning strategies among Iranian EFL learners. To this aim, a total of 120 sophomore and senior EFL learners (both male and female) studying English in Payam-e-Noor University of Baghmalek, Khuzestan were selected based on a convenience sampling procedure. A questionnaire adopted from Nation (2008) including 18 items with five sub-sections corresponding to the major stages in vocabulary learning was administered among these participants. Descriptive statistics (frequency and percentages) and Chi-square tests were applied to examine the observed differences in the frequency distribution of responses on all the questions of the questionnaire. The findings showed that sophomores and seniors' preferences for using vocabulary-learning strategies were different. Chi-square results for examining the significance of this difference indicated that there was a significant difference between sophomores and seniors regarding strategy use (X2 = 37.163, sig. 0.00,P<0.001). Chi-square results also showed that seniors and sophomores had significant difference in using strategies such as guessing, guessing through the parts of speech, guessing through morphological features, using English-English dictionary, using dictionary to learn related features of the word, and using grouping word and encoding strategy strategies. Based on the findings, the main conclusion for this study is that EFL students in Iran need to know more about the vocabulary learning strategies. Although they reported to use some kinds of strategies, sophomores only rely on limited number of strategies and overlooked other important strategies.

کلیدواژه ها:

Vocabulary ، Vocabulary-learning strategies ، EFL ، learning strategies