Vocabulary learning strategies used by ethnic minorities college students from a mountainous area of Vietnam

DOI: 10.18173/2354-1075.2021-0021

Abstract

Training learning strategies is important for students to become life-long learners. At the same time, vocabulary is an indispensable component in language learning. Therefore, vocabulary learning strategies attract a great deal of attention in research. This paper discusses the results of a study of vocabulary learning strategies used by ethnic minority college students in a mountainous area of Vietnam. The findings indicate that: (1) although the participants used the Social strategy for vocabulary discovery the most, they avoided using the Social strategy for vocabulary Consolidation. (2) There are also similarities and differences in the use of vocabulary learning strategies among the three different language proficiency groups of students, and there exits a closed link between the use of vocabulary learning strategies and their language proficiency. A variety of recommendations have been offered based on the findings to support ethnic minority students so that they can make the best of vocabulary learning strategies for their learning.