Vocabulary Memorizing Strategies by Chinese University Students

Abstract

The findings of the study indicate that students prefer to engage in the vocabulary learning strategies that would be most appealing to them and that would entail less manipulation of the language. Of the four vocabulary memorizing strategies cited in the study (rote repetition, structural associations, semantic strategies, and mnemonic keyword techniques), students apparently tended to favor the second and the third ones, though rote repetition remains appealing to some of them. Mnemonic devices such as keyword method were rather unpopular to most of the students because they would involve the learners in more active performance of the target language.