Difference in Use of English Vocabulary Learning Strategies between Male and Female Senior High School Students and the Influences on Their English Vocabulary Learning

This study adopts the theoretical framework of O’Malley and Chamot’s (1990) classification of English learning strategies and Gu and Jonson’s (1996) classification of English vocabulary learning strategies. It attempts to investigate the differences in the choice of English vocabulary learning strategies between male and female senior high school students and their impacts on English vocabulary learning. The two research questions of the research are:1) Is there any difference between male and female senior high school students in use of English vocabulary learning strategies? 2) Are male and female senior high school students’choices of English vocabulary learning strategies relevant to their vocabulary size? The second question is further divided into two sub-questions:(1) Do male and female senior high school students show any difference in their vocabulary size? (2) How do male and female senior high school students’choices of English vocabulary learning strategies affect their vocabulary size?The research adopts the method of qualitative and quantitative study. A number of 70 Senior One high school students from Guangzhou Yuexiu Foreign Language School have participated in this research. The research instruments include questionnaires, interviews and vocabulary size tests. The statistics come from 30 male and 30 female students randomly selected from the 70 students. The results come out as follows:1) There are differences between male and female senior high school students in the choice of English vocabulary learning strategies. Generally speaking female students use English vocabulary learning strategies more frequently than male students, especially the cognitive strategies. They also show difference in some specific strategy use. The note-taking strategies, semantic encoding and dictionary strategies for comprehension are found out to bear gender differences:female students adopt the note-taking strategies and dictionary strategies for comprehension significantly more frequently than male students; while male students choose the semantic encoding strategy much more than female students; male students seldom use the note-taking strategies.2) Male and female students show difference in English vocabulary size. Generally speaking female students have larger English vocabulary size than male students. Male students’overall command of English vocabulary is not as balanced as female students; some of the male students have extremely large vocabulary size, while some others have extremely small.3) Female students’more active adoptions of English vocabulary learning strategies help them achieve larger English vocabulary size.4) Some English vocabulary learning strategies have great effect on the enlargement of English vocabulary size, while some others have little effect. Some strategies greatly helps male students to enlarge their vocabulary size while don’t help much on the enlargement of female’s; the vise versa.The current research shows that for male and female students differences exist in the choice and use of English vocabulary learning strategies, and these differences affect their English vocabulary learning. The research can provide considerable enlightenments for senior high school English vocabulary teaching and English vocabulary strategy training.