Date of Award

Winter 2-6-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MA-TESOL)

Department

TESOL

First Advisor/Committee Member

Dr. Katya Nemtchinova

Second Advisor/Committee Member

Dr. William Nagy

Third Advisor/Committee Member

Dr. Kathryn Bartholomew

Abstract

Given that the importance of understanding the academic language is strongly associated with the academic vocabulary size, vocabulary knowledge is regarded as one of the most crucial areas of language competence to bolster academic achievement. The present study investigates the effectiveness of two different strategies of vocabulary acquisition in English including 1) learning from sample sentences and 2) learning from word parts. Results are significant for immediate testing and reveal the beneficial role of explicit instruction on vocabulary learning strategies that increases international students’ English vocabulary learning ability. The study also discusses survey responses from the participants in relation to their use of vocabulary learning strategies and their own approaches to acquiring new vocabulary words. It is recommended that self-learning strategies should be explicitly taught in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs to help students acquire words from higher levels in academic settings. Some implications for teachers include integrating a variety of learning strategies and multimodal activities into vocabulary instruction and engaging students in learning pronunciation, common rules of word stress, word context, and word parts while encountering unfamiliar words.

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