Vocabulary and Strategies in Foreign Language Learning Research Group

Area of Research

Male students in computing lab Phil Scholfield and his research students work predominantly in two overlapping areas which form the focus of this research group.

1. Vocabulary in foreign language learning and teaching (especially EFL). Special interests within this currently include

Describing and evaluating the materials and methods used to teach young learners vocabulary, using observation, interview and document analysis
Developing a corpus of tourism English, from which the distinctively high frequency words are being extracted to make a test for students taking courses in Tourism
Investigating the way learners and native speakers store vocabulary in the mental lexicon, via word association tests
Studying how learners use more or less conscious strategies to solve problems in the process of learning and using L2 vocabulary (see 2 below)

2. Learner strategies both vocabulary-related and more general (especially those of EFL learners). We rely heavily on the 'think aloud' data gathering method, though we also use questionnaires, and special interests within this include

Investigating what strategies learners of different types (e.g. different proficiency) use to handle vocabulary problems when writing, reading, speaking or test-taking. This includes comparing strategies used by learners in L1 and L2, or in different tasks (e.g. writing for different audiences)
Investigating learners' use of dictionaries and look-up strategies
Studying the use and effectiveness of vocabulary learning strategies and things that might affect that. Examples: Do extraverts use different vocabulary learning strategies from introverts? Can the keyword memory method work for Chinese learners of English? How are idioms code-broken and retained?
Studying the effects of training learners in strategies of any of the above sorts
Investigating the use of strategies learners of different types use in reading or writing generally. E.g. writing strategies used by writers with different degrees of 'writing apprehension', or different proficiency levels

Meetings

The group meets usually once a week in term time (currently Tuesdays 10-12 in 5N.3.11).

We do various activities including:

Reading and discussing key papers in our area
Discussing each other's work at various stages in its progression - e.g. the initial study plan, the instruments, the data obtained
Formal presentations of their work by members of the group, e.g. as preparation for presentation at a conference

Membership

The group is led by Phil Scholfield and members are primarily his PhD students working in the above areas, past and present. For details of members and their individual projects see: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~scholp/#phds

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