The Effects of Aligning Vocabulary Teaching Practices with Learners' Learning Strategy Preferences on Motivations, Perceptions of Strategies Use and Vocabulary Achievement: Grade 11 Students un Focus

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of aligning vocabulary teaching practices with learners’ learning strategy preferences on their vocabulary learning motivations, perceptions of strategies use and vocabulary achievement, with grade 11 students in focus. The study consisted of two phases. In the first phase, a descriptive research design was adopted to assess students’ vocabulary learning strategy preferences. Data were collected from 74 systematically selected students through a questionnaire and from eight top-performing students through interviews. Responses to the questionnaire were measured on a zero- to- five-point scale. One sample t-test was applied to compare whether a sample's mean (observed mean) would differ significantly from a population mean (expected mean) which was 3in this study. The interview data was thematically interpreted alongside the questionnaire data. Results revealed that the observed mean scores of eighteen different vocabulary learning strategies were greater than the expected mean (X=3) which implies that the majority of students preferred the strategies to discover and consolidate meanings of newly encountered vocabulary items.Aligning vocabulary lessons with that of learning strategies identified,intervention materialwasprepared and the second quasi-experimental phase of study was conducted.Two randomly selected groups of students,75 students in control and 72students in the perimental, were the participants.The pre- and post-questionnaires were used to collect data on learnens’ vocabulary learning motivations and perceptions of strategies use. To triangulate data through questionnaire, eight students were purposely selected and relevant data were collected through pe-an post-interviews. Pre-and post vocabulary achievement tests were used to collect data regarding learnerss’vocabulary achievement result before and after the intervention.An independent sample t-test was applied to analyze the quantitative data whereas the interview data were qualitativelyanalyzed. Results indicated that the average mean scores of the groups were not statistically significant before the intervention as p>0.05. This implied that the two groups were similarin their motivations to leran vocabulary, perceptions to use the strategies, and vocabulary achievement results. After the intervention, however, the average mean scores of the groups were statistically significant( p< 0.05) which means that the average mean scores of students in the experimental group were greater than that of students in the control group. The findings, thus, suggest that the aligning of vocabulary teaching practices with learners’ learning strategy preferences enhance students' vocabulary learning motivations, perceptions of the strategies use , and vocabulary achievement results