The vocabulary learning strategies employed by ninth graders and relations with their personal characteristics

The purpose of this study is to investigate the vocabularylearning strategies employed by ninth graders and relate them with theirpersonal characteristics. This study also aims to find out whether or not thevocabulary learning strategies employed by ninth graders demonstratesignificant differences in terms of gender, educational backgrounds of thefather and mother, the numbers of the brothers and sisters in the family,the occupation of the mother and father, income of the family,achievement in English, having a computer and room at home.This is a descriptive study which is based on survey searchmethodology. The sample of this research includes all the ninth graders ofBuca Hoca Ahmet Yesevi High School, İzmir. 504 ninth graders whoselevel of proficiency is elementary participated in this study.In order to investigate the relationship between the vocabularylearning strategies employed by ninth graders and their personalcharacteristics, the data have been acquired through the administration of apersonal information form and vocabulary learning strategiesquestionnaire. The vocabulary learning strategies questionnaire in whichthe statements are based on Schmitt?s (1997) taxonomy was developed byŞener (2003).As a result of data analyses gained by means of the statisticaltechniques frequency, arithmetic mean, percentage, standard deviation, t-test, the analysis of variance and LSD test, it has been found that thevocabulary learning strategies employed by the ninth graders varysignificantly in terms of mother?s occupation. As for the analysis of thevocabulary learning strategies employed by the ninth graders in terms ofother variables, it has been found that the vocabulary learning strategiesused by the students do not vary significantly in terms of gender, mother?seducational background, father?s educational background, the number ofbrothers and sisters in the family, father?s occupation, economic conditionof the families, achievement in English in the first term of the year, havinga computer at home, having a room at home.This research also enlightens the reader about the mostfrequently and the least frequently used vocabulary learning strategies byninth graders. As a result, it can be seen that the three most frequently usedvocabulary learning strategies are strategy 43 ?When I read or hear theexplanation of a word, I remember the word I have learned before.? (M=3.9802), strategy 25 ?I learn the meaning of a word better when I look itup in a picture dictionary.? (M=3.8829), and strategy 12 ?When I do notknow the meaning of a word, I use a bilingual dictionary.? (3.8651).On the other hand, the three least frequently used vocabularylearning strategies are strategy 60 ?I keep a diary in English.? (M=1.9246), strategy 52 ?I take the cards which contain English words on oneside and Turkish meaning on the other side.? (M= 2.1865), and strategy 13?When I do not know the meaning of a word, I use a monolingualdictionary.? (M= 2.2639).