A comparative Study Of Vocabulary Learning Strategies Use Among Students At Ambo And Bakalcha Bari Secondary School:Grade 9 In Focus

Abstract

This study has attempted to assess vocabulary learning strategies used among students at Ambo and Bakalcha Bari secondary schools between the same grade level of students. Particularly, it tried to find out students’ knowledge on the theoretical perspective of vocabulary learning strategies, examine to what extent students practically use vocabulary learning strategies in EFL classes and identify the major factors that might hamper the implementation of vocabulary learning strategies in EFL classes. To this end, the study employed comparative survey method, which involves both quantitative and qualitative methods. Accordingly, Ambo and Bakalcha Bari Secondary Schools were selected through purposive sampling. Then, eighty (80) respondents were proportionally taken (50:30) from the students of (Bakalch Bari) and (Ambo) secondary who were attending the schools in 2009 E.C. The instruments employed for data collection were questionnaire, interview and classroom observations. . Thus, descriptive statistics using frequencies and percentages were employed in analyzing the quantitative data and the qualitative method was used in analyzing qualitative data. Data obtained through questionnaire were analyzed manually for frequencies and percentages, and SPSS version 20.0 was used for generating mean, Standard Deviation and t-test values. The t-test values were used to see for the presence or absence of significant differences in VLSs use between the students of the two schools. The finding indicated that both Ambo and Bakalcha Bari students of the study area used all the 20 items (VLSs presented for them) with a slight difference of frequencies. Grade 9 students at Bakalcha Bari predominantly used three sub-categories of VLSs: determination, social for discovering the meaning of a word and memory strategies, whereas grade 9 students at Ambo used four of them: determination and cognitive strategies, social strategies used for word consolidation and memory. Finally, it was recommended that teachers of English language should identify their are teachers train about strategy use them on the areas they have problems.