Vocabulary learning strategies and vocabulary size: Insights from educational level and learner styles

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of different vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) as well as different learner styles on vocabulary size in Saudi Arabic-speaking students in higher education. The goals of this study were to examine which VLS undergraduates used more frequently than postgraduates and vice versa, to determine which VLS related positively and significantly to vocabulary size, and to explore individual learner styles and their relationship to vocabulary size. Participants filled in a VLS questionnaire and completed a vocabulary size test. The results indicated that undergraduates tended to use simpler strategies than postgraduates. The strategies of guessing a word’s meaning from context and watching television related positively with vocabulary size in both groups. Clustering analysis revealed two learner groups which differed in how frequently they used VLS overall, rather than in terms of which VLS they preferred. Those students who used more VLS overall also had larger vocabulary sizes, irrespective of educational level. We thus found no evidence for differences in individual learner styles in the current groups. We conclude that VLS usage should be encouraged overall, but that the need for instructors to cater to individual vocabulary learning styles may not be warranted.