A Small-scale Survey Of Efl Secondary Students' Vocabulary Learning Strategies in Yogyakarta

Abstract

The aim of this research is to find out the vocabulary learning strategies most often used by EFL secondary students in a private senior high school in Yogyakarta. The research subject population was EFL secondary students in a private senior high school class eleven, totaling 70 people. The Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLS) questionnaire from Chiang et al., (2023) was adapted as the instrument for this research. The questionnaire consists of 25 items. The results of the research show that vocabulary learning strategies from 4 domains, one of the domains consisting of 3 sub domains are (1) memory strategies (visual/imagery) (M= 3.38, SD= 0.86), (2) memory strategies (association/elaboration strategies) (M= 3.19, SD= 0.85), (3) memory strategies (word analysis strategies) (M= 3.60, SD= 0.83), (4) cognitive strategies (M= 3.33, SD= 0.92), (5) metacognitive strategies (M= 3.43, SD= 0.87), and (6) social strategies (M= 3.19, SD= 0.88). The findings also show that EFL secondary students have high score in vocabulary learning strategies in the memory strategies (word analysis strategies), especially in connecting words that students learn with their synonyms and antonyms (opposites). Then they have low score vocabulary learning strategies in the memory strategies domain, in the memory strategies sub-domain (association/elaboration strategies) especially in learning vocabulary by connecting words with personal experience and it is difficult, and in the social strategies domain it is especially difficult to learn vocabulary using the words learned. in interaction. For further research, on vocabulary learning strategies involving senior high school students may involve larger scale from several schools and exploring how the implementation of these strategies may improve their vocabulary learning to learn English as a foreign language in Indonesia.