A Narrative Inquiry into Strategies Used by EFL Students in Learning Vocabulary

Penulis : Muhammad Imamuddin Al Faqih

Penerbit : Fakultas Sosial dan Humaniora

Ukuran : A4 (21 x 29,7 cm)

Tebal : 196 halaman

Disahkan : 12 Juli 2022

Keyword: 

Vocabulary, Learning Strategy, Narrative Inquiry, EFL Student.

Abstrak:

For the last decade, experience has become a new object in the field of research. Specifically in this study, experience was used to find out the strategies used by the three EFL students in learning vocabulary and how these strategies were used to improve their vocabulary attainment. Strategy in learning a language is used to make it easier for students to improve their skills and learn the vocabulary used at the same time. Many studies on vocabulary learning strategies have been carried out. However, this research focuses on the students' lived experiences, either in the academic settings or its surrounding settings. Three Indonesian junior high school students participated in this study and shared the experiences of strategy in learning vocabulary from the early stage of education.

The purposes of this study are to explore and make sense of the experiences. The formulation of research problem were: 1. What are strategies used by the EFL students in learning vocabulary? 2. How are the strategies used to improve their vocabulary attainment? To conduct the study and understand the lived experiences of individual, a narrative inquiry was chosen as the research design, which was considered to be appropriate to explore the experiences. In selecting the participants, the researcher selected them by conducting observation. Interview in narrative frame was used to collect data from participants. To analyze and interpret participants’ stories, the researcher organized the stories into chronological order, placed them in context, and drew several themes from the stories. 

The results of the analysis show that the three students used several learning strategies proposed by Oxford (1990) to improve their vocabulary attainment. It was found that Student 1 often used cognitive strategy and metacognitive strategy and the least used compensation strategy and affective strategy, Student 2 also often used cognitive strategy and metacognitive strategy in the learning process but the strategy that Student 2 rarely used was affective strategy and social strategy. While Student 3 often used cognitive strategy and memory strategy and rarely used affective strategy and metacognitive strategy in her experience of learning English vocabulary. Several activities in implementing the strategies include direct strategy activities; creating mental linkages, applying images and sounds, employing action, these are application of memory strategy. In addition, the application of cognitive strategy includes practicing, analyzing and reasoning, and creating structures for input and output. Next is the implementation of a compensation strategy which includes guessing intelligently and overcoming limitations. In implementing indirect strategy, students applied metacognitive strategy in the form of centering their learning, arranging and planning their learning and evaluating their learning. The next is the affective strategy in the form of encouraging themselves and taking their emotional temperature. The last one is asking questions and cooperating with others, which is the implementation of social strategy.