ESL learners’ word organisation strategies: A case of chinese learners of english words in hong kong

Abstract

Although there is some research on ESL learners’ use of strategies in organising words when learning English (Chamot, 1984; Henning, 1974), it is not certain that these strategies apply to all learners, especially those who share homogeneity in their writing system as well as their first language. It is therefore necessary to look at a larger sample of homogeneous population learning English as a second language, namely a Cantonese‐speaking sample. As organised words are easier to store in, and retrieve from long‐term memory (Thompson, 1987), investigating young learners’ word organisation strategies will help teachers and researchers identify factors related to such strategies: Graeco‐Latin words, word hierarchy, word shapes, word sounds, cognates, etc. This paper reports data collected by BA TESL students supervised by their instructor. The first year students paved the way for this type of research by testing its feasibility. As results proved that word grouping was a worthwhile study, another investigation was undertaken by the second year students. 55 secondary school students (mean age 14.5) were individually investigated on their word organisation strategies given a list of 50 words. Results were analysed descriptively and statistically. Implications for teaching words and word knowledge are discussed.