EXPLORING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN SECOND LANGUAGE VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES AND VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE

Abstract

The present study sought to explore and identify vocabulary learning strategies that lead tothe attainment of depth of vocabulary knowledge in a second language. For the purpose, 110Bulgarian language learners of English took Qian and Schedl’s (2004) depth of vocabularyknowledge test and completed a related survey. After dividing the sample into a limitedknowledge group and a superior knowledge group, the data were analyzed throughdiscriminant function analysis which showed eight vocabulary learning strategies assignificantly associated with the superior knowledge group. These strategies were namedlinguistically-driven strategies since they involve regular attention to linguistic features,including: paradigmatic associations (synonyms, antonyms), morphological structure(prefixes, roots, and suffixes), syntagmatic associations (collocations) and pronunciation. Theresults suggest that regular use of linguistically-driven vocabulary learning strategies helpsbuild deep knowledge of second language vocabulary.