![]() ![]() There may also be a need for statistical validation of the classifications of VLSs in several influential VLS questionnaires (e.g., Gu and Johnson, 1996) using factor analyses, so that with their inner structures tested, that reliance on the total or the average scores of items under certain or all categories as a measure of the use of VLSs, a practice many have criticized (e.g., Tseng et al., 2006), could be avoided, because initial items were examined and sifted and scores gained from individual items were weighted (e.g., Fabrigar et al., 1999 Zhang and Lu, 2015). Along these lines of inquiries, an updated investigation of use of VLSs among a different pool of Chinese participants may be warranted, given that the most well-known large-scale investigation of the use of VLSs in the Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) context was conducted among Beijing Normal University students more than 15 years ago (i.e., Gu and Johnson, 1996 Gu, 2002), and considering that Chinese learners have been regarded as different from western ones (e.g., Watkins and Biggs, 1996 Gu, 2002). Using VLS inventories, researchers have explored a variety of issues, including what VLSs are adopted by successful and unsuccessful language learners ( Gu and Johnson, 1996 Lessard-Clouston, 1996 Lawson and Hogben, 1998 Fan, 2003 Gu, 2003), what factors may influence the use of VLSs ( Gu, 2002 Catalán, 2003), and how this use relates to breadth of vocabulary knowledge (VK) ( Gu and Johnson, 1996 Kojic-Sabo and Lightbown, 1999) and to its depth (e.g., Nassaji, 2006 Zhang and Lu, 2015). Scholarly efforts in the field of language learning strategies (LLSs) (see, e.g., O’Malley and Chamot, 1990 Oxford, 1990 Cohen, 1998) have been fundamental to the development of inventories of vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs). Given the important mediating effects of proficiency, it is proposed that vocabulary learning be strategically integrated into the accumulative process of English learning. ![]() Attention is called for to third-party factors in understanding VLSs–VK relationships. ![]() This study reveals the complex relationships among use of VLSs, VK, and learner variables. The findings are related to strategy features, gender characteristics, disciplinary influence, the EFL context and culture, and effective learning. Gender moderated the predictive power of Attention, Socializing, and DictNote over VST, greater for male students, whereas discipline moderated the relationship between Guessing and WAT, stronger for arts students. The predictive power of Attention, Guessing, and Socializing, however, was achieved mainly, or for an important part, via the mediating or indirect effects of proficiency. Attention and Guessing significantly predicted VST and WAT positively, but Socializing significantly predicted the breadth and depth of VK negatively, and DictNote, Association, and Repetition had no significant relationship. Girls liked making notes while using dictionaries (DictNote) and Socializing, and students of arts also took more notes. Proficiency significantly predicted Attention and Guessing positively but was a negative predictor of Socializing (asking others for help). Four hundred nineteen sophomores’ strategy use frequency, Vocabulary Size Test (VST) scores (indicative of breadth of VK), Word Associates Test (WAT) scores (indicative of depth of VK), College English Test Band-4 scores, and gender and discipline categories were used as data. Structural equation models were established following exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) procedures, and mediation analyses and multiple-group analyses, as well as analyses of variance, were conducted. This study investigated Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners’ use of vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) and its relationship with vocabulary knowledge (VK), especially in relation to proficiency, gender, and discipline. Department of English, School of International Studies, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China. ![]()
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