The development of the Academic Word List by Coxhead (2000) has drawn attention of the academia to teaching and learning academic vocabulary as well as the creation of more word lists for different majors. However, most of the research in the field of vocabulary has focused on the learning strategies for general vocabulary only (e.g. Gu & Johnson, 1996; Lawson, & Hogben, 1996; Nation, 2001; Schmitt & McCarthy, 1997). Little has been done to investigate strategies for academic vocabulary (Nushi & Jenabzadeh 2016). Given the importance of academic vocabulary in comprising some 8%-10% of running words in academic texts (Nation, 2001), the present study was set out to investigate EFL university students’ strategies for learning academic English words. The participants included 132 EFL university students. The study adopted the taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies by Schmitt (2000) and strategies for learning academic words by Bramki and Williams (1984) and Chung and Nation (2003). The findings reveal that the respondents tended to use on-line dictionaries and other applications more than cognitive strategies in learning academic words. Based on the findings of the study, suggestions were put forward to a systematized list of academic vocabulary learning strategies as well as what teachers and learners should do when encountering new academic words.

Vygotsky proposed the concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) but did not elaborate the concept of ‘peer,’ leaving open the question of how capable a peer should be and how practice or outcome might differ according to a peer's level of capability. These issues were investigated in a sociocultural study of first-year Vietnamese university students learning English. The students were examined in two group settings, ‘unassisted’ and ‘assisted,’ the first consisting of five students from the same class and the second of four from the same class and a more knowledgeable student from a higher class. The senior student made a marked difference to the organization of the assisted group's processes: she helped the other students start their discussions, explained new English words, and increased the use of English in this group setting. The results suggest that the teaching manner of the senior student contributed substantially to the group work in the current study.

This study investigated learning vocabulary in group work at university in Vietnam. The students were studied in two kinds of group settings, ‘unassisted’ and ‘assisted’, the first consisting of five students from the same class level and the second of four from the same class and a student from a higher class. Differences were observed in both the procedures and the outcomes of vocabulary learning in the two settings. The negotiation of word meanings and forms were collaborative in the unassisted groups and expert-novice in the assisted groups. The unassisted groups used the first language to code-mix their English utterances with Vietnamese words to express their ideas. The presence of a senior student in the assisted groups virtually eliminated the use of the first language in explaining new English words. Students in the two group settings reported that they learned new words and the group discussions helped them recall and remember English words.

This study examines interactions in non-English major large classes in Vietnam. Audio recordings of classes of economics and business were used for data analysis. The study adopted sociocultural discourse analysis (Mercer, 2004) which focuses on the use of language as a social mode of thinking and a tool for teaching-and-learning, constructing knowledge, creating joint understanding and tackling problems collaboratively. The findings show that teachers mediated learners with their prompts, questions and scaffolding. Interactions between teachers and students assisted students in understanding and building concepts related to their majors, learning English language expressions and vocabulary.

No abstract