Online Learning amid COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Vocabulary Learning Strategies

Abstract

The outbreak of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has led countries to implement measures to prevent its spread. One of these measures included shutting down schools and universities. Consequently, the teaching, learning and assessment processes were entirely shifted from face-to-face to online. The current study aimed to investigate online vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) amid COVID-19 pandemic used by Saudi EFL students. It attempted to find out the online strategies Saudi EFL astudents use to get the meaning of new vocabulary, the strategies they use to study new vocabulary and the strategies they follow to revise the learned vocabulary and keep them as part of their repertoire. The sample of the study was 119 male and female English and non-English majors. The study modified Kulikova’s (2015) questionnaire. This study was conducted at the University of Bisha, Saudi Arabia, during a fully online learning period in September and October 2020 at the time of COVID-19 outbreak. The data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire form. It was distributed via teachers of the English Department. The study found out that English majors used vocabulary learning strategies more than non-English majors. It also showed that students do not ask their teachers about the meaning of new vocabulary (77%), they also do not ask their classmates (92%), nor they ask their friends (85%), which could be attributed to online study and due to social distance during coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19).

Estrategias de aprendizaje de vocabulario en inglés mediadas por tecnología en contextos universitarios

“…Resulta interesante que, en este estudio, Shamsan et al (2021) reportan poco sobre EAV mediadas por la tecnología. De igual manera, llama la atención un nuevo estudio que se enfocó en recabar información sobre el uso de los diccionarios electrónicos como EAV.…”

“…De hecho, la EAV de uso de diccionario y otras fuentes de consulta emergió como una de las más frecuentes entre las 13 categorías. Este resultado coincide con los hallazgos reportados por Asgari y Mustapha (2011), Saengpakdeejit (2014), Rachmawati (2017), Lestari y Puspitasari (2021), Shamsan et al (2021) y Alamri y Hakami (2022).…”

“…Por otro lado, la EAV de repetición y memorización (oral y escrita) parece tener popularidad entre la muestra de estudiantes, independientemente de que sea efectiva o no. Esta estrategia de consolidación de vocabulario fue mencionada por la mayoría de los participantes; resultado que coincide con Moir y Nation (2002, 2008 y Shamsan et al (2021). En contraste, hacer asociaciones entre palabras y situaciones fueron reportadas con menor frecuencia por los estudiantes universitarios.…”

“…De igual forma, la toma de notas se detectó dentro de las EAV de consolidación, pero con menor frecuencia. Estos resultados están en sintonía con los encontrados por Lestari y Puspitasari (2021), Shamsan et al (2021) y Hernández et al (2016. Cabe recordar que la toma de notas o apuntes de vocabulario es variada en cuanto a la información que los estudiantes escriben sobre las palabras nuevas, los lugares donde llevan sus notas, así como la forma en que las organizan.…”

Vocabulary Learning Strategies Used by Saudi Female EFL Learners

“…Moreover, 15 of the 20 participants claimed they use English-language media (songs, TV shows, movies, and video games) to learn new vocabulary. Shamsan et al (2021) investigated the preferred VLSs by two groups of learners during online learning due to Covid-19 restrictions. The result showed that non-English major learners reported that inferencing the meaning from the context was their favourite strategy, while English major learners' common strategy was to look up new words in a bilingual dictionary.…”