EFL Vocabulary Learning: Investigating Third Year Students’ Vocabulary Learning Strategies at Some Sudanese Universities in the Capital Khartoum

Abstract

This study has investigated the types of meaning discovery/ consolidation strategies which are mostly used by the 3rd year students studying English at some universities in the capital Khartoum. On introspection-based questionnaires, the researcher has found out that these students neither widely employ effective determination strategies to discover meaning nor do they use effective consolidation strategies to retain meanings they learn.

The researcher has further concluded that there is a great difference between the strategies mostly used by the students and strategies recommended as most useful by their teachers. The findings have also shown that the students are in a pressing need for receiving vocabulary learning strategy instruction to raise their awareness in choosing strategies suitable for university students’ meaning learning practices.

Accordingly, the researcher has recommended adopting pedagogical measures to improve the students’ vocabulary learning habits, and offered a module for this purpose as an example.