A New Inventory of Vocabulary Learning Strategy for Chinese Tertiary EFL Learners

The past three decades have witnessed a boost of interest in vocabulary learning in EFL contexts since Meara (1980) identified it as 'a neglected aspect of language learning' (p. 221). A mushrooming amount of literature has emerged in various aspects of vocabulary and its acquisition (e.g., Carter, 1998; Coady & Huckin, 1997; Manyak, 2010; Meara, 1995, 2005; Nation, 1990, 2006; Read, 2000; Schmitt, 2000; Schmitt & McCarthy, 1997). With a movement from teaching-orientedness to learner-certeredness and learner autonomy, vocabulary learning strategies seem to have gained its legitimacy as one auxiliary approach to vocabulary learning. Despite this, there appears no satisfactory instrument particularly for assessing vocabulary learning strategy use in an EFL context, although a few researchers have tried to do so (e.g., Gu & Johnson, 1996; Schmitt, 1997). To this aim, a new inventory for vocabulary learning, the Strategies Inventory for Vocabulary Learning (SIVL) was proposed for Chinese EFL university learners. To validate the instrument, confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were employed to assess its psychometric properties. Results showed that the hypothesized theoretical model proved to be a good representation of the sample data, and that the SIVL exhibited satisfactory psychometric features. This positive evidence indicates that the SIVL can serve as a reliable and valid research instrument for assessing Chinese EFL university learners' vocabulary learning strategy use. It is suggested that the SIVL can be a valuable resource for EFL learners and practitioners in that it can raise their awareness of strategy use and strategy training by employing this instrument, leading to more successful vocabulary teaching and learning.