抄録
In spite of the widespread research on vocabulary learning strategies (VLS), there is only a little evidence regarding Japanese elementary students’ VLS. This study examined the relationships between the metacognitive awareness of VLS and the three variables of language proficiency, gender, and extracurricular language learning experience for Japanese 4th, 5th and 6th graders (N = 327). Data stem from Hirano, Hotta, and Sakai (2017), in which five factors regarding VLS were extracted using the factor analysis procedure. The findings revealed that the effects of the three variables on the students’ metacognitive awareness of VLS differed depending on five factors. For the factor of focusing on similarities of vocabulary, girls outperformed boys in a lower-proficiency group with extracurricular language learning experience. In addition, for the lower-proficiency group, girls were more aware of the factor of repetition and practice than boys. The group with extracurricular language learning experience outscored the group without it in terms of all of the five factors relating to VLS. Moreover, there were no significant differences between girls and boys, and between groups with and without extracurricular language learning experience in terms of the degree of contributions of VLS to language proficiency.
