Learners’ Academic Self-Concept and Their Use of Vocabulary Learning Strategies

This study investigated the relationship between students' vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) and their academic self-concept. Participants included 108 Iranian EFL students who completed two standardized instruments: Liu and Wang’s academic self-concept questionnaire and Gu and Johnson’s VLS questionnaire. The latter aimed to identify the specific types of strategies learners employed when acquiring English lexical items. Data analysis revealed that the most frequently utilized strategy was paying close attention to a new word's usage and meaning. Conversely, the least frequent strategy involved consulting dictionaries for specific collocation patterns. Statistical results indicated no significant relationship between the participants' academic self-concept and their choice of vocabulary learning strategies. Consequently, the null hypothesis, asserting no correlation between these two psychological and linguistic variables, was validated. These findings suggest that in the Iranian EFL context, a student’s perception of their general academic ability does not necessarily dictate the specific strategic approaches they adopt for vocabulary acquisition and mastery.