Acquiring vocabulary in English in content and language integrated learning programme: the questions of strategies and academic performance / Kamisah Ariffin, Nur Asmaliza Mohd Noor and Asmidar Alias

In any language, the most important aspect that needs to be acquired and empowered is vocabulary. As most higher learning institutions in Malaysia have implemented English as the medium of instructions for the courses offered, students must have adequate vocabulary to cope with their studies. Empirical research has suggested that insufficient vocabulary knowledge may affect academic progress. This study aimed at the vocabulary learning strategies employed by students in the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programme and the correlation with their academic performance. Data were procured from Schmitt’s questionnaire on vocabulary learning strategies under the Determination, Social, Memory, Cognitive and Metacognitive dimensions. The findings indicate that the metacognitive strategies were the most preferred strategies while the cognitive strategies were the least preferred among the students. It is also found that the choice of these strategies was largely to do with the nature of the students’ generation, among which, the availability of the internet and information technology plays a significant role in the education and the learning process. With the choice of information at their fingertips, traditional strategies like referring to books and lecturers are less preferred. The findings of this study can provide a direction for instructors in enhancing their vocabulary teaching techniques and in designing any intervention programme for the students to enhance their vocabulary acquisition.