FRESHMEN’S LEARNER AUTONOMY IN VOCABULARY LEARNING AT FELTE – ULIS - VNU =

Abstract

Learner autonomy is considered a determining factor of success in their own study, yet there is a limited number of papers on the issue in the context of Vietnam tertiary education. With the aim of contributing more insights to this domain , this paper explores 48 freshmen’s learner autonomy in vocabulary learning at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University. To be specific, their perceptions of learner autonomy and their vocabulary learning strategies are closely examined. Descriptive statistics and content analysis methods were adopted to analyze the collected data. The findings reveal that freshmen highly value the role of vocabulary learning and learner autonomy although learning vocabulary is not an interest to most of them. Furthermore, the paper finds out that the most frequently used strategies to discover word-meaning, consolidate and widen vocabulary items are to keep a vocabulary notebook, use bilingual dictionaries and listen to music respectively. Hence, it is strongly recommended that teachers create more appealing vocabulary teaching activities basing on students’ interest. Moreover, they are suggested to give and check freshmen’s assignments as well as share their own vocabulary learning strategies to students.