How middle school students learn new words in their native language: an empirical study of vocabulary learning strategies

This study aimed to identify the strategies middle school students employ to learn vocabulary in their native language and to assess the extent of their strategy use. It also sought to explore whether variables such as gender, age, access to technology, number of books read, the presence of an older sibling, parents’ educational background, and school location influence the frequency with which children aged 11-14 apply vocabulary learning strategies. To accomplish these objectives, the descriptive survey model, a quantitative research method, was utilized. Data were collected from a sample of 1620 middle school students during the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 academic years through the administration of the Native Language Vocabulary Learning Strategies Scale (NLVLSS) and a personal information form. The analysis of the data revealed that middle school students use vocabulary learning strategies in their native language at a moderate level. It was observed that gender and the presence of an older sibling did not significantly affect the use of these strategies, whereas age, access to technology, number of books read, parental education level, and school location were found to influence the extent to which students employed vocabulary learning strategies. Moreover, the findings indicated that middle school students most frequently utilized confirmation-oriented strategies, followed by reinforcement-oriented strategies, with learning-oriented strategies being used least frequently. The overall ranking of strategy use was determined as follows: confirmation > reinforcement > learning-oriented strategies. Based on these findings and in light of the relevant literature, several recommendations were proposed: providing awareness training to promote the use of vocabulary learning strategies; offering guidance specifically focused on learning-oriented strategies; revising curricula and textbooks to better support the application of such strategies; and developing and implementing educational policies aimed at fostering students’ reading habits.