ENGLISH VOCABULARY ACQUISITION AMONG PAKISTANI STUDENTS OF INTERMEDIATE LEVEL: CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the strategies and challenges that students of Intermediate level adopted and faced while acquiring English vocabulary acquisition in Punjab, Pakistan. It was descriptive research based on survey design in nature. It was conducted in Lahore. The population for present research comprised the students who were enrolled in higher secondary schools or/and degree colleges for getting intermediate level education in the academic year 2023 – Data was collected from 200 students via a questionnaire. The quantitative data was coded and entered into computer for statistical analysis by employing inferential and descriptive analysis with the help of the SPSS software. Thematic analysis was done of the open ended question asked in the questionnaire. The result disclosed that the students of intermediate level adopted memorization, contextual learning, flashcards & visual aids, and interaction with native speaker strategies  for English vocabulary acquisition. Moreover, it was found from the thematic analysis that students were  facing lack of resources, difficulty in understanding context, limited practice opportunities, lack of exposure to native speaker, and vocabulary retention challenges while acquiring English vocabulary. And difficulty in understanding context was the most faced challenge in the way of English vocabulary acquisition. It is recommended that the students may adopt the vocabulary acquisition strategy that naturally integrates into teaching approaches to make learning more efficient and enjoyable.