Investigation of Vocabulary Learning Strategies among EFL Iranian Medical Sciences Students

Vocabulary learning strategies have dominated the subject of language learning for over two decades. This study aimed to investigate the use and preferences of these Strategies among the students at Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences. One hundred eighty five students with different majors participated in this study. The instrument utilized was a modified version of Gu and Johnson questionnaire which consisted of 45 items related to the students’ approach to vocabulary learning. The data were analyzed using SPSS and ANOVA. Results indicated that 57.6% of the students used dictionary to learn vocabulary. Social strategies (2.15±0.66) and guessing (2.14±0.83) had the highest obtained scores while note taking (2.14±0.83) and autonomy (1.49± 0.89) were the least used strategies. Medical and dentistry students used selective attention, and study preference, while nursing and paramedical students used social strategies more. Also, female students used social strategies more, while male students preferred autonomy and note taking strategies. students use different strategies in learning vocabulary items, therefore identifying and teaching these strategies can help teachers and curriculum developers to develop better educational materials which not only teach the importance of VLS but motivate the students to use them more frequently.