Investigating the vocabulary learning strategy use of university students majoring in English or Spanish in Hungary: The validation of a questionnaire

The aim of the present study is the design and validation of a reliable questionnaire suitable to measure the vocabulary learning strategy use in the Hungarian university context, getting a general overview of the application of various strategies and comparing the frequency of use of these strategies by English and Spanish majors. Schmitt classified them into discovery strategies that can be determination or social ones and consolidation strategies that are social, memory, cognitive or metacognitive ones. A quantitative research design was planned with the participation of 52 first-year students majoring in English or Spanish at a Hungarian university. A questionnaire was created based on the vocabulary learning strategy taxonomy of Schmitt, adapting most of the items of Schmitt with modifications. The general preference for determination strategies to discover meaning and metacognitive strategies to consolidate knowledge has been found. There were significant differences between the learners of English and Spanish in the frequency of the use of two strategy types, the Spanish majors using significantly more frequently social discovery and cognitive strategies. These results indicate that the learning of different languages is characterized by the preference of different strategies. These differences might be explained mainly by cultural-contextual factors.