Lexical learning strategies: How do they vary by gender and age?

Abstract

Throughout the teaching-learning process of a foreign language, students are expected to develop their linguistic competence in order to learn how to communicate and express themselves. The lexicon is one of the key elements in this learning process since it is the basis of the communicative act, without which there is no communication. In the development of the lexical competence, speakers make use, consciously or unconsciously, of a series of learning strategies with the objective of positively promoting their lexical knowledge. This paper presents the results of a questionnaire, which was handed out to learners of Portuguese who have Spanish as their first language. The aim was to explore how these students learn vocabulary, what strategies they make use of, and which factors make their learning process more difficult. The evidence throws light on the strategies most widely used by the students of three Language Schools, how different those strategies are between men and women and if they change according to their age.