“Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” (Cited in Hoang Tat Truong 1985:1). The saying sounds very familiar with many people. However, the researcher still wants to repeat it once more to confirm the importance of vocabulary in any language. “If a language could be considered as a house, then its grammar could be considered as cement and its vocabulary could be figuratively compared to bricks. To build a complete house, no only cement but also bricks are needed. Without bricks, no house can be built, even when plenty of high quality cement is available.” (Nguyen Huyen, 2004:1). This means that to be a competent English communicator, one must acquire a good knowledge of English grammar and have a rich amount of English vocabulary as well. Vocabulary is an essential element of language. Whether in speaking or writing, learners need vocabulary to communicate and understand others. In many cases, learners produce grammatically incorrect sentences, but they still get their message across if they use key words appropriately. In other cases, learners may feel uncomfortable because they fail to employ certain words, or do not know the words to express themselves. Vocabulary is not only indispensable for personal communication, but also for academic study. In fact, many standardized tests require knowledge of vocabulary such as TOFFLE, IELTs, GMAT, etc. For this reason, learners must give high priority to learning and developing their knowledge of vocabulary.
For a long time in the past, methodologists have continuously kept seeking effective ways to teach English vocabulary but learning English. Teacher’s role and teaching tools have been paid so much attention. Fortunately, it has been witnessed that there has been a prominent shift in the field of language teaching and learning over the last few decades with greater emphasis being put on learners and learning rather than on teachers and teaching. This change has been reflected in various ways in language education and in applied linguistics. Many books on learning strategies have been introduced by such experts as Oxford (1990), O’Malley and Charmot (1990), Nunan (1991), Nation (1990) and so on. Some books on vocabulary learning strategies have been written by such scholars as Nation (1982, 1990, and 2001), Rubin and Thompson (1994) and Taylor (1990), etc.
In Vietnam, there has so far been some research on vocabulary learning strategies. However, research on vocabulary learning strategies employed by students at Hung Vuong Gifted High School has not been done yet.
As a teacher of English, I have dealt with many questions relating to vocabulary learning which are raised by my students or among my colleagues. For example, what are the effective ways of learning vocabulary? How to retain a new word in the mind? Personally I found it necessary to provide to them successful learning strategies to learn English words. This is the major reason why this topic interests me.