The benefits of study skills practice in improving EFL university students’ vocabulary

Abstract

Study Skills are one of the most important modules English as a Foreign Language University students study for the first two years of their license degree. During this period, students are exposed to a variety of skills that help them study successfully. The practice of these skills and others using many assignments and tasks enables students to benefit from learning and improving vocabulary. This makes also study skills sessions a real opportunity for students to learn new vocabulary, reinforce the existing one, and therefore improve their lexical stock as a whole. The present paper is a case study conducted with ten-year EFL University students and four teachers at the University of Tlemcen (Algeria). It aims to emphasize the importance of study skills practice and its benefits on students’ EFL learning in general and vocabulary improvement in particular. To achieve this aim, two questionnaires and classroom observation are used to collect data which are analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The interpreted and discussed results confirm that study skills practice plays a crucial role in students’ vocabulary learning and improvement by offering them real occasions to use, learn, and reinforce vocabulary in addition to many other benefits. It is recommended for 1^st year EFL University students to practice study skills regularly to improve their vocabulary.

Keywords: Benefits; EFL; English as a foreign language; study skills; university; vocabulary.