Arabic Vocabulary Acquisition Strategies Among Secondary School Learners in Niger State

Vocabulary acquisition is widely recognised as one of the most critical dimensions of second language learning, and the strategies learners employ significantly influence the breadth and depth of their lexical knowledge. This study investigates the Arabic vocabulary acquisition strategies used by senior secondary school students in Niger State, assessing the frequency and effectiveness of various strategy types in building learners' Arabic lexical competence. Adopting a descriptive survey design, the research administers the adapted Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire to 320 students in twenty secondary schools across Minna, Bida, and Kontagora, selected through stratified random sampling. In-depth interviews with fifteen Arabic teachers provide instructor perspectives on vocabulary instruction practices. The study categorises strategies into cognitive, metacognitive, social, and memory-based types and correlates strategy use profiles with performance on a standardised Arabic vocabulary test administered concurrently. Results show that memory-based strategies including rote repetition and association with Quranic vocabulary are most frequently deployed, while metacognitive and contextual inferencing strategies are rarely used. High-performing students are found to employ a significantly more diverse strategy repertoire than their lower-performing counterparts. Pedagogical recommendations address teacher training in vocabulary strategy instruction and the development of learner autonomy. Keywords: Arabic vocabulary, acquisition strategies, secondary school learners, Niger State, lexical competence.