Mastering the adaptation to the university type of study is a key factor in the student's success in the first year; from the point of view of the university, it is a significant problem of retention. Recently, questions have been raised again about how to reduce the percentage of students who drop out during the first or second year.
Therefore, higher education pedagogy again draws attention to the stressful areas of adaptation, such as adapting the student and his social and study habits to the requirements of the university. Research shows that cognitive, metacognitive, affective and behavioral learning strategies, including self-regulation, play a key role here.
This paper focuses on the relationship between these factors and examines their impact on the acquisition of professional vocabulary and professional skills in first-year students of Tourism at the University of Business. The results of the questionnaire survey map the influence of transitional learning strategies and self-regulation on the results of testing the acquisition of professional vocabulary in English and professional communication skills in the first year of study.
The conclusions of this pilot study suggest that students use compensatory strategies in mastering the lexicon, which can be assessed as a superficial strategy, because it does not lead to the acquisition of a professional way of expression. This knowledge can be applied to teaching in the first years and with the help of a series of didactic tasks to lead students to re-evaluate their attitudes in the acquisition of professional vocabulary.