Vocabulary acquisition has always puzzled and fascinated Chinese learners of English. This paper mainly presents a discussion of English vocabulary acquisition by Chinese learners in these respects: quantity, quality and strategies. There is a belief among learners in China that to know an English word is to know its Chinese equivalent. Knowing the Chinese equivalent means knowing the English word. And a large vocabulary size like this means competence in English. It is not wrong to learn an English word by knowing its Chinese equivalent, especially at initial stages of learning. Yet it should be reiterated that knowing the Chinese equivalent does not mean knowing the English word.
