Rote memorization of vocabulary has long been a common way for Chinese students to learn lexical items. Cultural, educational background and traditional teaching practice in China are identified to be the factors that contribute to many students' heavy reliance on memorization as their sole approach to vocabulary learning. In addition to rote memorization which has been proved useful and effective in the Chinese ELT context, this paper suggests that students be presented with vocabulary learning strategies and be taught how to build vocabulary through other useful learning methods.