vahid reza mirzaeian
Abstract
This paper reports an attempt to see if podcasting can be a valuable tool to improve English vocabulary learning and retention of Persian university students compared with traditional method of vocabulary teaching. Students have been randomly divided into two groups namely experimental and control group. ...
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This paper reports an attempt to see if podcasting can be a valuable tool to improve English vocabulary learning and retention of Persian university students compared with traditional method of vocabulary teaching. Students have been randomly divided into two groups namely experimental and control group. In the experimental group, students are asked to produce podcasts collaboratively and students in the control group are asked to spend the same amount of time in a traditional class practicing vocabulary items. The analysis of covariance shows students in the experimental group significantly outperform students in control group in terms of both learning and retention of vocabulary items.
Mohammad Ahmadi Safa; Raouf Hamzavi
Volume 5, Issue 12 , December 2013, , Pages 1-15
Abstract
Most of the studies on the key word method of second/foreign language vocabulary learning have been based on the evidence from laboratory experiments and have primarily involved the use of English key words to learn the vocabularies of other languages. Furthermore, comparatively quite limited number ...
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Most of the studies on the key word method of second/foreign language vocabulary learning have been based on the evidence from laboratory experiments and have primarily involved the use of English key words to learn the vocabularies of other languages. Furthermore, comparatively quite limited number of such studies is done in authentic classroom contexts. The present study inquired into the effect of using mnemonic key word method of vocabulary instruction on the learning and retention of vocabulary over long term in a normal EFL classroom context.Fifty5th grade primary school students were selected and randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received vocabulary instruction using mnemonic key word method and the control group received classic memorization based instruction of the same vocabulary items. The two groups took three posttests a day, two weeks, and a month after the last treatment session. A MANOVA analysis was run on the data and the results indicated that subjects in the key word group outperformed the memorization group at a significant level in both their learning and retention of the newly learnt vocabularies. The results of the study underscore the efficacy of the establishment of mental links and images for the vocabulary learning and retention of novice and beginning level EFL learners. It further implies that mnemonic devices like key word method should be given prompt attention by both EFL material developers and practitioners as a potentially effective strategy for vocabulary teaching, learning and long term retention at the early stages of second or foreign language development.
MohammadHadi Mahmoudi; Taj Bİbi Talang
Volume 5, Issue 11 , November 2013, , Pages 73-106
Abstract
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Vocabulary is an important component in all four skills of language. Issue of vocabulary retention has great importance to EFL teachers in instructional contexts because they always observe students forget the words which are taught to them after a short period of time. The current study investigates whether the use of an interactive web-based tool referred to as ‘Wordsift’ can result in a significant improvement in long-term vocabulary retention of EFL students. 60 participants were selected to take part in the study.The participants’ age ranged from 17 to 24. They were taught 100 words in six contextualized texts. The main experiment consisted of twelve sessions, which were followed by an additional meeting designed to check the treatment effect on the long-term vocabulary retention. The results of T-test and ANOVA analyses indicated that word cloud (Wordsift) does have positive significant effect on EFL learners’ long-term vocabulary retention.
Saeed Mehrpour; Seyyed Ayatollah Razmjoo; Parvaneh Kian
Volume 2, Issue 222 , December 2010, , Pages 97-127
Abstract
The current study is an attempt to investigate the particular role learners' vocabulary knowledge plays in their reading comprehension performance. It intends to determine whether breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge are related to EFL learners' reading comprehension, and to investigate which one ...
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The current study is an attempt to investigate the particular role learners' vocabulary knowledge plays in their reading comprehension performance. It intends to determine whether breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge are related to EFL learners' reading comprehension, and to investigate which one of these variables, that is, depth or breadth of vocabulary knowledge, makes a more important contribution to L2 reading comprehension. It also attempts to investigate whether there is a relationship between these two vocabulary knowledge dimensions, that is, depth and breadth. Finally, the study tries to find out whether gender has any effect on learners' reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. The participants of the study were sixty (30 male and 30 female) EFL learners who were chosen from among five language teaching institutes in Shiraz based on available sampling. To collect the relevant data, two tests measuring breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge were administered to all participants. They also received a reading comprehension test in which they were asked to read the passages and answer some multiple choice questions. The results obtained from the analysis of the data indicated that while both depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge play an important role in EFL learners' reading comprehension performance, depth of vocabulary knowledge makes a more important contribution. The results further revealed that depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge are positively correlated, that is, those learners who had large vocabulary size had a deeper knowledge of the words, too. It was also found that gender had no significant impact on learners' reading comprehension performance and vocabulary knowledge.
