Lexical consciousness-raising in the vicinity of target vocabulary

2013 IJRSLL – Volume 2 Issue 3

Author/s:

Hadi, Farjami
Semnan University, Iran (zzmhadi@yahoo.com)

Iman, Alizadeh*
Semnan University, Iran (iman_alizadeh87@yahoo.com)

Abstract:

This study compared the effectiveness of three techniques for teaching English vocabulary to Persian native speakers: a traditional procedure, the classical cloze procedure, and an innovative procedure, which is dubbed here as vicinity technique, based on incidental learning, noticing and consciousness-raising. To do the comparison, 51 students, registered at a private language institute, were randomly assigned to three groups and were taught 40 vocabulary items in five sessions in the three procedures. To evaluate the vocabulary gain in the three conditions, immediate and delayed post-tests were administered and the obtained data were analyzed using ANOVA. The results revealed that the vicinity technique was more effective than the traditional procedure; both in immediate and delayed evaluations. It was also revealed that, although there was no significant difference between the vicinity technique and the classical cloze technique in short-term, the vicinity technique was more effective than the classical cloze one for long-term retention.

Keywords: classical cloze; traditional method; vicinity technique; vocabulary teaching; incidental learning

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrsll.2012.178

*Corresponding Author