Volume 8, Issue 3 (3-2018)
MJLTM 2018, 8(3): 200-225 |
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Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch, Faculty of Literature and Foreign Languages, ELT Department of Higher Education, Karaj, Iran
Abstract: (7515 Views)
The present study investigated the effects of teaching English synonym and antonym pairs adjacently and non-adjacently on Iranian EFL learners' vocabulary learning and retention. In so doing, the study utilized an experimental design with 80 randomly selected participants ranging in age from 15 to 25 who were assigned into four experimental groups of 20. The results of a pre-test indicated that the participants of the two groups were homogenous regarding their proficiency level. All groups were exposed to the synonym and antonym pairs illustrated with pictures and Microsoft Power-Points slides. After interventions, immediate and delayed post-tests were administered with 2 weeks interval. The researcher came to the conclusion that teaching new words out of context might be as helpful as teaching them within the language context (co-text); teaching synonyms and antonyms gives the language learners an opportunity to enhance their memory for semantically-related words; teaching synonyms and antonyms in separate sessions with short intervals in between might positively affect the students' long term memory for words and consolidate their experience of learning words in a foreign language.
Type of Study: Research |
Subject:
Foreign language teaching and learning
Received: 2018/08/18 | Accepted: 2018/08/18 | Published: 2018/08/18
Received: 2018/08/18 | Accepted: 2018/08/18 | Published: 2018/08/18
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