The effectiveness of different explicit vocabulary-teaching strategies on learners’ retention of technical and academic words

Abstract

The effectiveness of different explicit vocabulary teaching strategies on learners' retention of technical and academic words The effectiveness of explicit instruction, within the context of strategy development in learners, has been widely accepted for several years. However, the methods used within explicit vocabulary instruction are varied and comparatively few studies have directly compared methods. This study investigates the type of instruction (in a visual or written context) as well as the timing of the activity (before or after the main activity). Seventy Arabic learners of English were tested in a 2*2 design. Results showed a positive effect for pre-teaching vocabulary in a visual condition. We conclude that this pre-emptive multimodal approach heightens the learners' ability to notice vocabulary items thus providing an effective strategy to increase vocabulary intake.

The Effects of Computer-Assisted Learning Based on Dual Coding Theory

“…By comparing this two theories, Sadoski, Goetz, and Avila concluded that their results were more consistent with the dual coding theory. The results of previous research [11] also showed that pre-teaching with visual aids has a positive effect on vocabulary acquisition compared with pre-teaching with only written context. They believe that this multi-modal approach improves learners' ability to pay attention to vocabulary items and thus increase their vocabulary learning.…”

Effects of Student Collaboration on ESL Learners’ Vocabulary Development

“…In their study on explicit vocabulary instruction, Nash and Snowling (2006) revealed that learners' vocabulary knowledge is greatly enhanced by using a contextual approach to the instruction as compared to merely emphasizing word definitions. Many research have shown the importance of providing direct guidance in teaching vocabulary via different techniques and strategies (Alamri & Rogers, 2018;Hennerbry et al, 2017;Huffman, 2010;Norris & Ortega, 2000;Oxford, 2003;Read, 2004). However, to the researcher's knowledge, most of these research mainly employed quantitative means in measuring the development of vocabulary knowledge achieved by learners.…”

Keywords in Written Academic Legal Texts: A Corpus-Derived List

“…There have been several attempts to foster knowledge of academic vocabulary (Alamri & Rogers, 2018;Horst, Cobb, & Nicolae, 2005;Scammacca & Stillman, 2018;Thurston & Candlin, 1998). One way to help ESL students recall the meanings of academic words and less known expressions is to offer them access to a web-based platform where they can acquire knowledge of these lexical items and participate in a series of interactive activities that help in the productive use of the recently acquired vocabulary (Horst et al, 2005).…”

“…Opinions gleaned from the students indicated that exposure to this type of vocabulary instruction is conducive to better retention of academic lexis. Alamri and Rogers (2018) tested several explicit ways of teaching technical and academic vocabulary and concluded that pre-instructional exposure to domain-specific terms with the help of a visual aid had a positive impact on the learning of academic vocabulary. Repeated exposure to subject-matter vocabulary is investigated by Scammacca and Stillman (2018) who noticed that allowing low-level students the opportunity to read texts several times made them aware of a wide range of vocabulary in the domain of social studies.…”