THE COMPARATIVE EFFECT OF PRESENTING WORDS IN SEMANTICALLY RELATED AND UNRELATED SETS IN INTENTIONAL AND INCIDENTAL LEARNING CONTEXTS ON IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS’ VOCABULARY LEARNING

Abstract

This study was conducted among 120 female EFL learners who were selected among a total number of 180 based on their performance on a piloted Cambridge Key English Test (KET) and randomly put into four experimental groups. The same content was taught to all four groups throughout the fifteen-session treatment; the only difference was over the mechanism of teaching vocabulary to the four groups. In the first group, vocabulary was taught in semantically related sets and in an incidental learning mode. The second group received them in the same sets but in an intentional learning mode. The third experimental group experienced semantically unrelated sets and in an intentional learning mode, while the fourth group was taught the vocabulary in semantically unrelated sets but in an incidental learning mode. A vocabulary achievement test within the content area was given to the students in all groups at the end of the instruction and the mean scores of all groups on this posttest were compared through a two-way ANOVA which led to the rejection of all four null hypotheses raised in the study, thus concluding that presenting words in semantically unrelated sets and in an intentional learning mode was more effective on students’ vocabulary achievement compared to the other modes.