جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « vocabulary knowledge » در نشریات گروه « علوم انسانی »

Juxtaposing the ubiquitous facets of mobile technology as everyware (Greenfield, 2010) and vocabulary as one of the most axial aspects of language learning (Bowles & Cogo, 2016; Schmitt & Schmitt, 2020), besides the importance of considering learners’ attributes and needs (Taghizadeh, 2019) while developing a mobile vocabulary application (app), necessitates analyzing the relationship and impact of all these elements in a single structural model. To tackle the issue, first, via a mixed-methods design, the researcher developed a bespoke mobile application using the task model and the principles of agile methodology. and then investigated the impact of using the app on a sample of 62 Iranian EFL university students’ vocabulary recognition and recall, the results of which were published in two other articles. In this study, the researcher integrated the obtained data within a proposed structural model and assessed the model's fitness to investigate the interaction and interrelationship among the latent variables mentioned above. The results obtained from SEM-PLS analyses revealed that within the unified structural model, the learners’ preferences and needs were favorably influenced by their learning style orientation and technology savviness. Similarly, the findings verified the positive impact of considering learners’ preferences and needs during the agile app development lifecycle on the target participants’ vocabulary knowledge, encompassing vocabulary recognition and recall. Finally, the fitness of the proposed structural model was verified based on the criteria for model assessment mentioned by Sparks and Alamer (2022). The SEM-PLS data analyses and the implications of the study are presented and discussed.

How easily people are able to initially learn foreign language vocabulary depends on a number of different factors including effective variables such as motivation, anxiety, the cognitive processes involved in utilizing different strategies, and most relevant to the present study, linguistic features of the words themselves which is also known as mental lexicon. Thus, one of the major problems learners face in language learning either in EFL or ESL settings is the issue of vocabulary or the mental lexicon that has been changing constantly over time. Therefore, the current study aimed to find out if EFL learners’ crystallized intelligence can significantly correlate with their mental lexicon. To this aim, 80 EFL learners were asked to fill out a C-test which is a reliable instrument to measure crystallized intelligence, and the Lex30 word association test to measure their mental lexicon. Moreover, the study aimed at finding any significant differences between male and female EFL learners concerning their mental lexicon and crystallized intelligence. To analyze the data, Pearson Correlation and Independent sample T-Test were run. The results showed that there is a significant positive relationship between crystallized intelligence and mental lexicon with no significant differences between males and females. This research has some implications for teachers, supervisors, as well as syllabus designers in a way to achieve better language acquisition.

This study was an endeavor to analyzed the effects of reading short stories on improving the grammatical and vocabulary knowledge of high school students in Kerman. To achieve this end, two intact classes of 52 female students who were selected based on convenience sampling, and regarding the placement test scores, 40 of them participated in the current study. The research was an experimental one and the participants were randomly divided into two groups of 20 students. The interventions administered for the experimental group involved teaching two short stories, i.e., the Beauty & The Beast and Robinson Crusoe. However, the control group received conventional method of teaching of grammar and vocabulary. The data were analyzed in quantitative way and statistical analyses were performed in SPSS software. The results indicated a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of posttest scores for the dependent variables after controlling the pretest at the P<0.001 level. Accordingly, it can be said that there is a significant difference in the scores of the dependent variables (grammatical and vocabulary skills) in the posttest. As a result, the present study revealed that reading the mentioned stories is an effective way for improving grammatical and vocabulary knowledge of high school students in Kerman.

This study planned to investigate the impact of utilizing formative assessment by Kahoot application on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge as well as their burnout level. To conduct the study, 60 homogeneous participants, who were chosen after administering the Oxford Placement Test (OPT), were randomly assigned into two equal groups as control and experimental. Then, the participants took part in the researcher-made vocabulary test as the pretest. In the experimental group, the participants used Kahoot application to address a few questions related to the vocabulary of each lesson while the participants in the control group performed the activities in their student and workbook. After ten sessions, they took part in the posttest. The analyses of the obtained data revealed that using Kahoot, as an online tool for formative assessment, had a statistically significant effect on vocabulary knowledge of Iranian EFL learners. On the other side, using this application had a statistically significant effect on reducing the burnout level of language learners. The findings could be beneficial for EFL/ESL Learners as well as teachers.

Although previous studies have shown the benefits of graphic organizers in improving learners' vocabulary knowledge, scant attention has been paid to the possible differences in the effect of individually-developed, cooperatively-developed, and teacher-developed graphic organizers on intermediate L2 learners' vocabulary knowledge. The present study addressed this topic by examining 80 intermediate language learners. The participants were selected based on convenience sampling procedure and studied English in four classes. The learners in the conventional group received the translation/definition of the lexical items. Those in the teacher-generated were provided with the graphic organizers prepared by their teacher, and the participants in the other two groups made the graphic organizers either individually or cooperatively. The researchers employed Vocabulary Knowledge Scale as the pre-test, immediate post-test, and delayed post-test to examine the participants' vocabulary knowledge. The findings of this study indicated that the mean scores of the control group in the immediate and delayed post-tests were significantly lower than those of all graphic organizer groups. In addition, the cooperatively-generated graphic organizer group was significantly more successful than learner and teacher-generated graphic organizer groups, but there was no difference between the learner and teacher-generated groups.

The current study investigated differences in lexical knowledge of Arabic learners whose age of onset (AO) of exposure to English medium instruction (EMI) was at the elementary, secondary, and tertiary educational levels. Ninety undergraduate students enrolled in a public university in the UAE took part in the study. Data collection involved a background questionnaire, a vocabulary size task, and a vocabulary depth task. Using the background questionnaire, the participants were separated into the early, middle, and late learners - those exposed to EMI in elementary, secondary, and tertiary levels, respectively. The results revealed a significant multivariate main effect for the AO to vocabulary knowledge. The post hoc analysis confirmed a significant effect for vocabulary size only; no such effects were observed for vocabulary depth. Theocratical, methodological, and pedagogical implications are discussed.

In cognitive process theories of L2 writing, the rich lexical knowledge plays a key role in facilitated writing performance. Therefore, the inquiry into the relationship between aspects of vocabulary knowledge and writing performance can proffer theoretical clues on L2 writing process. However, assessing and researching writing is not independent from the type of tasks or genres that are used for eliciting samples of writing. Accordingly, this study probed into the association between vocabulary knowledge and L2 writing performance with a focus on possible differences originating from descriptive and narrative genres of writing. Four distinctive writing tasks were given to 101 Iranian advanced-level EFL learners whose depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge were measured with Word Associates Test and New Vocabulary Levels Test. The analyses indicated moderate positive correlations between depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge and writing performance in both descriptive and narrative genres. Moreover, the results of regression analysis revealed a significant positive predictive power for both depth and breadth in descriptive and narrative writings. Also, Iranian EFL learners performed better on descriptive writing than narrative writing. Genric differentiations in the relationship between lexical knowledge and L2 writing performance seem to be mediated by such factors as learners’ proficiency level and L1 cultural background. However, achieving an overarching view of the genric differentiations in affecting the relationship between EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge and writing performance awaits further complementary research with a focus on all genres of writing while the multidimensionality of L2 vocabulary knowledge is taken into account.

Vocabulary development seems to be the most significant and useful activity in any language class because learning the words of a language is undeniably an important part of a speaker’s command of that language. Therefore, teaching vocabulary is an essential component of standards-based curriculum alignment. In view of that, this study aimed to find out whether there is a significant relationship between Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge and their verbal and non-verbal fluid intelligence. To this aim, 201 English language intermediate students were asked to fill out three questionnaires including Vocabulary Level Test, Visual-Spatial Reasoning Test as a non-verbal fluid intelligence test, and the Persian adaptation of Baddeley’s 3-minute grammatical reasoning test as a verbal fluid intelligence test. The results of the study’s hypothesized model showed that vocabulary knowledge is predicted by both verbal and non-verbal fluid intelligence significantly, and non-verbal fluid intelligence is shown to be the stronger predictor of vocabulary knowledge than verbal fluid intelligence. Moreover, the results indicated that there is a significant difference in the level of EFL students’ vocabulary knowledge between male and female students while there is no significant difference in students’ verbal and non-verbal fluid intelligence regarding their gender.

Importance of discipline specific vocabulary knowledge is well perceived. Despite the importance of the issue, there is a dearth of empirical research to unravel frequent academic vocabulary in the field of Health Information Management. To fill this research gap, the present study drew on a corpus of research articles and course books written in this field to underscore the concept of Academic Word List. To do so, a corpus of 2,264,981 running words analyzed by Range software package. In the process of research, we proposed a new discipline specific word list specially tailored for the students of health information management which can cover for 15.09% of all tokens in the corpus. This proportion of coverage is an improvement over previous academic word lists. Accordingly, it is hoped that the findings of the present study could contribute to students, teachers, material developers and researchers in this field of study.

This study examined the effectiveness of using visual vocabulary application on Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge. To this end, 42 intermediated EFL learners were selected as the participants of the study and divided into two groups of 21- experimental and control. Then, the groups took a pre-test of vocabulary. After that, the experimental group received the treatment thorough visual vocabulary application. On the other hand, the control group participants were taught vocabulary items traditionally. After teaching all vocabulary items, a vocabulary post-test was administered to the participants of both groups to measure the effect of the treatment on their vocabulary development. The results of paired samples t-test and independent samples t-test indicated that that the experimental group outperformed the control group on the post-test. The results also indicated that there was a significant difference between the post-tests of both groups in favor of the experimental group. Finally, implications arising from the findings and suggestions for further research were explained.

The present study investigated the association between vocabulary size and depth of Iranian EFL learners at different language proficiency levels. Additionally, the extent that this relationship could be different for low- and high-word-frequency bands was probed. In so doing, the Word Associates Test (WAT), the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), the monolingual Vocabulary Size Test (VST) and its bilingual Persian version were administered to 122 Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners (F=79, M=43) who had been classified into three language proficiency levels by means of administering the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). The findings indicated the following: (a) vocabulary size and depth had a significant correlation for the lower-intermediate students; (b) size and depth dimensions had a moderate association for the upperintermediate participants; (c) vocabulary size and depth were not significantly correlated for the advanced EFL learners; (d) the relationship between the higher-frequency bands of vocabulary size and vocabulary depth was significant for lower proficiency levels; and (e) the lower-frequency vocabulary size was not correlated with vocabulary depth for any of the proficiency levels. The results have implications for vocabulary depth instruction for higher language proficiency levels and suggest teachers, test developers, and materials designers to incorporate the dimension of word associations into the construct of word knowledge.

Learners differ in the manner of understanding, organizing, and retaining information or experience. Therefore, this study investigates the relationship between perceptual learning style preferences and depth of vocabulary knowledge of 235 tertiary EFL learners (male = 89, female = 146) from two Iranian universities. The learners’ responses on Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire (Reid, 1984) showed that kinesthetic, auditory, visual, and tactile modalities were found to be the major categories while individual and group styles appeared to be minor. Furthermore, the data from the Word Associates Test (WAT, Read, 2000) revealed that the participants’ mean scores on tactile style significantly correlated with WAT and its constituent parts (synonym and collocation). Despite the negative tendency towards group activities, the high-group learners had more major preferences than the low-group learners. Moreover, the mean scores of males’ auditory style was under the cut-off point for a major learning style and lower than that of females. However, males outscored females on WAT, synonym, and collocation. Yet, tactile modality significantly correlated with WAT, synonym, and collocation for females. Group learning was the least preferred style by the participants. Thus, in teaching vocabulary, especially depth dimension, different teaching techniques and materials should be provided selectively to attend to the learners’ diverse learning styles.

This study aimed at investigating the effect of using rhythmic instruction on FD and FI EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge. To this end, 30 EFL learners were selected based on their performances on the Solutions Placement Test. Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT) was also administered to identify groups as field dependent and field independent participants. The participants were randomly assigned to one experimental and one control group. The experimental group was provided with rhythmic instruction whereas the participants in the control group were instructed through GTM. Both groups went through a 17-week instructional period. A 50-item vocabulary test, consisting of multiple-choice, matching items, and true or false items was developed, and used as pre-test and post-test. At the end of the course, an independent samples t-test was run between the obtained means of the two groups to determine whether there was any significant difference between the mean scores of the two groups on the post-test. The results revealed there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the two groups. To conclude, the participants in the experimental group who had received rhythmic instruction outperformed those in the control group without such instruction. However, the mean difference between the participants in the FI group in comparison with FD was not significant, and it indicated that FI and FD learners exposed to rhythmic instruction performed similarly. The major implication of the study is that rhythmic instruction as a crucial method of vocabulary learning should receive further attention in language teaching programs.

This study seeks to provide insights into the process of vocabulary learning and promoting vocabulary knowledge by tracking its development in dynamic assessment (DA) procedures through thematic and microgenetic analysis. In order to meet the aim of this study, three male and three female EFL learners were chosen non-randomly based on their availability. All the participants were beginners with regard to their vocabulary knowledge. The participants voluntarily attended 15 DA sessions throughout each session a few new vocabulary items were presented using different techniques of teaching vocabulary. The participants received corrective feedback within their zone of proximal development (ZPD). They were provided with appropriate levels of help by moving gradually and using prompts through the regulatory scale from the most implicit to the most explicit assistance which emerged from the individualized mediation between the mediator and the learners. The results of the study indicated that using DA procedure can enhance the development of vocabulary knowledge among EFL learners.

Vocabulary knowledge is an integral part of second/foreign language learning. Thus, using teaching methods that can help learners retain and expand their vocabulary knowledge is necessary to facilitate the language learning process. The current research investigated the effectiveness of an interactive classroom method, known as Project-Based Learning (PBL), in helping Iranian EFL learners not just learn but retain new vocabulary knowledge. To this end, an experimental approach using two groups of participants (i.e. experimental and control) was employed. The experimental group was taught using the PBL method while the control group was taught using the conventional method. The findings of the study indicated that learners who were taught using the PBL approach (i.e. the experimental group) had a significant improvement in their vocabulary recall and retention rate. Besides, they even showed better retention of new vocabulary with higher level of difficulty. This supports previous findings on the effectiveness of PBL as a vocabulary teaching method in the EFL context which could contribute to the betterment of the existing teaching methods.