The Importance of Teaching and Evaluating Vocabulary in Learning a Second / Foreign language

To learn a language, it is important to master the four basic language skills. The basis of these skills is teaching and learning vocabulary; since vocabularies are the most important part of language learning. What is very important in today's world is transferring the meaning, which requires the use of lexical knowledge. One of the reasons for lexical teaching is the conceptual expansion of the vocabulary as well as the globalization and expansion of global communication. In the training courses, attempt is made to design the vocabulary section efficiently and includes the assessment of learners' lexical knowledge. In vocabulary teaching, the choice of vocabulary to be taught, the way they are taught, the evaluation of vocabulary knowledge, and the process of development of vocabulary learning are important. The development of language skills is assessed based on test results. Accurate vocabulary assessment reveals the strengths and weaknesses of language skills training and the level of readiness of language learners for further training. In this article, the importance of vocabulary teaching for language skills is shown through conducting library research and case study based on work experience in teaching Persian to non-Persian learners. Also, the importance of evaluating and measuring the learning rate of language learners, as an indicator of the success or failure of the educational plan, is discussed. It can be concluded that one of the most important areas of education is vocabulary training and vocabulary development, which should be achieved through using all four language skills.