The Effect of Teaching Different Vocabulary Learning Strategies on Reading Comprehension of Iranian EFL Learners

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1 IOSR Joural Of Humaities Ad Social Sciece (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 21, Issue12, Ver. 6 (December. 2016) PP e-issn: , p-issn: The Effect of Teachig Differet Vocabulary Learig Strategies o Readig Comprehesio of Iraia EFL Learers aatekeh Rezvai, b Ali Akbar Jabbari* ama Studet of Eglish Laguage, Departmet of Eglish, Badar Abbas Brach, Islamic Azad Uiversity, Badar Abbas, Ira. bassociate of Applied Liguistics, Yazd uiversity, Yazd, I.R. Ira. Abstract :- This study explored the impact of three types of vocabulary istructioal strategies icludig cocept defiitio map, word web ad vocabulary self-collectio strategies o improvig Iraia EFL learer s readig comprehesio. After admiisterig a stadard proficiecy test, Nelso Eglish Laguage Test, the researcher selected 54 itermediate studets, whose homogeeity was cofirmed as the participats of the study. The participats were radomly assiged to oe of the three groups that cocept defiitio map, word web, ad vocabulary self-collectio strategies as treatmet. The readig comprehesio test was used as the pre-test ad the post-test to ifer ay sigificat differeces betwee the three groups scores. I this study, the researcher used paired samples t-test ad ANCOVA to aalyze the collected data. Based o the results of the preset study, these strategies are suggested as readig comprehesio ad vocabulary teachig strategies. The fidigs have sigificat pedagogical implicatios for Iraia EFL learers i their readig comprehesio classes. Keywords:- Vocabulary Learig Strategies, Readig Comprehesio, Cocept Defiitio Map, Word Web I. INTRODUCTION Oe of the oldest debates i educatioal research is the relatioship betwee vocabulary kowledge ad readig comprehesio. Childre s word recogitio capability, vocabulary growth ad comprehesio developmet are essetial compoets of a balaced readig program. Readig istructio that focuses o the growth of childre s vocabulary results i ehacig their abilities to ifer meaigs ad better comprehed what they read (Rupley, Loga, & Nichols, 1998). Word kowledge is importat to readig comprehesio ad determies how studets will be able to comprehed the texts they read i high school. Thus, if a studet does ot kow the meaigs of a proportio of the words i the text, comprehesio is impossible. Readig provides a rich source of vocabulary ad structure, ad thus, helps to ehace other skills such as writig ad speakig. Readig ot oly becomes importat for beig able to read ad uderstad material successfully, it also becomes a key to usig aalytical skills to develop the correct aswer through comprehesio. Vocabulary experts agree that readig comprehesio depeds o a perso already kowig betwee 90 ad 95 percet of the words i a text. Vocabulary teachig should be dyamic ad should take ito accout various dimesios or the metal lexico. O the other had, it is ecessary to use strategies to facilitate lexical cosolidatio i the studet s memory.so, i order to eable laguage learers to improve ad icrease their lexical kowledge, teachers eed to be aware of the importace of vocabulary ad strategies or techiques that ca be used for icreasig their vocabulary kowledge ad readig comprehesio. As may teachers of foreig laguage readig comprehesio suggested, whe their studets faced with a ufamiliar text i the foreig laguage the first challege seem to be its vocabulary (Grabe&Stoller, 199).Vocabulary forms the biggest part of meaig of ay laguage ad vocabulary acquisitio is receivig attetio i secod laguage pedagogy ad research. Vocabulary ad readig comprehesio are much correlated;moreover, may secod laguage studets ted to cocetrate o each word they read ad try to uderstad may words that are ecessary to get the mai idea from a text. Oe of the most effective methods of helpig studets lear ew vocabulary is to teach ufamiliar words used i a text prior to the readig experiece. So, most teachers ad researchers would agree that kowig vocabulary before readig ad havig vocabulary kowledge that is well developed (i.e., kowig a variety of meaigs, idiomatic uses) is very importat for fluet ad successful readig i the L2. Vocabulary is oe of the five mai compoets of readig istructio. These mai compoets iclude phoemic awareess, phoics ad word study, fluecy, vocabulary ad comprehesio.grabe (1991) asserts that oe of the most importat areas of research for readig comprehesio is research i vocabulary developmet. He believes that the role of large vocabulary kowledge is importat i readig comprehesio. Istructioal activities that use visual display of words ad promote studet s comparig ad cotrastig of ew words ca be beeficial meas for icreasig their vocabulary kowledge. The result of this study, therefore, ca be DOI: / Page

2 iterestig for learers ad researchers of L2 as to employ strategies that improve vocabulary ad readig comprehesio. II. METHODOLOGY Participats This study was coducted with 0 itermediate EFL learers 31 males ad 39 females i Maks Laguage Istitute i Qeshm who were i the age rage of 16 to 23. For the purpose of determiig the participats level of laguage proficiecy, prior to research a Nelso Eglish Laguage Test as a proficiecy test was give to the studets ad the participats of the study were selected based o the results of the proficiecy test. Studets whose scores were betwee oe stadard deviatio mius ad plus the mea 54 studets 23 males ad 31 females took part i the study. Fial participats of the study were divided ito three groups radomly. III. DESIGN The preset study icludes pre-test, post-test, ad experimetal groups. Therefore, the desig of this study was pre-test post-test experimetal-group desig. This study is also a quasi-experimetal research as the participats were ot radomly selected out of the populatio. I this study, the types of strategies beig taught were the idepedet variables which their effects o the vocabulary learig of the studets as the depedet variable was ivestigated. Istrumets The followig istrumets were used to coduct the preset study: 1. Nelso Eglish Laguage Test: was used as a tool for determiig the participats level of laguage proficiecy. The Nelso Eglish Laguage Test is a battery icludig 40 separate tests for te levels of laguage proficiecy which rage from begier to the advaced. The levels are umbered from 050, 100,, to 500. Each test cosists of 50 items. I the preset study a test i itermediate level 250A was used. 2. Prelimiary Eglish Test (PET): the readig sectio of two differet versio of PET was used to provide a practical way of assessig studets level of L 2 readig as pre-test ad post-test; i.e., the former refers to experiecig readig comprehesio without applyig vocabulary learig strategies while the latter icludes attempts measure the participats readig comprehesio after udergoig the treatmet process. The readig part of the PET is composed of 35 multiple-choice, true-false, ad matchig items with a total score of thirtyfive oe poit for each correct aswer. Data aalysis Data aalysis was doe by SPSS 19 software. A umber of descriptive ad iferetial aalyses were coducted o the data. The collected data were aalyzed descriptively usig mea ad stadard deviatio. Three paired sample t-tests were ru to ivestigate first three research hypotheses. I additio, a ANCOVA was ru ot oly to compare the fuctio of three experimetal groups after the treatmet period but also to show whether post-test differeces are due to treatmet effect or their possible variatio i the startig poit pretest. IV. RESULTS The Results of the Eglish Laguage Proficiecy Test The overall homogeeity of the participats of the study was checked through admiistratio of a Nelso Eglish Laguage Test. For this purpose, all iitial 0 studets took part i Nelso Eglish Laguage Test ad studets who got scores betwee oe stadard deviatio below ad above the mea participated i the mai study. Table 1 idicates the descriptive statistics regardig the participats Nelso Eglish Laguage Test scores. Table 1 Descriptive Statistics Regardig the Participats Nelso Eglish Laguage Test Scores N Miimum Maximum Mea Deviatio Nelso Valid N (listwise) 0 As Table 1 shows, the mea of the iitial participats Nelso Eglish Laguage Test scores was with the stadard deviatio of.899. Therefore, from amog 0 iitial studets, 54 who scored betwee 29 ad 44 were chose. DOI: / Page

3 V. THE RESULTS REGARDING THE FIRST RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS I order to explore the first ull hypothesis of the study, the researcher ra a paired samples t-test. Table 2 presets the results of this aalysis. Table 2Paired Samples T-test of Pre- ad Post-Test Scores i the Cocept Defiitio Map Group Pre-test Posttest Me a Paired Differeces t d 95% Cofidece Iterval of f Devia Error the Differece tio Mea Lower Upper Sig. (2- taile d) As idicated i Table 2, there was a sigificat differece betwee the pre-test ad post-test scores of the participats i the Cocept Defiitio Map group (t(1) = , p < 0.05). Due to the meas of the two tests show i Table 2, it ca be cocluded that there was a statistically sigificat improvemet i post-test scores i the Cocept Defiitio Map group after accomplishmet of the treatmet. The Results Regardig the Secod Research Hypothesis I order to ivestigate the secod ull hypothesis of the study, the researcher ra aother paired samples t-test. Table 3 reports the results of this aalysis. Table 3 Paired Samples T-test of Pre- ad Post-Test Scores i the Word Web Group Paired Differeces t d M ea Pre-test Post-test Dev iatio 1.93 Erro r Mea 95% Cofidece Iterval of the Differece Lower Upper As show i Table 3 there was a sigificat differece betwee the pre-test ad post-test scores of the participats i the Word Web group (t(1) = , p < 0.05). Based o the meas of the two tests show i Table 1.3, it ca be cocluded that there was a statistically sigificat improvemet i post-test scores of Word Web group after the treatmet. The Results Regardig the Third Research Hypothesis. I order to explore the third ull hypothesis of the study, the researcher coducted a paired samples t- test. Table 4 presets the results of this aalysis. Table 4Paired Samples T-test of Pre- ad Post-Test Scores i the Vocabulary Self-collectio Group Paired Differeces t d Sig. Me a Devia Error 95% Cofidece Iterval of the Differece f (2- taile tio Mea Lower Upper d) Pre-test Posttest As idicated i Table 4, there was a sigificat differece betwee the pre-test ad post-test scores of the participats i the Vocabulary Self-collectio group (t(1) = , p < 0.05). Due to the meas of the two tests show i Table 1.4, it ca be cocluded that there was a statistically sigificat improvemet i post-test scores i the Vocabulary Self-collectio group after the study. f Sig. (2- tail ed).00 0 DOI: / Page

4 The Results Regardig the Fourth Research Hypothesis After performig a ANCOVA ad beig assured of the sigificat differeces amog groups, it was ecessary to ru a pairwise compariso to locate the differece more precisely. The LSD Post Hoc test was coducted o the data to serve the purpose, the result of which are preseted i this table. Table 5Aalysis of Covariace (ANCOVA) Depedet Variable: Readig Post-test Source Type III Sum of Squares Df Mea Square F Sig. Partial Eta Squared Corrected a Model 9 Itercept Pre-test Groups Error Total Corrected Total a. R Squared =.90 (Adjusted R Squared =.901) As it is clear, the mea score of the participats i the Cocept Defiitio Map group differed sigificatly from both Vocabulary Self-collectio (p<0.05) ad Word Web (p<0.05) groups ad also the Vocabulary Self-collectio group had a sigificat differece with the Word Web group (p<0.05). As the mea differeces idicate, Cocept Defiitio Map group outperformed both Vocabulary Self-collectio (I-J= 4.116) ad Word Web (I-J= 8.05) groups. Similarly, the Vocabulary Self-collectio group had a better performace tha the Word Web group (I-J= 3.959). VI. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The statistical aalysis of the first three research hypotheses revealed that there were sigificat improvemets i readig comprehesio scores of the participats i all three groups. That is, the fidigs idicate that these vocabulary learig strategies have a positive effect o improvig learer s readig comprehesio. The results of the statistical aalyses related to the fourth research hypothesis idicated that there were sigificat differeces betwee the performaces of studets i the three groups. The results of this study partially cofirmed the fidigs of Schwartz ad Raphael (1985) who ivestigated the effect of cocept defiitio map o improvig vocabulary developmet through readig skill. The results of the study idicated that these strategies had a positive effect o the studets readig scores.i aother study coducted by Goode, Carreker, Throhill ad Joshi (200), readig comprehesio ad vocabulary achievemet of two groups of studets was ivestigated to determie the impact of the strategies o vocabulary. Accordig to the results of study, there was a statistically sigificat differece betwee the two groups.the results of the preset study partially cofirmed the results of Tag (1992) who ivestigated the effect of graphic represetatio of the kowledge structure of classificatio o comprehesio.the results revealed the effectiveess of strategy traiig o the vocabulary achievemet of the participats of the study. I additio, it was foud that the order of the effectiveess of the strategies from the highest to the lowest was cocept defiitio map, vocabulary self-collectio, ad word web. the mai purpose of this study was to ivestigate the improvemet of Iraia EFL learers readig comprehesio through three vocabulary istructioal strategies (i.e., cocept defiitio map, word web ad vocabulary self-collectio). Previous studies have examied the effects of three vocabulary istructioal strategies o improvig vocabulary developmet. Drawig o the related literature i this area, this study has cosidered the efficiecy of the above metioed hypotheses i the domai of improvig readig comprehesio skill through three vocabulary istructioal strategies.as the results of the preset study demostrated ad accordig to the previous studies the process of mappig techiques may icrease cotet-area achievemet, ehace recall of material ad reduce studet axiety. It is also cocluded that these vocabulary teachig strategies had a positive effect o improvig learer s readig comprehesio skill. I additio, the study idicated that usig these strategies i readig class facilitated learig process ad ehaced learer s readig comprehesio ability. As Tag (1992) expresses, graphic orgaizers lower the laguage barriers for the studets both i terms of uderstadig the topic ad i completig tasks. DOI: / Page

5 VII. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH The preset study surveyed the research variables amog Iraia itermediate EFL learers i Maks Laguage Istitute i Qeshm. Studets from other laguage istitutes or other levels of proficiecy or eve high school or uiversity studets may be selected as participats i similar studies. This study did ot differetiate the geder of the participats. Other studies may focus o geder ad compare the effects of differet strategies o readig comprehesio ad vocabulary achievemet of male ad female EFL learers. REFERENCES [1] Goode, R., Carreker, S., Thorhill, A., & Joshi, R. M. (200).Istructio of metacogitive strategies ehaces readig comprehesio ad vocabulary achievemet of third-grade studets. Retrieved from [2] Grabe, W. (1991).Curret developmets i secod laguage readig research.tesol Quarterly, 25(3), [3] Grabe, W., &Stoller, F. (199). Readig ad vocabulary developmet i a secod laguage: A case study. I J. Coady& T. Hucki (Eds.), Secod laguage vocabulary acquisitio (pp ). Cambridge: Cambridge Uiversity Press. [4] Rupley, W. H., Loga, J. W., & Nichols, W. D. (1998).Vocabulary istructio i a balaced readig program.the Readig Teacher Joural, 52(4), [5] Schwartz, R. M., & Raphael, T. E. (1985). Cocept of defiitio: A key to improvig studets vocabulary. The Readig Teacher Joural, 39, [6] Tag, G. (1992). The effect of graphic represetatio of kowledge structures o ESL readig comprehesio. Studies i Laguage Acquisitio, 14(2), DOI: / Page