《group2-The impact of teaching direct learning strategies on the retention of vocabulary》.pdf

47 The Reading Matrix Vol.3. No.2, September 2003 THE IMPACT OF TEACHING DIRECT LEARNING STRATEGIES ON THE RETENTION OF VOCABULARY BY EFL LEARNERS Hamideh Marefat Email: marefat@chamran.ut.ac.ir Masoomeh Ahmadi Shirazi Email: shirin_shirazi@ Abstract __________________ This study examined the effect of teaching direct learning strategies (memory, cognitive, and compensation) and their subcategories on the vocabulary retention--short term and long term- - of EFL learners. Participants of the study were 60 Iranian female English Language Learners between the ages of 15 and 17. Before the treatment phase of the study, a questionnaire was given to the participants to see if they already use these strategies even before receiving any instruction, and also to raise their consciousness on the use of them. After the treatment, the participants took two equivalent tests with an interval of two weeks to find out the difference between their short term and long term retention of vocabulary. The results indicated that learners’ strategy use in short-term retention far outweighs that in long-term retention. The results also portrayed the superiority of memory strategy use both in short and long term retention. The next most frequently used strategies were cognitive and compensation strategies respectively. The implications of the findings for incorporating these strategies in teaching will be discusse