Effect of Picture Description, Summarizing, and Explicit Teaching on Learning Vocabulary by Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

For students of English as a foreign language (EFL),a certain level of knowledge of vocabulary is required for successful communication to occur. Based on personal experiences in the classroom which have shown that students often lack language variation, accuracy, coherence and descriptiveness, this paper deals with the issue of teaching vocabulary in a more conscientious and focused way to help ensure that students will become more competent in using the language effectively. The study compared the effects of picture description, summarizing, and explicit teaching on learning vocabulary. To fulfill this objective, 54 Iranian intermediate female participants were selected among 65 students based on the results of Oxford Placement Test (OPT). The intermediate selected participants were then randomly divided into three equal experimental groups; (picture description, summarizing, and explicit teaching groups). Afterward, the researcher measured the participants’ English vocabulary learning by administering a vocabulary learning pretest. In the experimental class, each vocabulary task was taught in an intensive 60-min session, whereas each vocabulary task was taught to the control group in short sessions (about 60 min in total). After the instruction, a vocabulary learning test was administered to the both three groups and finally the data were analyzed by using ANCOVA. The obtained results indicated that there was a significant difference between the posttests of spacing and massed groups. Results showed a functional relationship between the supplemental vocabulary intervention and student word and definition knowledge. Teachers’ treatment integrity was found to have a greater effect on student definition knowledge than word knowledge The findings indicated that the describing photos oriented group significantly outperformed other groups (p < .05) on the posttest.

Keywords:

picture description , summarizing , explicit teaching , learning vocabulary , EFL learners