Effects of Story Retelling and Role Playing on Vocabulary Learning of Iranian Elementary EFL Learners: Aspects of Vocabulary in Focus

The study of vocabulary is an essential part of language acquisition. A large part of second language acquisition focuses on vocabulary learning. Vocabulary usually plays a greater role in communication than the other components of language. Also the lack of needed vocabulary is the most common cause of students’ inability to say what they want to say during communication activities. Despite the fact that the significance and the trouble of learning vocabulary are perceived, there has been little research on testing the factors that impact aspects of vocabulary knowledge.The participants of the research were selected on the basis of convenience sampling. Two intact classes at beginner level were selected to be the two experimental groups. There were 18 students in each group which yielded total of 36 learners. A researcher made vocabulary test was used to collect data in this research. The result showed that there was improvement on students’ vocabulary learning after being taught through retelling story and role playing. These techniques could improve students’ vocabulary learning in all aspects. It can be concluded that retelling stories and role playing could be used to improve students vocabulary learning.

Keywords:

Intentional vocabulary learning , incidental vocabulary learning , vocabulary , story retelling , role playing.