The Effect of Flashcard and Wordlist Strategies with Persian vs. English Definitions on Iranian EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Development

The main pursuit of the present study was to investigate the effect of flashcard and wordlist strategies with Persianvs. English definitions on vocabulary development of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. The participants were 90undergraduate university students studying at University College of Rab-bi Rashid in Tabriz. The subjects weredetermined on the basis of Oxford Quick Placement Test. Some eighty vocabulary items were selected from the wordlistspresented on Paul Nation’s website for the treatment, and it was applied in two different strategies (flashcard/wordlist),and two different kinds of definitions (Persian/English) to the participants. A pretest, an immediate test and a posttest wasadministered. The collected data were computed and analyzed via SPSS software. The flashcard and wordlist groups asexperimental groups were found to outperform the control group. However, there was not any statistical differencebetween flashcard vs. wordlist strategies. In addition, the use of Persian definitions with the highest amount of mean inboth immediate (mean=45.2) and delayed post-tests (mean=67.73) lead to longer retention of words than Englishdefinitions. These findings will be advantageous for English language teachers to choose the teaching materials whichfacilitate the process of teaching and learning. The findings of the current study will be useful for English languageteachers who can develop their learners’ vocabulary knowledge more effectively by arming them with a differentstrategies.

Keywords:

Vocabulary , Vocabulary learning strategy , flashcard , wordlist , English definition , Persian definition