The Effect of Utilizing Words in Sentences (Contextualization) on Iranian Intermediate Learners’ Vocabulary Development

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of utilizing words in sentences (contextualization) on Iranian intermediate learners’ vocabulary development. To run the project, all participants took Oxford Placement Test and ۳۰ language learners(two groups) were selected out of a population of ۹۰ students in Safir Language Institute in Kangavar and randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group (Number of each group equals ۱۵). The treatment lasted for twelve sessions, each session with at least a two-day interval, about three months. During the treatment sessions the experimental group was taught benefiting from utilizing new words in different sentences that is they contextualize the words while the control group just learned the lists of words traditionally, that is de-contextualization. The results of the independent pair T-test revealed that subjects in the contextualized group outperformed thecontrol group on the post-test. The findings indicated that the use of contextualized vocabularyinstruction helps students develop their vocabulary depth and size. This tactic changes the atmosphere of the class and makes the classrooms more jovial and aids the language learners to be more enthused.

Keywords:

vocabulary , contextualization , de-contextualization