The Role of vocabulary enhancement activities in improving vocabulary knowledge of EFL students

The study is quasi-experimental in nature, following a non-randomized pretest posttest control group design. The dependent variable is vocabulary knowledge and the independent variable is the treatment (reading plus vocabulary enhancement activities). The participants taking part in this study were 60 male Iranian high school students in Mazandaran, province. The reading materials were selected from authentic texts that were available on the market in Iran. As for the testing instrument, the researcher used the modified Paribakht and Wesche's (1997) Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) to find vocabulary acquisition and retention in the current study. The result of statistical analysis (ANOVA and T-test) showed that reading plus vocabulary enhancement activities were effective for gaining the vocabulary of the target language and vocabulary retention. Moreover, it demonstrated that those receiving productive activities were able to acquire and retain more target words compared to their peers belonging to the receptive group

Keywords:

vocabulary enhancement activities , Productive Activities , Receptive Activities , Vocabulary gain , vocabulary retention