The Effect of Task-Based Instruction on Vocabulary Acquisition in an ESP Course among Iranian Learners

The present study attempted to investigate the effect of task-based instruction on vocabularyacquisition among Iranian Engineering learners. To this end, 36 male students in electronicengineering, ranging from 18 to 21 years old, were selected. In order to have a homogenoussample, the vocabulary level test was administered, then 6 low proficiency and absent learnerswere deleted and the other were ordered alphabetically to classify as experimental and controlgroups based on even or odd numbers. In other sessions, the vocabulary checklist pretest, a list of10 unknown words with definitions, a reading task, a cross-word puzzle task (for experimentalgroup), and a posttest were administered. Results of t-test showed statistically significantdifferences between the groups because task-based group outperformed the other group invocabulary acquisition. The findings of this study pave the way for teachers and syllabusdesigners to include different tasks in vocabulary acquisition for ESP courses.

Keywords:

learning , words , engineering , EFL