The Effect of Task-based Teaching on Incidental Vocabulary Learning in English for Specific Purposes

Learning vocabulary is an essential part of language learning linking the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing together. This paper considers the incidental vocabulary teaching and learning within the framework of task-based activities in the hope of improving learners’ vocabulary acquiring in English for Specific Purposes courses (ESP), concentrating on Mechanical Engineering students at Hashtgerd Azad University in Iran. A total of 55 male and female students who were taking their ESP courses participated in the study as a control and an experimental group. Homogeneity of the subjects was ascertained by a Nelson Proficiency Test. The test consisted 50 items. Traditional teaching methods of vocabularies were applied for the control group, whereas in the experimental group, technical vocabularies were taught on the basis of task based approach. A teacher-made test of technical vocabulary knowledge was administered as the pre-test. At the end of the semester, a post-test was given to the students to determine the influence of the treatment on the experimental group. The data analysis using SPSS (version 19.0) revealed that the subjects in the experimental group performed better on the post-test than the control group. The results of this study confirm the strong effects of task-based language teaching compared to the traditional approach in teaching technical vocabulary to Iranian ESP learners.

Keywords:

task-based language teaching , incidental vocabulary acquisition , traditional approach , ESP