Parima fasih - Department of English Language Teaching, Zanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan
Siros Izadpanah - Department of English Language Teaching, Zanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan,Iran
Ali Shahnavaz - Department of English Language Teaching, Zanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan,Iran

The present article was an investigation of mnemonic vocabulary teaching to improve content vocabulary learning in the EFL classrooms. A major problem with the most of the past researches was that they paid no or little attention to the effects of using mnemonic strategies to improve content vocabulary learning. The purpose of this paper was to investigate how key word mnemonic vocabulary teaching can improve the comprehension and learning of the content vocabulary for the students. To this end, 360 third grade senior high school students from 6 senior high schools of Zanjan were selected through multistage cluster random sampling method and based on Cambridge placement test (2010), 345 students proved to be upper intermediate. A quasi-experimental design was used to determine the effects of a mnemonic vocabulary intervention on content vocabulary learning. In this article there were one control group (A, n=115), and two experimental groups (B, n=115; C, n=115) all of which were male and there were selected randomly. During one month in four weeks, every week in two thirtyminute session, group B received direct vocabulary instruction and group C received key word mnemonic instruction. In order to test the effects of mnemonic vocabulary teaching on content vocabulary learning, the covariance analysis was employed and the results demonstrated that by eliminating the covariance factor of the pre-test, mnemonic vocabulary instruction improved content vocabulary learning for students. The use of keyword mnemonics as a means to differentiate instruction is an educational implication that can assist teachers

Mnemonic Vocabulary Instruction, Content Vocabulary Learning, keyword Mnemonic Instruction, Direct vocabulary instruction, Content Materials