The effect of discussion-based vocabulary instruction on advancedlevel EFL learners' vocabulary learning

This paper which is much like an action research, was an attempt to report the effectiveness of discussion-based vocabulary instruction on advanced EFL learners as an extension to semantic mapping strategy. To this end, 20 male advanced EFL learners taking a conversation and grammar course in Pardis Institute of Foreign Languages in Marand were chosen to be the participants of the study . They were asked to attend two separate classes for ten sessions. For the first 5 days, the researcher, as the teacher, applied discussion-based vocabulary instruction to teach the new words. In each session 20 new words from the vocabulary book, ' Advanced Oxford Word Skills' were chosen to work on. The participants received input and then were directed to produce oral output. After 5 successive sessions, the participants were given a multiple choice of 40 items. For the second 5 sessions, the teacher chose another set of new vocabulary items from the same book to work on. This time he used some common traditional techniques such as explanation, exemplification, translation, and mnemonic devices to teach new words. During this period the participants were not asked to produce any examples of their own. When the instruction phase came to an end, the same participants were given another multiple choice test based on what they had learned. The data obtained from both tests were statistically analysed through running paired-samples t-test and the results indicated that discussion-based vocabulary instruction was more effective for the advanced EFL learners than other approaches in helping them to both internalize and send the new words to their long- term memory.

کلیدواژه ها:

discussion-based ، semantic mapping ، mnemonic devices ، exemplification