The Effect of Using Listening Strategies on EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Retention

This study was designed to investigate the effects of listening strategies on vocabulary retention of Iranian EFL learners. To this end, 60 female students between the ages of 15 to 16, who were studying at a high school in Tehran were selected from the total number of 90 participants based on their performance on the OPT test (Allen,1992) and a piloted teacher-made vocabulary recognition test. The participants were randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. Each group consisted of 30 participants. The same content (three lessons of the second grade high school English textbook) was taught to both groups throughout the 20-session treatment. The only difference was that the students in the experimental group were taught by using listening strategies and by listening to the audio files of the reading texts; however, the students in the control group were taught through the ordinary ways of teaching English in Iranian high schools ( like repetition and drills). Having a two week interval at the end of the course, a piloted vocabulary retention post-test, parallel to the vocabulary pre-test, was administered to the participants of both groups. Eventually, the mean scores of both groups on the post-test were compared through an independent sample T-test which led to the rejection of the null hypothesis. The results of the study revealed that, listening strategies have a significant effect on Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary retention.

کلیدواژه ها:

Listening Comprehension ، Listening Strategies ، Vocabulary Retention