Mansour Shamsaeefard - MA student in Translation Studies Islamic Azad University Fars Science and Research Branch
Yaghoob Salehi - University of Tehran

This study compares the gains made in second language vocabulary as a direct result of different teaching techniques and strategies implemented in the class: Teaching vocabulary just through definition and teaching vocabulary through definition along with other techniques and strategies such as translation, using pictures, semantic mapping, word association, etc (multiple techniques and strategies) for beginners’ level. The students were given a pretest to assess their knowledge of selected vocabulary items. From the pre-test result, it was inferred that almost all the words (30 words) were new for the students. Then all the 30 words were randomly divided into two groups, 15 words have been taught just through definition and the other 15 words by definition along with other strategies (multiple techniques and strategies) through a complete term (20 sessions). All students were given a posttest of the same vocabulary items at the end of the course. Results indicated that the students which were taught by employing multiple techniques and strategies were able to retain and learn more words than they could do by mere definition. These findings demonstrate positive implications for the use of multiple-strategies which build background knowledge as a means of teaching second language vocabulary to English learners.

explicit learning, implicit learning, definition technique, multiple techniques