scholarly journals Exploring the Effectiveness of Critical Thinking on Vocabulary Learning by Malaysian EFL Learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 213
Author(s):  
Maryam Sharafi Nejad ◽  
Shohreh Raftari ◽  
Lin Siew Eng

<p>Based on the findings of previous studies which highlight the role of vocabulary knowledge  in English as a Foreign Language/English as a Second Language (EFL/ESL) learners’  learning process, this study is aimed at exploring<strong> </strong>the effectiveness of critical thinking on vocabulary learning by Malaysian EFL learners. .To achieve the purpose of this study, 60 male undergraduate EFL learners studying English at Asian EFL Academy Language Institute in Pinang were selected after administering Preliminary English Test.To examine whether there is a significant difference between experimental and control group, two parallel versions of Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (Pribakht &amp; Wesche, 1993) were used as pre-test and post-test. The participants in experimental group were instructed on how to employ critical thinking strategies on vocabulary learning. The results of the post-test showed that the experimental group who received formal instruction based on the critical thinking strategies revealed the prominent <a href="https://www.google.com.my/search?newwindow=1&amp;biw=1366&amp;bih=609&amp;q=define+development&amp;sa=X&amp;sqi=2&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjsxaLZw_nLAhVMFJQKHWTjC10Q_SoIHjAA">development</a> and interest in vocabulary learning. The t-test also indicated a significant difference between the performance of the control and experimental group.</p>

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Maryam AminAfshar ◽  
Ahmad Mojavezi

EFL learners at all ages and proficiency levels are usually confronted with various problems in vocabulary learning and retention. This study sought to introduce strategies for improvement of vocabulary learning and retention. Therefore, the effects of using aural/visual storytelling on Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary learning and retention were investigated. To do so, 50 intermediate female EFL learners were randomly assigned to two groups. After the administration of teacher made English Vocabulary Test as the pre-test, aural storytelling method was used for the control group, and visual storytelling method was used for the experimental group. After three months of instruction, the aforementioned teacher made English Vocabulary Test, as the post-test, was given to the students of both groups to assess their improvements. Two weeks after post-test, they were given a delayed post-test to measure their retention of English vocabulary knowledge. The reliability of the English Vocabulary Test using Cronbach's Alpha was estimated equal to 0.80. Finally, Using ANCOVA, the results revealed that, the experimental group’s participants outperformed those of control group in both learning and retention of English vocabulary. So, it can be noted that the training program according to visual could have impressive impact on the learning and retention of vocabulary knowledge.


Author(s):  
Maryam Danaye Tous ◽  
Abdorreza Tahriri ◽  
Sara Haghighi

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of instruction through debate on the male and female EFL learners’ reading comprehension, and to examine the difference between male and female EFL learners’ perception towards instructing critical thinking (CT) through debate. 88 learners, out of 120, were selected through convenience sampling method. Using a quantitative research method with experimental pre-and post-tests design, this study consisted of 44 participants in the experimental group and 44 participants in the control group. The experimental group received some treatment in the form of “the Meeting-House Debate” strategy, while the control group received no such treatment. After one month and a half treatment of experimental group, both groups participated in the post-test. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics procedures. Findings showed that the debate strategy had statistically significant effect on the students’ reading comprehension. Also, results revealed that there was no significant difference between male and female EFL learners’ perception towards instructing CT through debate. It was concluded that instructing CT skills through debate strategy resulted in better understanding of reading texts.


2011 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Ali Derakhshan

<p>The present research investigates the effectiveness of text-message vocabulary learning on EFL freshmen. The results of the pretreatment interview with EFL learners showed that many of them have difficulty learning vocabulary through the traditional paperand-pencil way; therefore, text-message vocabulary learning was hypothesized to be a potential way to help EFL learners consolidate their vocabulary knowledge. To this end, 43 participants from among 85 freshmen studying in Torbat-e-Heydarieh Azad University participated in the study. The participants were divided into two groups of 21 and 22 on the basis of their proficiency. The book Check Your Vocabulary for Academic English by David Porter (2001) was taught to both groups, and they were told to make some sentences in the class to become familiar with these words; they were requested to work cooperatively in small groups of 3 or 4 in order to have the opportunity to talk more about these words. Fifteen to 20 words were introduced and taught to these students on each session. Then, the participants in the experimental group sent the researcher one text-message containing an original sentence for each word covered in the class. They were also asked to send a text-message containing a sentence to their three predetermined partners. The participants in the control group wrote one sentence using each covered word, and they were also asked to write one sentence to exchange with their three partners and bring their assignments to the class next session. The results of independent samples t-test for the post-test and the delayed post-test showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the initial vocabulary learning and the retention of the vocabulary between the two groups.</p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Mohammad Davoudi ◽  
Mojtaba Rezaei

<p>The present study aims at investigating the influence of podcasts (POD) on language comprehension of Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners. An Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was administered to 60 male and female university students. The participants were considered as pre-intermediate learners and were divided into two groups (one experimental group and one control group). During the fifteen sessions of the treatment, thirty podcasts were presented to the two groups. The experimental group received just the audio file of the POD, and the control group received a different treatment which was the transcript file of the same audio podcast file of the experimental group. The results of the t-tests revealed that there was no significant difference in language comprehension scores across the posttest between two groups. Based on the interview results after the post-test, all of the participants (100%) agreed that both audio and the transcripts (written texts) were useful for them and claimed that it is a good method of improving language comprehension.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Mehdi Solhi Andarab

The recent improvements in technology and their integration in language learning have played a facilitating role invocabulary acquisition. Quizlet, an online teacher-/student-friendly tool, is one of the leading applications invocabulary acquisition. Along with the effectiveness of visualization in acquiring vocabulary, humor has been alsoextensively indicated to carry a significant role in language learning. With all its facilitating features, the integrationof technology, humor, and vocabulary can be achieved via Quizlet. In this study, the visual integration of humoraccompanying vocabulary on Quizlet was taken into scrutiny to see to what extent humor-integrated pictures onQuizlet account for the retention of vocabulary acquisition. With this purpose, this study examined the effect ofhumor-integrated pictures on vocabulary acquisition of 45 intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) learnerson Quizlet. In so doing, the experimental group received a series of unknown vocabulary items for which theintegrated pictures were humorous, while the vocabulary items assigned for the control group were identical, but innon-humorous contexts. At the end, an independent samples t-test applied on the scores achieved from a posttestindicated a significant difference in scores of the control group and that of the experimental group. In fact, thelearners in the experimental group significantly outperformed their counterparts in the control group. The resultsindicated that linking vocabulary items with humorous pictures is more effective than using non-humorous context inlearning vocabulary. Apparently, as the results indicate, the significant effectiveness of technology in vocabularylearning can be boosted with the help of humorous context. The findings shed light on the importance of technologyin language learning and its linking with humor in vocabulary learning.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Shahin Vaezi ◽  
Aso Biri ◽  
Farhang Moradi

This study attempted to tap into the potential of reading for incidental vocabulary learning by exposing EFL learnersto elaborated texts. This study was also concerned with investigating learners’ attitudes toward using elaboratedpassages in their reading classes. To this end, 38 students were selected as the participants of this research anddivided into two groups. Students attending the experimental group (N=20) read Persian elaborated texts in whichthe Persian meanings of the specified target words were provided in apposition to them. On the other hand, studentsof the control group (N=18) were required to read the non-elaborated version of the aforementioned texts. Generally,the results of the post-test pointed to the effectiveness of this approach in incidental vocabulary learning, and theparticipants of the experimental group were found to gain a significant vocabulary improvement in comparison to thecontrol group. Furthermore, the interview suggested that students held positive attitudes to reading elaborated textsand regarded them as effective in their vocabulary learning experience. The findings of this study have implicationsfor material developers who need to reconsider the role of modified materials.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 238
Author(s):  
Hamed Barjesteh ◽  
Lida Farsi

The present study aimed to examine the relationship between age range and vocabulary learning among pre-intermediate Iranian EFL learners. To this aim, 50 pre-intermediate Iranian EFL learners, male (N= 20) and female (N=30), were selected from a private language institute based on their performance on the Oxford Placement Test (OPT). They were divided into two groups: teenager and adult learners. Before intervention, a pretest of vocabulary was conducted to determine students’ vocabulary knowledge.  Then, vocabularies were presentenced in dialog, word power and reading texts using a monolingual dictionary in five sessions interval for the both groups. After the intervention, a post-test of vocabulary was administered to examine the possible improvement. The data obtained from the administration of the pre-test and the post-test were analyzed using SPSS software. The results revealed that there was no significant relationship between the performance of teenager and adult groups in their vocabulary learning; and there was no significant difference between the performance of teenager and adult groups in their vocabulary learning. This research potentially has some implications that may help English language teachers, students, EFL learners and educational syllabus designers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 422-432
Author(s):  
Goodarz Shakibaei ◽  
Fatemeh Shahamat ◽  
Ehsan Namaziandost

This study intended to investigate the effect of using authentic texts on Iranian EFL learners' incidental vocabulary learning. To this end, a population of 52 Iranian female EFL learners aged 15 to 17 was selected. They were two intact classes; experimental group (25 students) and control group (27 students). Both groups received a pretest at the first session. Regarding the treatment, the authentic reading texts selected from World News for students of English, Level1 was taught to the experimental group while the texts selected from book 1 was taught to the control group. After a month post-test were run among all of the participants in both control and experimental groups to find out the possible effects of the treatment on the participants' vocabulary improvement. The analysis of data paired samples t-test and independent samples t-test showed that there was a significant difference between the post-tests of experimental and control groups. The experimental group outperformed the control group on the post-test.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pınar Fettahlıoğlu ◽  
Devkan Kaleci

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of teaching technologies and material development course taught through Moodle based online argumentation implementation on critical thinking disposition of third year science teacher candidates. The study was carried out with a total of 43 students consisting of an experimental group of 22 and a control group of 21 students studying at the Department of Science Education at a State University Faculty of Education in the fall term of 2014-15 academic years. Sequential explanatory design was used as a mixed method strategy in this research. A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test non-equivalent control group design was used in the quantitative part of the study. A case study research design was used in the qualitative part of the study. California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory was used as data collection tool. In addition, an open-ended interview questions form was used to define opinions of science teacher candidates about the method applied in the course. Independent samples t-test and paired samples t-test were used in the analysis of quantitative data. Descriptive analysis was used to analyse qualitative data. At the end of the research, while a statistically significant difference in critical thinking dispositions of teacher candidates was observed in favour of post-test results of the experimental group, no statistically significant difference was observed in the control group. When the opinions of teacher candidates on the subject were investigated, it was found that the teacher candidates strongly supported the elimination of internet connection problems to improve the course.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Muhammad Husnu

This study aimed at examining the effectiveness of demonstration technique to improve vocabulary and grammar element in teaching speaking at EFL learners. This research applied true-experimental design. The respondents of the study were 32 students (class IIA) as experimental group and 32 students (class IIB) as control group from the second semester of Economic Departments of Hamzanwadi University in the academic year 2016-2017. To collect the data, a pre-test and a post-test were given to the EFL learners. To analyze the data, the researcher applied SPSS 17 for windows. To analyze whether there was a significant difference in the mean score between pre-test and post-test, the researcher used a paired-samples t-test to get answer of the hypothesis. After performing a paired-samples t-test, the researcher found that there was a significant difference in mean scores between experimental and control group and t-test score is higher than t-table, it meant that demonstration technique was significantly effective in teaching speaking, especially to improve the element of vocabulary and grammar in teaching speaking at EFL learners.


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