THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT GLOSS TYPES ON INCIDENTAL VOCABULARY RETENTION OF IRANIAN EFL STUDENTS

The present study investigated the effect of different types of glosses (single textual glosses, interactive multiple-choice glosses, multi-media glosses, and multi-mode glosses) on incidental vocabulary retention of Iranian EFL learners. The subject pool consisted of 210 third semester Iranian students enrolled at Azad University, Central Branch. After administering a proficiency test, 155 homogeneous students were assigned to four experimental groups and one control group. Afterwards, a pre-test (Test of Novelty) was administered to verify students’ unfamiliarity with the intended target words to be learned later. During this study experimental groups received different types of glosses for unknown words. As opposed to experimental groups, the control group received no glosses. In order to assess the efficacy of each gloss type, two types of post-tests were administered: recognition and production. A one-way ANOVA indicated that learners with access to different gloss types demonstrated significantly greater retention of word meanings. Additionally, a further analysis known as the Tukey test was conducted to pinpoint exactly where the differences exist in a pair-wise way. The results of this analysis showed that X4 outperformed the other experimental groups (X1, X2, & X3) and the control group. Furthermore, to assess the difference in outcome between short-term and long-term word retention a within-subjects was applied.