The Effect of Explicit and Implicit Vocabulary Instruction on Vocabulary Knowledge of University Students

It is true that vocabulary is central to a language and is of paramount importance to a language learner as Ellis (1994) claims that “the cornerstone of L2 is its vocabulary. Instruction is an important contributor in the development of vocabulary knowledge. Implicit vocabulary teaching and learning method involves indirect, or incidental whereas the explicit method involves direct, or intentional. This study attempts to find out and compare the effects of the two vocabulary teaching methods on 60 students studying in a Tonekabon University. Control Group (explicit vocabulary teaching) and Experimental group (implicit vocabulary teaching), each group was given a different modes of instruction. During the lessons different explicit vocabulary presentation techniques used including mind-mapping, Persian equivalents and English synonyms and definitions. Subsequently, the teacher utilized an inferred method for teaching vocabulary implicitly which means students were supposed to guess the words from the passages by using context clues. The researcher used the, the Independent T-Test, Analysis of covariance. The T-tests compared the means of the pretest and posttest scores of each group. ANCOVA was used to identify the progress level from the pretest to the posttest in the groups. The results obtained by the implicit group shows students gained new vocabulary moderately better. And also findings of study in the explicit vocabulary teaching method revealed that in terms of students’ short term recall of word meanings and the students did well in word retention. The results of this study have important implications for the classroom and make a strong case for implicit and explicit vocabulary instruction.