The Comparative Effect of Non-Task and Provide-A-Model Preparation Activities on EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Retention

This study investigated the comparative effective of non-task preparation activities and providing a model as two types of pre-task activities on vocabulary retention of 60 EFL students from a language school in Karaj, Iran. The participants were sorted out of a larger population of 90 intermediate students based on their scores on a piloted Preliminary English Test (PET) and a vocabulary test. As a result of the two mentioned tests, first 65 participants were selected and then randomly divided into two experimental groups: non-task preparation activities group and providing a model group. However, the results of five participants who did not attend the classes regularly during the treatment were finally discarded. The two experimental groups received different treatments. In one class, vocabularies were taught through doing some non-task preparation pre-task activities by the learners and in the other, the teacher provided the model of doing the activity. At the end of the treatment period, the researchers administered a vocabulary retention posttest. Analyzing the collected data through an independent samples t-test revealed that non-task preparation pre-task activities had a significantly higher impact on the vocabulary retention of the participants. The significant difference between the two pre-task activities is interpreted to be the possible outcome of the difference in the type of schemata each activates and the type of load each reduces.