The Effects of Standard and Reversed Code Mixing on L2 Vocabulary Recognition and Recall

To investigate the effects of two code mixing conventions on L2 vocabulary recognition and recall, 87 female Iranian lower intermediate EFL learners were divided into three groups. One group received vocabulary instruction through standard code mixing in which an L1 lexical item was incorporated within an L2 context; another received the same instruction through reversed code mixing, which involved the use of an L2 lexical item within an L1 context. The third group was a comparison group that was presented with the same words in English sentences without any code mixing. At the end of the treatment, multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blanks vocabulary tests were administered to all three groups. The gathered data were analyzed using two separate one-way ANOVA procedures. Results indicated that code mixing conventions had no significant effect on the learnersʹ vocabulary recognition. As to vocabulary production, the comparison group outperformed the standard code mixing group in a statistically significant way. The findings of the present study may have implications for learners, teachers, and syllabus designers.