The Impact of Utilizing a Collaborative Approach on Teenage Iranian EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Retention

Abstract

For many years, different ways of teaching new words have been used in curriculum planning. Nowadays most researchers argue that incorporating vocabulary in classroom tasks can facilitate vocabulary teaching. The goal of the current study was to investigate the impact of collaboration on vocabulary development of teenage EFL learners in a language institute Iran. To this purpose and as an experimental method of research, two intact groups of learners were chosen to participate in the experiment. The population of the study was made up of eighty five EFL learners in a language institute in Iran. To homogenize the study subjects, an Oxford Placement Test was administered and only those subjects whose scores fell one standard deviation above and below the mean were selected for the study. The other instrument was using two sets of vocabulary tests which were used to tap the initial vocabulary knowledge of the learners in both groups: pre and post vocabulary tests. The same type of material was used for both experimental group (EG) and control group (CG). In other words, the learners in both groups were instructed through the same sources, the same teacher, and the same teaching hours. Results revealed that, the participants in the CG did not benefit from the individual teaching processes as much as the learners in EG. That is, the learners in the CG in spite of depending on the teacher and his assistance in various level of vocabulary presentation did not improve as satisfactorily as the EG and thus were left behind the EG.