Effect of using imagination in teaching short stories on vocabulary development of Iranian lower intermediate EFL learners

Abstract

This research was carried out to find out whether using imagination in teaching short stories is effective on Iranian EFL learners’ short and long term vocabulary learning. To this end, an OPT was administered and out of 100 students 60 male students that were in the same level of proficiency were selected as the control and the experimental groups. A pretest was also administrated to check their knowledge at the beginning of the study. After that, the experimental group was taught through imagination; while the control group learned vocabulary through conventional method. There was a 3-month treatment between the pretest and the posttest. When 3 months of instruction ended, another vocabulary test, as the posttest, was administered to the participants of both groups to assess their vocabulary knowledge. Using independent samples t-tests, it was showed that using imagination was more effective than the traditional method of teaching vocabulary on the Iranian EFL learners. The obtained results also confirmed the effectiveness of using imagination on retention of vocabulary knowledge. Two weeks later, a delayed posttest was administrated in order to measure the effectiveness of using imagination on retention of vocabulary and effectiveness of using imagination was confirmed. The findings of this study offer various implications for Iran Ministry of Education, EFL curriculum makers, language schools, and university students.