Abstract
This study examined the effect of the interaction approach on young EFL learners’ lexical depth in a private language institute in Talesh, Iran. To achieve this, a Michigan test was administered to 40 EFL learners. Those language learners who met the selection criterion, i.e., performed one standard deviation above and below the mean on the test were divided into two classes (N=28): group A (N=14) and group B (N=14). In both groups, the interaction approach was incorporated into vocabulary instruction. However, the design of the interaction was different in each group. In group A, interactions were mostly between learners. On the other hand, in group B, learners mainly interacted with the teacher. After 18 weeks of instruction, a test of lexical depth, word association tasks (WAT), was administered to the both groups. The results of statistical analysis showed that the standard deviation (SD) was almost the same in both groups. However, the mean in group B significantly outperformed group A. A t test was used to compare means of test scores between groups. The findings of this study suggest that learner-teacher interaction is a more effective design in the improvement of learners' knowledge of vocabulary depth in comparison with learner-learner interaction. Keywords : Comprehension, Interaction, Negotiation for meaning, Knowledge of vocabulary depth, Word association task
Highlights
It has been observed by many researchers that vocabulary knowledge involves more than remembering the meaning of a specific word (Nation, 1994; mentioned in Jafarpour, 2014)
The average difference of -12.357 between word association tasks (WAT) scores of group A and group B was statistically significant. This suggests that the students in group B outperformed group A in lexical depth knowledge to a statistically significant degree in the 4-month period, during which they engaged in learning vocabulary through the learner-teacher interaction design
The results of this study indicated that group B significantly outperformed group A in terms of lexical depth
Summary
It has been observed by many researchers that vocabulary knowledge involves more than remembering the meaning of a specific word (Nation, 1994; mentioned in Jafarpour, 2014). Depth of vocabulary refers to how well a learner knows a word (Marzban & Hadipour, 2012; Shen, 2008) The latter is defined as “one's level of understanding of various important aspects of a word” (Qian, 1998, p.13). For example, Hashemi Shahraki and Kassaian (2011) investigated the effects of three different tasks on the acquisition of new EFL vocabulary items. They formed three learning groups: receptive, productive, and negotiated interaction (NI). It will be shown how vocabulary instruction through incorporation of various interactional designs in EFL classes will increase readers' knowledge of lexical depth
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