Abstract
This paper is an attempt to investigate whether the Elementary EFL learners’ vocabulary retention of the newly learned words significantly differs by using recognition exercises (fill-in-the-blank, and matching) and production exercises (paraphrasing, and glossing) in immediate and delayed vocabulary tests. 46 Iranian Elementary learners who were studying English in a language Institute participated. Four texts were selected from Elementary Total English book. Each text contained ten unknown words followed by one exercise type. Each session the learners read a text, and then did the following exercises. The meaning of the words was provided in a mini dictionary. After doing each exercise, the learners were instructed to provide an English synonym, or an English definition, or translation of the word in L1 for each word. Before the test, mini dictionaries were collected. After a two week interval, the participants' vocabulary learning was tested through the final vocabulary test containing all the words presented in four exercise types. The results of comparing four exercise types revealed that learners recalled more words in fill-in-the-blank exercise than other exercise types both in immediate and delayed tests. Moreover, the results indicated that recognition exercises were more effective than production exercises in EFL vocabulary retention. In addition, learners’ scores in immediate tests were better than their scores in delayed tests in four different exercise types. Thus, unknown words should be repeated in different exercises, in order to be stored in long term memory and to be retained easily.
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