Effects of Different Reading Texts on Vocabulary Gain, Use and Retention

This study investigated whether encountering the target language words in variety of reading texts would have positive effects on vocabulary development or not. The participants of the study were 55 EFL learners from a state university in Turkey, and two classes were randomly assigned to a control (n=27) or an experimental (n=28) group. 58 English target words in total were chosen to be used in the study. The learners in the experimental group learnt the words through reading texts, and then they repeated them in different reading texts. That is to say, these students had the opportunity to meet the target words in different types of reading texts. Contrary to this, the learners in the control group encountered the words in reading texts only once, and then they repeated them in word lists out of context. A vocabulary test as pre-, post- and delayed post-test was used to measure vocabulary gain and retention. The data obtained from the vocabulary test were analyzed through paired-samples t-tests and independent-samples t-tests to see how the implementation affected the learners’ vocabulary development. Additionally, a writing task was used to find out the effects of the implementation on the learners’ vocabulary production. The findings showed that encountering words in different reading texts was more effective for vocabulary gain, use and retention.