A Comparative Study Of Word-list And Text-reading On Vocabulary Retention For College Non-English Majors

The current study was Based on the Information Processing Theory and the Theory of Depths of Processing,comparing two vocabulary memorizing methods,the word-list method and the text-reading method,to investigate which method better promotes vocabulary retention.Three research questions were raised below: 1.What are the non-English majors' perceptions towards the two methods? 2.Does different method have different effects on vocabulary retention? 3.Which method better promotes vocabulary retention in short-term memory? And which method better promotes vocabulary retention in long-term memory?To answer those questions,this experiment involved 124 freshmen of non-English majors.They were assigned to two experimental groups to memorize target vocabularies in these different ways.The moment the subjects finished memorizing the target words,they were tested with the short-term post-test papers.Four weeks later,they were tested with the long-term post-test papers.Finally,all the subjects received questionnaires and ten of them volunteered to be interviewed.All the data from the experiment were collected and analyzed by SPSS 20.0.Then the author drew the following conclusions: firstly,students held different attitudes towards the word-list method and the text-reading method.They thought word-list was simple and convenient to use though they tended to forget words easily in this way.Then the text-reading method was more conducive to retain words deeply but they had to read deeply.Secondly,there was no statistical difference between these two methods concerning short-term memory,but the word-list method performed a little better than the text-reading method,indicating that the former slightly promoted vocabulary retention in short-term memory.Thirdly,in the long-term test,the text-reading method outperformed the word-list method,suggesting the text-reading method better promoted vocabulary retention in long-term memory.Moreover,this study possessed the following implications: teachers should encourage students to try different methods to memorize words at different stages.For example,students can use the word-list method to memorize words before exams,while in the long run,they can read a lot to enlarge vocabularies.Besides,whichever method is employed,students should bear in mind that timely reviewing is necessary to avoid forgetting what they have learned as well as promoting vocabularies to enter the long-term memory,which is the ultimate purpose of vocabulary memorizing.