An Experimental Study: The Effects Of Two Vocabulary Teaching Methods On The Vocabulary Retention Of Chinese EFL Learners

It is well-established that vocabulary is basic to language proficiency and of crucial importance to language learning. For the past several decades, a great number of researches and investigations have been made with regard to this field. Numerous vocabulary teaching methods and techniques have been introduced. Among them is the Keyword Method. It employs the phonological and/or orthographic property of L2 as a retrieval aid to recall L1 definition. This method is one of the most extensively studied methods in the context of ESL. A large majority of experiments have been conducted in the context of ESL to testify the effectiveness of the Keyword Method, with conflicting results—some findings confirmed the superiority of this method while others indicated that the Keyword Method produced no better results over other methods.In China, English is learned as a foreign language. Besides, English and Chinese share little similarity in form and pronunciation. Whether the Keyword Method could work and whether it could produce ideal effect in boosting learners' vocabulary learning in the context of EFL needs further exploration.