Effects Of Vocabulary Presentation Modes On Vocabulary Retention Of Junior Middle School Students

Vocabulary is an important component of language.Vocabulary teaching is an important part of English teaching.As we know,it is important for students to learn English well in junior middle schoo l.Most of words in junior middle school are core vocabularies.The most common presentation mode for teachers and students is through word lists.Teachers and students are familiar to this way.The problems of single and dull way,high rate of forgetting prevail in the vocabulary learning.It is meaningful to explore the efficient presentation modes and investigate the effects of different presentation modes on retention.The major theoretical foundation are Elaboration Theory and the Depth of Processing Theory,this study examined the different effects of vocabulary retention by adopting three presentation modes(the presentation through a word list,the presentation through context with the meaning of target words and the presentation by inferring the meaning of target words through context).The subjects in this research were 60 middle school students from three parallel classes in Grade 1,Yichun C ity.The top 20 students in each class in last monthly exam will be selected and composed as a group.The 60 subjects were divided into three groups.Each group adopted one presentation mode respectively.10 English words were selected from the reading material and the target words were the 10 words.After each presentation,two posttests were conducted in this study: one immediate memory test 15 minutes later and one delayed retention test a week later.The data results were analyzed by SPSS19.0.Based on the findings and data analysis,the following conclusions were obtained:(1)In vocabulary teaching,different presentation modes produced different effects on retention.In the short-term memory test,the presentation through a word list(Mode 1)yielded the best effect.The presentation by inferring the meaning of target words through context(Mode 3)had the worst effect,and the presentation through context with the meaning of target words(Mode 2)lied between them.However,no significant difference exists in the three modes in STMT.(2)In the long-term memory test,the effects of retention increased gradually.That is to say,the presentation by inferring the meaning of target words through context(Mode 3)received the best effect while the presentation through a word list(Mode 1)produced the worst effect and the presentation through context with the meaning of target words(Mode 2)ranked in the second place.There are some significant differences between Mode 1 and Mode 3 as well as between Mode 2 and Mode 3 in LTMT.(3)Different presentation modes had different effects on retention of different properties of words.In the STMT,the presentation through a wordlist(Mode 1)had the best effect on retention of adjectives.The presentation through context with the meaning of target words(Mode 2)got the best effect on retention of verbs in the STMT.In the LTMT,the presentation through context had obviously better effect on retention of verbs and adjectives than presentation through a word list.The presentation through context with the meaning of target words(Mode 2)produced the best effect on retention of adjectives in LTMT.The presentation by inferring the meaning of target words through context(Mode 3)got the best effect on retention of verbs in LTMT.(4)The difference exists between STMT and LTMT by each presentation mode.There is also a significant difference between in STMT and LTMT of different properties of words in Mode 1 and Mode 2.To be specific,in Mode 1 and Mode 2,a significant difference exists between STMT and LTMT of verbs on retention.It also reaches the significant difference in Mode1 between STMT and LTMT of adjectives on retention.And the tendency of memory-fading is different.Mode1 is the fastest,Mode 3 is the lowest.Based on these conclusions and interpretations,some pedagogical implications were summarized as follo ws: the presentation through context is good for the long-term memory of students.Memorizing by isolating the words was unadvisable and inefficient.Teachers can take the Depth of Processing Theory into consideration.According to the specific teaching objectives and English proficiency level of students,teachers can choose the suitable presentation modes to improve the efficiency.