Vocabulary retention: A comparison of four methods of learning vocabulary in French.

1. Vocabulary retention:A comparison of four methods of learning vocabulary in French. August 2007 By Shirley Stananought Ardmore School

2. Rationale • Nation (1999) need exposure on more than one occasion • Quality of the knowledge and the strength of that quality • Extra effort will result in faster and longer retained learning • Did any of the methods require more effort and lead to more retained learning? • How long was learning retained?

3. Rationale • Kachroo(1962) words repeated 7 times in course book were known • Crothers and Suppes (1967) in vocabulary learning experiments words were learned after 6 or 7 times • My class had the opportunity to learn words 5 times is this sufficient? • Nation (1999) strategy for learning vocabulary must be complex • Were the strategies tested sufficiently complex to allow retained learning?

4. une famille un père une mère un frère une soeur un chat un chien rouge blanc bleu vert un sac une calculatrice une trousse une règle une gomme un cahier un stylo un crayon un livre Methodology

5. Methodology • French word – picture • French word – English word • Mime • Notebook • Pre and post test • 10 minutes each day to learn words • Re-tested 5 weeks later

6. Results

7. Ranking

8. Conclusion • Picture cards aids vocabulary learning and retention • The mime group appeared to retain the words • Argued that picture cards and miming require more effort – supports Nation’s theory ‘extra effort will result in faster and longer retained learning’

9. Conclusion • Children given the opportunity to learn the words at least 5 times • Average score over the group = 18.7 words • Supports the theories of Kachroo (1962) and Crothers and Suppes (1967) • Giving the children the vocabulary made the unit easier to teach

10. Constraints • Results based on 26 children of varying ability • Research does have a theoretical base Nation (1999) • It can be repeated in other classrooms and a comparison made

11. Next steps • Explicitly teaching vocabulary retention methods • Strategy has to require effort • Teach vocabulary at the start of a unit • Allow children at least 5 opportunities to learn words