Impact of Meaning-Inferred Method vs. Marginal Glosses on Improving L2 Lexical Short-term and Long-term Retention of Intermediate EFL Learners

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the pivotal role of L2 words in language teaching and learning. Current research conducted in the field of second language learning has revealed that vocabulary learning techniques have an important role in learners’ ability of producing meaningful output in L2 communicative encounters. Accordingly, the present study sought to investigate the impact of meaning-inferred method and marginal glosses on improving L2 lexical short-term and long-term retention of word meanings by intermediate EFL learners. 63 EFL learners at the intermediate level were selected based on convenient sampling method. A pre-test was administered to ensure that the learners did not know the target words. Based on the results, 13 students were eliminated from the study because they were familiar with some of the target words. Subsequently, 50 homogenous students were assigned to two experimental groups. While students in the first group were asked to infer the meaning of words through guessing, the latter group received meanings of words in marginal glosses. Finally, the same pre-test was utilized as the post-test which was followed by a delayed post-test to assess the efficacy of the targeted independent variables on vocabulary retention. The analysis of the data by applying a repeated measure ANOVA and the related post hoc comparisons indicated that learners benefitting from inferred-meaning method demonstrated significantly greater retention of words.