The Effects of Oral Code-mixing and Glossing on Iranian EFL Learners' Vocabulary Knowledge

Subject Areas : Journal of Studies in Learning and Teaching English

Fatemeh Hosseini ¹ (Department of English Language, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran)
Ehsan Rassaei ² (Department of English Language, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran)

Received: 2016-01-14 Accepted : 2016-11-01 Published : 2016-12-01

Keywords: Code-mixing, Glossing, Vocabulary Knowledge,

Abstract :

The current study investigated the effects of oral code-mixing and glossing on L2 vocabulary learning. To this end, 60 EFL learners studying at pre-university school were given a pre-test to make sure that they did not have any prior knowledge of the target words. Based on their scores in the pre-test, 36 pre-university students were selected and divided into three groups, including two experimental groups and one control group. All three groups were provided with the same text, under three different conditions. The participants of the first experimental group received L1 translations of target words orally by the researcher to investigate any possible effects of code-mixing. The participants of the second experimental group received the L1 translation of the new words in a written form to check the possible effects of glossing technique, and the participants of the control group were provided with the same text without any oral or written definition. After three days, a cued production test and a multiple choice test were administered as the immediate post-tests. One week later, a delayed post-test was administered. The results showed that there were significant differences among the three groups. Indeed, the findings revealed that both code-mixing and glossing techniques are effective for vocabulary learning. Meanwhile, the participants of the glossing group outperformed the participants of code-mixing condition.