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Semantic Mapping or Rote Memorisation: Which Strategy Is More Effective for Students’ Acquisition and Memorization of L2 Vocabulary?
Date
2019-02-11
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Abstract
The present paper aimed to compare the influence of two vocabulary teaching strategies on students’ vocabulary
retention—roughly used in this paper to refer to the process of acquisition and memorisation. In particular, the
strategies of semantic mapping and rote memorisation were compared and contrasted within a trail of
evidence-based data gathered systematically from two ESL classes in an international school in the Emirate of
Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The participants of the study were 30 male students who were in
grade 12, the last stage of high school in the UAE educational system. The participants were randomly divided
into two groups: a control group and an experimental group. In order to measure the impact of the two strategies
under investigation on the students’ vocabulary retention, the two groups sat for a pre-test and a posttest. The
intervention that took place between the two tests lasted for three weeks. The results showed that the students’
retrieval of the target vocabulary words improved as a result of implementing both strategies, but that the
improvement which resulted from the use of semantic mapping overrode that which ensued from rote
memorisation.