Form-focused EFL Vocabulary Learning: A Case for Translation

The purpose of the study was four-fold: first to investigate the predictive adequacy of the Task-Induced Involvement Load Hypothesis which contends that higher-load inducing tasks yield better retention rates in incidental learning situations; second, to examine whether type of dictionary search could affect vocabulary retention; third, to investigate the effect of translation direction on retention rate; and finally to determine the most effective tasks. To meet these ends, 188 participants, in 6 groups of EFL learners - aging 19-25, majoring in various fields of engineering sciences were assigned to the study. A total of 20 unknown words were selected out of a 60-word list from the reading material prepared for participants a week prior to the beginning of the treatment phase. The immediate post-test, which was administered immediately after the treatment, and the delayed post-test, which was administered after a two-week interval were used to measure the retention of the 20 target words. The results of the one-way ANOVA showed no significant difference among the participants‟ performance in all task groups except for three of the tasks on the immediate post-test. Furthermore, no significant effect was found for dictionary type and translation direction. Lastly, translational tasks were found to be as effective as sentence production tasks.