The Frayer Model Effectiveness in the LSP Vocabulary Development: The Case of English for Iranian Computer Sciences Majors

This study was intended to investigate the application of the Frayer model to teaching vocabulary to language for specific purposes students. It employed quasi-experimental control group posttest-only design. As its requirement, two intact classes of Iranian undergraduate computer sciences majors—having taken language for specific purposes course—were selected in a convenience sampling fashion (#62 students). They were assigned to two groups: control and experimental. In a twelve-week treatment period, the experimental group was taught some words present in content area texts using the Frayer model charts along with other words using textbook procedure. To be more precise, they were trained how to organize their understanding of words graphically—the words chosen from their English for specific purposes textbook, i.e., English for computer engineering. In contrast to the experimental group, the control group received instruction in vocabulary learning following just textbook procedure. At the end of the term, an identical vocabulary achievement posttest was administered to both groups. The probable effectiveness of the Frayer model application in learning vocabulary words was statistically computed through independent samples t-test procedure. The results showed that Frayer model had significantly affected the experimental English for specific purposes students’ vocabulary gain. As a result, they outperformed the normal English for specific purposes students in vocabulary learning. It is implied that the practitioners in this area can transgress the textual mode routines of vocabulary learning: they can take advantages of graphically organizing tools such as the Frayer model for the enhancement of vocabulary learning.