The Impact of Different Context Levels on Vocabulary Learning and Retention

Abstract

According to research on new vocabulary development by text, frequent experiences with foreign words, as well as the context in which these words appear, facilitate word learning and retention. The aim of this analysis was to see how context levels, word occurrence rates, and the combination of these variables affected the understanding and retention of unfamiliar words. Both zero, reduced, and high contexts were included in the study. The research included 60 Turkish EFL university students, with 20 in each of the three situations. The target words were the same for all learners in each condition. The high informative context was discovered that increasing word occurrences had significant effects on both productive and receptive knowledge of meaning while increasing word occurrences had significant effects on both productive and receptive knowledge of word type. The influence of frequent experiences with new words on vocabulary learning was only seen in the more comprehensive sense. It is realistic to provide learners with new words in high context to trigger vocabulary acquisition and retention.