Investigating the Effectiveness of Intentional and Incidental Vocabulary Learning Strategies

Abstract

This study aims at exploring and investigating the effectiveness of intentional and incidental vocabulary learning strategies. The study highlights the significance of the above mentioned strategies of learning vocabulary that will enhance the students' performance in English language. The study hypothesizes learners can easily acquire vocabulary intentionally when they interact with each other and the study also hypothesizes that incidental vocabulary learning is effectively done via an ample exposure to the same word in a various texts. In addition to the study hypothesizes that the use of Arabic language as a medium of instruction help further in improving students understanding of English texts. The study adopts a descriptive and analytical method to collect and analyze data. The questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection and for the verification of the above hypotheses, and then the data was analyzed with [SPSS] programme. Eventually the analysis of data has revealed that learners who acquire vocabulary communicatively will score significantly high and can easily acquire vocabulary intentionally when they interact with each other. The analysis has revealed that vocabulary pronunciation is apparently acquired through performing dialogues as well as English systematic classes, besides expo sing learners to English – English medium is an interested strategy in acquiring and using vocabulary effectively. Translation into Arabic is sometimes inevitable. On the light of the above mentioned results, the study also recommends that visual aids should be used effectively in learning vocabulary intentionally, also leaners have to be motivating through inserting new words in a variety of situations. Moreover, Learners have to use English – Arabic dictionaries to acquire both meaning and pronunciation and the use of Arabic translation should be minimized as possible and can be adopted only when it is inevitable.