THE EFFECTS OF PERSIAN LANGUAGE ON VOCABULARY LEARNING OF IRANIAN EFL STUDENTS

The aim of this paper was to examine the effects of Persian language as the first language on vocabulary learning of Iranian English as foreign language (EFL) students. For Iranian EFL learners acquiring English language, as an international language has always been important. Moreover, the role of vocabulary learning used as a technique to help the learners develop their skills in acquiring English language as their foreign language has also been emphasized. The role of mother tongue can be used as complement role in supporting and promoting knowledge of learners of second language as a positive factor on L2 learning. To end, forty Iranian EFL learners in the age range of 20 to 40 studying English language in Academic Language Institute in Karman city (Sirjan) in Iran were participated. Thus, the students were divided into two groups, experimental and control groups. Learning English vocabulary only used through Persian language for experimental group. The outcome of this research indicated that there was a significant difference between experimental and control groups in learning English vocabulary through Persian language. So, the findings of this project showed that use of Persian language had positive effects on vocabulary improvement of the Iranian EFL students at basic level. The results of data analysis showed that the hypothesis of this paper is rejected.