The comparative impact of lexical translation and lexical inferencing on EFL learners’ vocabulary retention

The present study is an attempt to investigate the comparative effects of lexical translation and lexical inferencing techniques on Female intermediate EFL learners’ vocabulary retention. For this purpose, 90 female learners attending the Jahad Daneshgahi Center in Qom took a piloted sample KET test, 60 of whom were selected as homogenous learners. They were randomly divided into two experimental groups-one learning new vocabulary items through lexical translation technique and the other with the lexical inferencing technique. They were given a pre-test on vocabulary to ensure that the participants had no prior knowledge of the target words. Then all participants in both groups were taught using the same material and received the same amount of instruction. The only difference was for teaching of new lexical items. One experimental group was taught mainly through the lexical translation technique while the other experimental group learned by the lexical inferencing technique. After conducting the treatment, a post-test was administered to both groups in order to measure the studentsʹ ability in the retention of the lexical items taught through lexical translation and lexical inferencing techniques after a two-week interval. The analysis of the test scores using independent sample t-test revealed that the lexical inferencing group significantly outperformed the lexical translation group on the retention of the lexical items suggesting its benefits for teaching new words. Findings provide insights to teachers as well as students on how to best approach learning new lexical items.