International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World
(IJLLALW)
Volume 4 (2), October 2013; 175-­‐193 Nosratinia, M., Mohammadi Sarmadi, Z., & Shakeri, H EISSN: 2289-­‐2737 & ISSN: 2289-­‐3245 www.ijllalw.org The Comparative Effect of Keeping a Vocabulary Notebook with
Definitions and a Vocabulary Notebook with Pictures on Extrovert
and Introvert EFL Learners Vocabulary Retention
Mania Nosratinia
Assistant Professor, Islamic Azad University at Central Tehran
Email: [email protected]
Zahra Mohammadi Sarmadi
M. A. in TEFL, Islamic Azad University at Central Tehran
Email: [email protected]
Hossein Shakeri
M. A. in TEFL, Islamic Azad University at Central Tehran
Email:[email protected]
ABSTRACT
This study attempted to investigate the comparative effect of two different types of a vocabulary
learning strategy, "vocabulary notebooks with definitions" and "vocabulary notebooks with
pictures", on the vocabulary retention of extrovert and introvert EFL learners. To begin with, a
group of 180 students took the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) from among 160 students
were selected to take a piloted sample Proficiency Test of Key English Testing (KET) as a
proficiency test to select homogeneous participants in terms of their English proficiency level.
After that, 60 introvert and 60 extrovert students were selected to compromise the participants of
the study. Each of these groups was divided into two classes with 30 participants (totally 4
classes). One extrovert and one introvert classes were going to implement the vocabulary
notebooks with definitions and the other extrovert and introvert classes were going to implement
vocabulary notebooks with pictures. Prior to the instruction, a piloted researcher-made
vocabulary pretest was administered. After teaching the vocabularies in class, for homework the
students used their vocabulary notebooks. Students in this group were to make notebooks to write
just vocabulary definitions and use them in meaningful contexts. In case of the two other classes,
the participants were to make the words' definitions visualized by paintings or cutting pictures
from different sources and glue them in their notebooks. Two weeks after the end of the
instruction, a piloted researcher-made post-test was administered to investigate the participants'
retention of vocabularies. The outcome reveals that: There is a significant difference between the
effect of keeping a vocabulary note book with definitions and a vocabulary notebook with
pictures on extrovert EFL learners' vocabulary retention. The extrovert students keeping note
books with pictures outperformed the extrovert students keeping note books with definitions on
the post-test of vocabulary retention.
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International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World
(IJLLALW)
Volume 4 (2), October 2013; 175-­‐193 Nosratinia, M., Mohammadi Sarmadi, Z., & Shakeri, H EISSN: 2289-­‐2737 & ISSN: 2289-­‐3245 www.ijllalw.org KEYWORDS: vocabulary notebook with definitions and pictures, extrovert, introvert,
vocabulary retention
INTRODUCTION
Teachers and students of second and foreign languages agree that vocabulary acquisition is a
major goal of language learning (Walters, 2004). Many scholars (Meara, 1980, 1982; Read, 2000;
Stoffer, 1995) believe that not only the acquisition of a large number of vocabulary items but also
retention of them may be considered as of the most difficult aspects of learning a second
language for most L2 learners.
According to Richards and Schmidt (2002) retention of vocabulary does not necessarily mean
memorizing but the ability to recall or remember vocabulary after an interval of time. Peter
(2007) believed that when students want to learn new words, they need to notice unknown words
and pay enough attention to them. Retention of new words is further determined by the way in
which these words are processed, whereby deeper and elaborate processing results in better word
retention. In spite of the fact that keeping a vocabulary notebook is listed as a single vocabulary
learning strategy in Schmitt's (1997) taxonomy, it seems clear that the very act of keeping a
vocabulary notebook will involve the practice of a variety of different vocabulary learning
strategies(Walters & Bozkurt, 2009).
"Notebook with Definitions" is a student-made notebook which is totally non-pictorial and
mainly focuses on definitions, in addition to other information in a dictionary. (Hall,
2004).Vocabulary Notebook with Pictures, as another type of vocabulary notebook in this
research, is a student-made notebook mainly focuses on pictures made by students. Levine and
Reves (1990) stated that "it seems to be easier to recall the visual image of the word even in the
context of long term memory" (P. 40).
The students can use any sources to prepare relevant pictures for each single word (Edyburn,
2010). It can also be included in other information in a dictionary if the students like. In order to
understand foreign language learning, it is necessary to examine not only the linguistic properties
of the language but also the psychological, sociological characteristics and personality types of
the learner (Falk, 1978, p. 353). One of the important facets of the affective domain of second
language acquisition is the intrinsic side of affectivity: personality type within a person that
contributes greatly in some way to the success of language learning. In recent thinking (Arnold,
1999; Dornyei & Skehen, 2003), there is no doubt at all about the importance of examining
personality types in building a theory of second language acquisition. Extraversion/Introversion
has attracted the most attention in L2 research (Dornyei, 2005, p. 26).
According to Dewaele (as cited in Gan, 2008), Extroversion /Introversion dimension has received
widespread acceptance in the psychology community over the past several decades (p.
24).According to Eysenck (as cited in Gan, 2008),"Extroverts tend to be outgoing, sociable and
risk-taking. They take chances and act on the spur of the moment and tend to be aggressive;
introverts tend to be quiet, unassertive and seldom behave in an aggressive manner"(p. 25).
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International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World
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Volume 4 (2), October 2013; 175-­‐193 Nosratinia, M., Mohammadi Sarmadi, Z., & Shakeri, H EISSN: 2289-­‐2737 & ISSN: 2289-­‐3245 www.ijllalw.org REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE
Vocabulary Notebooks
In spite of the fact that keeping a vocabulary notebook is listed as a single vocabulary learning
strategy in Schmitt's (1997) taxonomy, it seems clear that the very act of keeping a vocabulary
notebook will involve the practice of a variety of different vocabulary learning strategies.
Fowle (as cited in Walters & Bozkurt, 2009) points out that learners may use multiple
determination strategies to discover meaning and other aspects of unknown words: they may use
monolingual or bilingual dictionaries, guess from context, or seek the help of teachers or
classmates. Consolidation strategies are also used when adding to the information in the
notebook, and when studying new words in the notebook. Use of the notebook in class work also
supports the use of consolidation strategies, as students return to the notebook to retrieve words,
use the words in classroom activities, and share their words with their classmates. Thus,
vocabulary notebooks offer learners the chance to expand their repertoire of vocabulary learning
strategies, and they have the potential to enhance vocabulary learning, perhaps more than any
other single vocabulary learning strategy used on its own (p. 404).
Vocabulary Notebooks with Pictures
As mentioned before this study took place in elementary levels which most of the books contain
too many concrete vocabularies, using pictures is really an interesting way to elicit meanings.
There are many researchers such as Blessman and Myszczak (2001), and Marzano(2001) who
have really advocated that pictures make an impact on students' learning.
Carter, Hardly and Hardly (as cited in Sams, 2011) reported that getting pupils to visualize
vocabulary before testing improved scores. Sams (2011) also mentioned that "as a pupil, I used to
draw and label vocabulary to help me learn" (p. 16). My research combines this practice with
another visualization technique (the keyword strategy) as Nation (2001) discusses. This technique
involves "linking a first language word which the unknown word sounds like with the meaning of
the unknown word, by picturing an image involving both the first language word and the
meaning" (p. 11).
Sams (2011) has Pointed to the fact that "It is experienced drawing or applying pictures roots the
items in students' mind and one is more likely to be able to visualize and retain an image which
has been personally created" (p. 17).
These visual images also provide powerful cognitive prompts to vocabulary development as this
task engages both sides of the brain (Edyburn, 2010, P. 23).
Vocabulary Notebooks with Definitions
Students can form notebooks to write just vocabulary definitions and use them in meaningful
contexts. A dictionary can be an excellent source to use in discovering meanings of unfamiliar
words, particularly for determining the appropriate meaning of words that have multiple, or
specific, technical definitions. In line with the mention points, Obermeier (2008) stated that
combining target and native languages in definitions proved to be significantly more helpful than
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International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World
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Volume 4 (2), October 2013; 175-­‐193 Nosratinia, M., Mohammadi Sarmadi, Z., & Shakeri, H EISSN: 2289-­‐2737 & ISSN: 2289-­‐3245 www.ijllalw.org the translations or monolingual definitions alone; it appears that the interaction of native and
target languages might be a powerful factor to help learning.
Personality Traits
Individual differences in personality are important in predicting individuals' behavior in umpteen
real world conditions (Eysenck, 2004). Traits represent implicit connection between noticeable
behaviors and internal dispositions or preferences to act, these associations picture the
individual's unchanging patterns of behavior and delineate differences between rather than within
individuals, this in turn may lead to various types of feelings, thinking, and behaving in different
ways and among different people (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2007).
The issue of personality types, including temperament, is as old as psychology. Eysenck's
original research found two main dimensions of temperament: "Neuroticism/Stability and
"Extroversion/Introversion" (Boeree, 2006).
Extroversion
Sharp (1987), held that extroversion can be defined by believing that they are fully interested in
the external objects, responsiveness, and a ready acceptance of external happenings. They are
flexible in a way that they can have effect and at the same time be affected by events taking place
around them. They are tolerant of noise and crowd and also find it fascinating. Their attention is
mostly on their friends and the world they live in.
Comparing to introverts, extroverts are harder to condition and the consistency of their
conditioned responses are less likely to be seen. Consequently, they were more likely to be
impulsive and punishment does not prove to have any effect on their learning (Zuckerman, 2005).
Introversion
People having introverted personality type are not willing to associate with groups. Some people
suffer early traumatic experiences that for example cause them to act in the background as a
defense mechanism. Whatever the reason, the interior forces that keep the person quiet can be
very effective, while at the same time the situation in which you are situated may invite you to
participate actively (Bergin, 2006).
In comparison with the extroverts, the introvert has weak inhibition, in case of trauma such as car
crash their brains don't protect them fast enough so they won't forget easily. Instead, they are
highly alert and learn well, and so remember everything that happened (Boeree, 2006).
Vocabulary Learning
The term vocabulary refers to a list or a set of words for a particular language or a list of words
that individual speakers of a language might use. No one can learn a language without knowing
its vocabulary (Hatch & Brown, 1995).
Decarrico (2001, p. 285) points out that "vocabulary learning is central to language acquisition
whether it is a second, or a foreign language". Vocabulary learning is a vital element for being
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International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World
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Volume 4 (2), October 2013; 175-­‐193 Nosratinia, M., Mohammadi Sarmadi, Z., & Shakeri, H EISSN: 2289-­‐2737 & ISSN: 2289-­‐3245 www.ijllalw.org able to communicate whether in first or foreign language. Vocabulary is basic to communication
and often seen as the greatest source of problems by second language learners. "When students
travel, they don’t carry grammar books, they carry dictionaries" (Krashen, cited in Lewis, 1993).
Vocabulary is what makes the essence of a language, without it speakers cannot convey meaning
and communicate with each other in a particular language (Laufer, 1986). Lexical problems
frequently interfere with communication; moreover, communication breaks down when people
do not use the right words (Allen, 1983). Moreover, McCarthy (1990, p. 12) points out, "no
matter how well the student learns grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are
mastered, without words to express a wide range of meanings, communication in an L2 just
cannot happen in any meaningful ways".
Vocabulary Retention
Wei (as cited in Jenpattarakul, 2012, p. 443) stated that nowadays long-term retention has
received wide attention as one of the greatest problems in learning new words. Quinn and Irvings
(1997) mentioned that the hardest way to learn the new words is to try to memorize a list of
unrelated words and their meanings. The students need not only learn a lot of words, but to
remember them.
Khabiri and Pakzad (2012) stated that as it is obvious in the domain of vocabulary learning, the
problem is not just in learning second language words; rather in remembering them. Bahrick
(1984) stated that how well people remember something depends on how deeply they process it.
Craik and Lockhart (1972), Craik and Tulving (1975) (cited in Nemati, 2009, p. 15) mentioned
that according to "Depth of Processing Hypothesis", the more cognitive energy a person exerts
when manipulating and thinking about a word, the more likely it is that they will be able to recall
and use it later. This hypothesis implies that it is not important how recently learners have learnt
something. What is of more importance in learning is, in fact, the depth of processing; in other
words, students must be taught on how to process information deeply. Such implications extend
to pedagogy as well, suggesting that exercise and learning strategies which involve a deeper
engagement with words should lead to higher retention compared to shallow activities. Rubin
(1987), O'Malley and Chamot (1990) (as cited in Marefat & Ahmadi Shirazi, 2003) stated that
"Language learning strategies are any set of actions, plans, tactics, thoughts or behaviors that the
learners employ to facilitate the comprehension, storage, retrieval, and use of information" (p.
47).
Retention Techniques in Vocabulary Notebooks as a Strategy
Out of different vocabulary retention techniques by which students use to store vocabularies in
long-term memory and recall or retrieve easily, some techniques such as following are examined:
1. Pronouncing the word correctly refers to figuring out the pronunciations of the new words and
speaking aloud and consistently.
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Volume 4 (2), October 2013; 175-­‐193 Nosratinia, M., Mohammadi Sarmadi, Z., & Shakeri, H EISSN: 2289-­‐2737 & ISSN: 2289-­‐3245 www.ijllalw.org 2. Using word study and context refers to remembering the new words or expressions from
collocation, word family or derivation, idiom usage, breaking down the new words, and context
where the words are located.
3. Making visual picture refers to either mental or actual picture of what has been heard or read.
For example, to remember "taciturn" which means speaking very little and unfriendly, the
students have to create the picture of their friends who have this characteristic, and whenever
they see this word, they will close their eyes and make a mental picture of those friends. Another
example is that when the students want to remember "pinnacle" which means the highest point,
they will close their eyes and think of the picture of the mountain especially its top.
4. Repeating and reviewing refer to rehearsing and practicing the learned words by saying,
listening, speaking and writing several times over spaced intervals until the students reach the
stage of automatic use (Lenier and Maker, 1984; Nemati, 2009; Oxford, 1990; Thornbury, 2008;
cited in Jenpattarakul, 2012, P. 445).
Impact of Context on Vocabulary Retention
Engelbar and Theuerkauf (1999) mentioned that various studies in previous years have shown
that explaining the meaning of words in context is a very good method for learning vocabulary
and this has been proven to be more successful than other methods, such as learning from lists.
Already in the early 1980s Doye (1980) points out, using the new word in a semantically typical
linguistic context is an excellent way for working out the meaning of a word.
Chern (cited in Walters, 2004, p.243) described four types of context cues available to readers:
sentence-bound cues, parallelism cues, forward cues and backward cues. Sentence-bound cues
are also labeled local cues, while the remaining three are labeled global cues. Parallelism cues
point to grammatical relationships and semantic similarity between words. Forward cues help in
understanding an unknown word in the following text, while backward cues aid understanding of
an unknown word in the preceding text.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. There is no significant difference between the effect of keeping a vocabulary notebook with
definitions and a vocabulary notebook with pictures on extrovert EFL learners' vocabulary
retention.
2. There is no significant difference between the effect of keeping a vocabulary notebook with
definitions and a vocabulary notebook with pictures on introvert EFL learners' vocabulary
retention.
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Participants
To fulfill the objective of this study, 120 female elementary EFL learners with the age range of
12-15 studying in Alvand Language School (Tehran, Iran) were selected. These participants were
non-randomly selected and homogenized through a KET which is suitable at elementary level
among 160 learners. The participants whose scores were one standard deviation above and one
standard deviation below the mean were selected.
They were divided into two experimental groups, each group contains 60 participants. (60
extroverts in one group and 60 introverts in the other one) and then into four classes (30 introvert
learners and vocabulary notebooks with definitions, 30 extrovert learners and vocabulary
notebooks with definitions, 30 introvert learners and vocabulary notebooks with pictures, 30
extrovert learners and vocabulary notebooks with pictures).
Before administrating the KET and vocabulary pre and post-tests, a group of 30 students with
almost similar characteristics to the target sample were used for the piloting of these tests.
Instrumentation
Proficiency Test of Key English Testing (KET)
The English language proficiency test used in this study was a sample of the Key English Test
(KET) adopted from KET practice tests by "Capel and Ireland" (2008), Oxford University Press.
The KET test covers two skills reading, writing. It also measured the subjects' vocabulary and
grammar level. It consisted of 55 questions in 9 parts and each question carried one mark. The
reading section (in parts 4 and 8) consisted of 12 questions including multiple choice and
completion. In part 5, there was a cloze test with 8 multiple choice questions. In the writing
section (in part 9), the participants were presented with some kind of information in terms of
postcard. They were supposed to write a paragraph of 23-35 words.
The KET Test was already piloted with 30 students of the same level and almost similar
characteristics to the subjects of the study. The reliability, item facility, and also choice
distribution of the test were checked.
Analysis of the results showed that ten malfunctioning items were found. After omitting these ten
items the KET has 55 items. The administration of the whole test took 1 hour. It should be
mentioned that the listening and speaking parts of KET was not administered because of not
having permission from institute officials to perform these parts.
Vocabulary Pretest
Prior to the instruction, a researcher-made test including 30 multiple-choice items was
administered. The test content is based on those vocabularies which are going to be taught during
the instruction. The purpose of pretest is to make sure that participants are not familiar with these
vocabularies. Furthermore, the result of the pretest was compared with the result of the post-test
at the end of the treatment.
181
International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World
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and after running item analysis no item was discarded. The reliability of the test was also
estimated.
Vocabulary Post-test
At the end of the treatment, with a 15-day interval a piloted researcher-made post-test (the
parallel form of pretest) was administered in order to investigate the students' retention of
vocabularies. It was similar not identical to the pretest. Like the pretest, the test included 30 fouroption items. The test was already piloted with a group having almost similar characteristics to
the target group and after running item analysis no item was discarded. The reliability of the test
was also estimated.
Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI)
The EPI is a questionnaire to assess the personality traits of a person. It was devised by the
German psychologists Hans Jürgen Eysenck and his wife Sybil B.G. Eysenck initially
conceptualized personality as two, biologically-based categories of temperament which include:
"Extroversion/Introversion" and "Neuroticism/Stability". This test consists of 57 Yes/No items
and is scored based on the EPI rating scale. Those who fill out the EPI receive three different
kinds of scores: the E score which is related to how much extrovert a person is, the N score
measuring the neuroticism, and the Lie score which tries to measure how socially desirable a
person has wanted to prove to be. The E score is computed out of 24 since it consists of 24items,
the N score is out of 24, and the Lie score is out of nine. The Yes/No answers should be given
based on the usual way of acting or thinking of an individual. This instrument is originally
written in English. To avoid any linguistic confusion and misunderstanding, the translated
Persian version of the questionnaire by "Seena Institute of Behavioral Sciences and Research"
was used in order to make sure of the participants' full comprehension. The answer key and the
standard rating scales were also provided in the battery.
Scale reliabilities are robust, and confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated good factor structure
(D’ Apollonia, Galley, & Simpson, 2001). In addition, the instrument shows reasonable
predictive validity to the actual course performance of students (Barker & Olsen, 1995, 2002;
Garcia & Pintrich, 1994). The test was piloted and its reliability was calculated by SPSS (0.81 on
Cronbach’s Alpha).
Let’s Go (5) Textbook
All of the subjects in this research study, received instruction based on "Let’s Go 5", by "Nakata,
Frazier, Hoskins, and Graham", Oxford publication (2008). This textbook is used in Alvand
Language School for elementary learners which contains 8 units and mainly focuses on
vocabulary, grammar, at an elementary level. This book has a pertinent CD to practice the
pronunciation and repeat the sentences and also a workbook. For the purpose of this study,
students dealt with all six units of this book.
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Longman Elementary Dictionary and Thesaurus (2010, Pearson Publications) was used by
"vocabulary notebooks with definitions" group. Students in this group had to form notebooks
with vocabulary definitions and use the definitions in meaningful contexts.
The dictionary was used as a source in discovering meanings of unfamiliar words, particularly for
determining the appropriate meaning of words that have multiple, or specific, technical
definitions. The dictionary also provides example sentences which is an important segment in
vocabulary presentation, because it increases information processing loads. It helps learners
effectively to elaborate relevant syntactic information, and thus the target words can be restored
in the long-term memory in more complete forms, which leads to a better access to them
(Obermeier, 2008).
Procedure
To accomplish the purpose of the study the following procedure was pursued:
To begin with, a group of 180 students took the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) from among
160 students (80 on extrovert side and 80 on introvert side) were selected as those who merited
more features on the extroversion and introversion.
Following the administration of the Eysenck Personality Inventory, the 160 students which were
selected took a sample KET as a proficiency test in order to enable the researcher to select
homogeneous participants in terms of their English proficiency level. The sample test had already
been piloted using 30 students with almost the same characteristics as the target sample before
the actual administration and Cronbach α was run in order to make sure that the test had
appropriate reliability and thus, was suitable for the target sample. After calculating item facility,
item discrimination, and choice distribution ten items were shown to be malfunctioning. Thus,
they were discarded from the test battery.
It should be mentioned that the listening and speaking parts of KET was not administered
because of not having permission from institute officials to perform these parts. After
administration of the KET, 120 students' scores fell between one standard deviation below and
above the mean, from among 60 introvert and 60 extrovert students were selected to compromise
the participants of the study.
The 120 subjects were divided into two groups: one extrovert (60 participants) and one introvert
(60 participants). Since 60 is too large a number for the students in one class, two classes of 30
and 30 for each group was used. This means that, each of these groups was divided into two
classes with 30 participants (totally 4 classes).One extrovert and one introvert classes were going
to implement the vocabulary notebook with definitions and the other extrovert and introvert
classes were going to implement vocabulary notebook with pictures.
Prior to the instruction, a researcher-made test including 30 multiple-choice items was
administered as pretest. The test content was based on those vocabularies which were going to be
taught during the instruction. All the participants were taught using the same material and they
183
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spanning over a period of six weeks. For the purpose of this study, students dealt with six units of
Let's Go (5).
It should be mentioned that Let's Go (5) consists of 8 units the 2 remainder units were not
considered in this study to allow a two-week time span between the instruction and
administrating the post-test. A six-week schedule for the implementation of the vocabulary
notebooks were drawn up, adapted from Schmitt and Schmitt (1995).Fifty words were
highlighted and singled out from six units which were presented to the students and to be
recorded in the notebooks, along with some aspect of the words knowledge.
The participants in both groups were taught how to organize a vocabulary notebook. As
mentioned before, 50 target words were chosen from the course book that was to be covered
during 12 sessions. For teaching these 50 words, the researcher followed the usual routines in
vocabulary teaching classes, which generally consisted of arranging words in a hierarchical order
from easy to difficult, writing the target words on the board, explaining the meaning of words,
and writing their parts of speech. This process is followed by making example sentences using
the words, sometimes by the students, and sometimes by the teacher.
After teaching the vocabularies in class and making sure about participants' understanding, for
homework the students were going to use their vocabulary notebooks. The participants of both
groups could also be enriched with some of other aspects of word knowledge, for example its
pronunciation, synonyms.
Vocabulary Notebooks with Definitions
Students were going to look the words up in a Longman Elementary Dictionary and thesaurus.
Students in this group were to make notebooks to write just vocabulary definitions and use them
in meaningful contexts.
The "Longman Elementary Dictionary and Thesaurus" is a source to discover meanings of
unfamiliar words and to provide example sentences as an important segment in vocabulary
presentation and increases information processing loads. It also helps learners to elaborate
relevant syntactic information, and thus the target words can be restored in the long-term memory
in more complete forms, which leads to a better access to them (Obermeier, 2008, p. 418).
Vocabulary Notebooks with Pictures
In case of the two other classes, the participants were to make the words' definitions visualized by
paintings or cutting pictures from different sources and glue them in their notebooks, (everything
except writing the exact definitions). As mentioned before, this study took place in elementary
levels in which most of the book contains concrete vocabularies, so using pictures is really an
interesting way to elicit meaning of unknown words (Blessman & Myszczak, 2001; Marzano,
2001).
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classroom activities. Each week, time set aside for students to share the information in their
notebooks with their classmates, and to test each other on the notebook words.
At the end of each week of treatment, the teacher collected the notebooks and checked if the
students added the assigned information such as, arranging pictures. The relevancy of pictures in
the other groups the information which was copied from dictionary and correctness and also
relevancy of the sentences as examples for each vocabulary were checked.
The notebooks would be returned to the students on the following session. Students were totally
aware that their notebooks would be graded as part of their final score. Two weeks after the end
of the instruction, a piloted researcher-made post-test consisted of 30 multiple-choice items based
on those 50 vocabularies presented during the instruction was administered to investigate the
participants' retention of vocabularies. The time allocated to this test was 15 minutes and range of
scores was from 15.
The data obtained from the post-test were analyzed in order to study the impact of two
independent variables (keeping notebooks with definitions and keeping notebooks with pictures)
and two moderator variables(extrovert and introvert) on the dependent variable (vocabulary
retention) of this study.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Tables 1 to 11 are presented to address and discuss the research questions, respectively.
Following the piloting of the KET on 30 subjects with almost similar characteristics to the target
group, the mean and standard deviation were calculated and were found out to be 25.23 and 9.71,
respectively. Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics of the KET in the pilot phase.
N
SCORE
Valid N (listwise)
30
30
Table 1: Descriptive Statistics of the KET Piloting
Minimum
Maximum
Mean
8
42
25.23
Std. Deviation
9.71
The reliability of the test scores gained in the KET piloting phase. The Kuder-Richardson 20
formula (K-R 20) was employed for this purpose and an acceptable reliability of .81 was
calculated. After deletion of the 10 malfunctioning items, the reliability of the test shifted to .88.
Descriptive Statistics of KET Administration
After the procedure of piloting the KET test, it became an instrument to homogenize the students
for this study. On the whole, 160 students participated in the test administration. After the
administration of the test, descriptive statistics were conducted just as was done in the piloting
phase. Table 2 shows these statistics with the mean of 22.26 and the standard deviation of 7.06.
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TOTAL
Valid N (listwise)
N
Minimum
Maximum
Mean
Std. Deviation
160
160
8
38
22.26
7.06
The reliability of the KET in this actual administration for homogenization of the subjects was
calculated too (Table 3). An index of .85 reassured the researchers of the reliability of this test.
Table 3: Reliability of the KET Administration
Cronbach's Alpha
N of Items
.85
45
Dividing the Learners into the Two Groups
From among the 160 students who took the test, 120 students’ scores fell between one standard
deviation below and above the mean, from among which 60 introvert and 60 extrovert students
were selected to compromise 120 participants of the study.
Checking the Normality
Four assumptions should be met before one decides to run parametric tests. The data should be
measured on an interval scale; the subjects should be independent that is to say none of them
participates in more than one group, the data should enjoy normality distributions and the groups
should have homogeneous variances (Field, 2009). The present data are measured on an interval
scale and none of the subjects participate in more than one group. The assumption of normality is
also met. As displayed in Table 4 the values of skewness and kurtosis are within the ranges of +/2.
Table 4: Normality Test
Groups
Extrovert Definition
Introvert Definition
Extrovert Picture
Introvert Picture
Pretest
Posttest
Pretest
Posttest
Pretest
Posttest
Pretest
Posttest
N
Mean
Variance Skewness
Statistic
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
Statistic
8.35
16.42
7.53
16.57
8.03
22.17
7.42
15.30
Statistic
7.416
8.277
6.947
6.530
10.154
10.829
10.208
13.907
Statistic
.506
-.878
-.350
-.999
-.214
-.910
.219
-.621
Kurtosis
Std. Error
.427
.427
.427
.427
.427
.427
.427
.427
Statistic
-.807
-.168
-.817
1.140
-.795
.489
-.845
-.149
Std. Error
.833
.833
.833
.833
.833
.833
.833
.833
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one-way ANOVA.
Vocabulary Pretest
Prior to the instruction, a researcher-made test including 30 multiple-choice items was
administered as pretest. The test content was based on those vocabularies which were going to be
taught during the instruction. The test was already piloted with a group having almost similar
characteristics to the target group and after running item analysis no item was discarded. Table 5
shows descriptive statistics of vocabulary pretest piloting.
Vocabulary Test
Pre-test
Table5: Descriptive Statistics of Vocabulary Pretest Piloting
Std.
Participants
N
Mean
Deviation
Minimum
30
30
6.66
8.606
1
Maximum
4
This study includes four groups; extrovert students and introvert students who keep vocabulary
note books with definitions and extrovert students and introvert students who keep vocabulary
note books with pictures. A one-way ANOVA is run to compare the four groups’ means on the
pretest of vocabulary in order to prove that they were homogenous in terms of the vocabulary
knowledge prior to the main study.
As displayed in Table 6 the results of the one-way ANOVA (F (3, 116) = .65, P = .58 > .05; ω2 =
.009 it represents a weak effect size) indicates no significant differences between the mean scores
of the four groups on the pretest of vocabulary. Based on these results it can be concluded that
the four groups were homogenous in terms of the vocabulary knowledge prior to the main study.
Table 6: One-Way ANOVA Pretest of Vocabulary by Groups
Sum of Squares
df
Mean Square
F
Sig.
Between Groups
17.117
3
5.706
.657
.580
Within Groups
1007.050
116
8.681
Total
1024.167
119
Table 7 displays the means of the four groups on the pretest of vocabulary.
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Table 7: Descriptive Statistics Pretest of Vocabulary by Groups
95% Confidence Interval
for Mean
Std.
Std.
Mean
Minimum
Lower
Upper
Deviation
Error
Bound
Bound
Maximum
Extrovert
Definition
30
8.35
2.723
.497
7.33
9.37
4
14
Introvert
Definition
30
7.53
2.636
.481
6.55
8.52
2
12
Extrovert
Picture
30
8.03
3.187
.582
6.84
9.22
2
13
Introvert
Picture
30
7.42
3.195
.583
6.22
8.61
2
13
Post-test of Vocabulary Retention
At the end of the treatment, with a 15-day interval a piloted researcher-made post-test (the
parallel form of pretest) was administered in order to investigate the students' retention of
vocabularies. It was similar not identical to the pretest. Like the pretest, the test included 30 fouroption items. Table 8 shows descriptive statistics of vocabulary post-test.
Vocabulary Test
Post-test
Table 8: Descriptive Statistics of Vocabulary Post-test Piloting
Std.
Participants
N
Mean
Deviation
Minimum
Maximum
30
30
30
6.73
8.433
3
A one-way ANOVA is run to compare the four groups' means on the post-test of vocabulary in
order to investigate the effects of personality types of extrovert and introvert and teaching
vocabulary through definitions and pictures on the retention of vocabulary items by Iranian EFL
learners.
As displayed in Table 9 the results of the one-way ANOVA (F (3, 116) = 28.94, P = .000 < .05;
ω2 = .41 it represents an almost strong effect size) indicates significant differences between the
mean scores of the four groups on the post-test of vocabulary.
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Sum of Squares
Df
Mean Square
F
Sig.
28.942
.000
Between Groups
858.356
3
286.119
Within Groups
1146.750
116
9.886
Total
2005.106
119
Table 10 displays the means of the four groups on the post-test of vocabulary.
Table 10: Descriptive Statistics Post-test of Vocabulary by Groups
Extrovert
Definition
Introvert
Definition
Extrovert
Picture
Introvert Picture
N
Mean
Std.
Deviation
Std.
Error
30
16.42
2.877
30
16.57
30
30
95% Confidence Interval
for Mean
Minimum Maximum
Lower
Bound
Upper
Bound
.525
15.34
17.49
10
20
2.555
.467
15.61
17.52
10
20
22.17
3.291
.601
20.94
23.40
14
27
15.30
3.729
.681
13.91
16.69
6
20
Although the F-value of 28.94 denotes significant differences between the means of the four
groups on the post-test of vocabulary retention the post-hoc Scheffe’s tests should be run to
compare the means two by two in order to probe the two research questions raised in this study.
Testing the Hypotheses
Based on the results displayed in Table10 it can be concluded that:
A: There is a significant difference between the effect of keeping a vocabulary note book with
definitions and a vocabulary notebook with pictures on extrovert EFL learners' vocabulary
retention (Mean Difference = -5.75; P = .000 < .05). The extrovert students keeping note books
with pictures (Mean = 22.17) outperformed the extrovert students keeping note books with
definitions (Mean = 16.42) on the posttest of vocabulary retention. Thus the first null-hypothesis
is rejected.
B: There is not any significant difference between the effect of keeping a vocabulary note book
with definitions and a vocabulary notebook with pictures on introvert EFL learners' vocabulary
retention (Mean Difference = 1.26; P = .49 > .05). Thus the second null-hypothesis is supported.
The mean scores for the introvert students keeping note books with definitions and pictures are
16.57 and 15.30 respectively.
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95% Confidence Interval
Mean
Std. Error
Difference (I-J)
Sig.
Introvert Definition
Extrovert
Extrovert Picture
Definition
Introvert Picture
Extrovert Picture
Introvert Definition
Introvert Picture
-.150
-5.750*
1.117
-5.600*
1.267
.812
.812
.812
.812
.812
.998
.000
.597
.000
.490
Lower Bound
-2.45
-8.05
-1.19
-7.90
-1.04
Upper Bound
2.15
-3.45
3.42
-3.30
3.57
Extrovert Picture
6.867*
.812
.000
4.56
9.17
(I) Groups
(J) Groups
Introvert Picture
*.The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.
DISCUSSION
Through the analysis of the data, it was found that the subjects in the four groups of the study
showed some vocabulary gains but it was revealed that the significant improvement occurred in
the vocabulary retention of the extrovert learners received vocabulary notebooks with pictures, in
comparison to extrovert using vocabulary notebooks with definitions and the two introvert groups
of learners.
Using pictures fixed the meaning of the words in the minds of learners, as Monroe (as cited in
Robinson, 2011) says, "When students create or use their own pictures, they participate actively
and process ideas themselves". She also acknowledges that drawing or using pictures are
effective tools for students to refer back to what they have previously learned.
These visual images also provide powerful cognitive prompts to vocabulary development as this
task engages both sides of the brain (Edyburn, 2010).
As Sams (2011) claims "It seems logical that this process of longer-term memory through
visualization worked because pupils were creating their own personal connection with the
vocabulary". Carter, Hardly and Hardly (as cited in Sams, 2011) reported that getting pupils to
visualize vocabulary before testing improved scores. Nation (2001) pointed that "This strategy
(using pictures) has two strengths; firstly, it provides a bi-directional link with the unknown word
since it aids recall of the meaning if given the word and vice versa, and secondly, it provides a
highly personalized and therefore memorable method of recall.
Sams (2011) has Pointed to the fact that "It is experienced drawing or applying pictures roots the
items in students' mind and one is more likely to be able to visualize and retain an image which
has been personally created". These visual images also provide powerful cognitive prompts to
vocabulary development as this task engages both sides of the brain (Edyburn, 2010).
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found that extrovert students with the desire to participate in group learning situations more are
not always those who can really outperform introverts. They also concluded that while the
personality traits of introvert students are not considered by the teacher, the innate competence
and ability of the students will be mostly hindered and they will not act as they can really do.
This is while they concluded that using a proper and convenient method by the teacher can help
the introvert students to stick to their real competence and try their best in learning situations.
CONCLUSION
The outcome of the post-test and pretest analysis clarified that keeping vocabulary notebooks
with pictures had a significant effect on extrovert EFL learners' vocabulary retention.
Since all learners were homogenized with respect to their English reading and writing proficiency
and then randomly assigned to the four groups prior to the treatment, the final significant
difference among the achievement post-test could be attributed to the difference in the types of
vocabulary strategy they used.
Also, the extrovert students keeping notebooks with pictures outperformed the extrovert students
keeping notebooks with definitions on the post-test of vocabulary retention. According to Ones,
Dilchert, Viswesraran, and Judge (2007), hundreds of the primary studies and many of the metaanalyses conducted since the mid-1980s have indicated high support for using personality
measures in staffing decision. Further, they maintained that personality conducts can predict and
explain attitudes, behavior, performance, and other outcomes in organizational settings.
Therefore, while personality characteristics affect performance in many fields, it seems logical to
claim that the teaching/learning profession is not an exception. They concluded that using a
proper and convenient method by the teacher can help the introvert students to stick to their real
competence and try their best in learning situations.
It is worth mentioning at the end, the rules and restrictions which exist in some language schools
in Iran did not allow the teacher –herself being a female– to have male learners in her classes as
well as female learners. Hence, the results of this research cannot be necessarily generalized to
male EFL learners. Furthermore, since the participants under study were young adults, the results
may not be generalized to older learners.
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