The effect of explicit vocabulary instruction on foreign language learners’ vocabulary development : the case study of first year students of English at Setif University

Abstract EN

Explicit instruction is an important contributor in the development and consolidation of vocabulary knowledge.

One of the major tasks of English teachers is to enlarge the students’ vocabulary size; therefore, it is necessary for the teachers to explore what method should be focused on concerning vocabulary instruction.

This research work investigates the effect of explicit vocabulary instruction.

In order to examine this, the study proposed two questions (1) To what extent will explicit vocabulary instruction be successful in English language learning? (2) How can explicit instructional method be better exploited to meet students’ need? The participants of this study were two groups of first-year students learning English as foreign language at Ferhat Abbas University (Setif).

To attain such aim, we conducted an experimental study to confirm the hypothesis which states that if vocabulary is explicitly taught, then students will face less difficulty in expressing their ideas through diverse ways given that they acquire new vocabulary words.

The learners under investigation proved to have learnt most of the vocabulary items.