The Impact of L1 Equivalents Versus Context on Vocabulary Recall of Pre-university EFL Students

This study was conducted to compare the impact of two vocabulary learning techniques, namely context learning and translation learning, on vocabulary recall of sixty pre-university Iranian learners of English as a foreign language. They were divided into two groups of high and low proficient. In regard to two vocabulary learning conditions, each group was divided into two subgroups of fifteen. The data were collected using two types of tests, translation and fill-in-the-blank. The result revealed that the students' proficiency affects their recall. It also revealed that low proficient learners did well when translation learning was followed by translation recall test. However, they could not transfer their vocabulary knowledge to a new context. In other words, they did not perform well enough when translation learning was followed by context recall test. The high proficient group, on the other hand, had a better performance on the context recall test.