On The Effects of Literal Translation, L1 Glosses and Context, Applied in Reading Comprehension, on Iranian EFL Learners Vocabulary Learning: The Case of Different Proficiencies

This paper aims at discovering and investigating the effect of l1 translation, l1 gloss andcontext on vocabulary learning on EFL Iranian learners. A total number of 120 EFL students inprivate English institutes in Sari participated in the present study. They were divided into twoproficiency groups and three learning conditions. In order to make a list of words unknown to thelearners the participants were given a list of 40 English words extracted from the passage andthey were asked to write their equivalents in l1. As a result of this examination 20 target wordswere selected to be worked on. The treatment session happened a week after the pretest.According to the results, there is relationship between effectiveness of method and proficiencylevel of the learners. Based on statistical calculations and our findings, contextual methods ofvocabulary learning is best appropriate for high proficiency learners and translation methods bestsuited low proficiency group.