Collaborative Learning and Iranian EFL learners’ Vocabulary Improvement through Snowball and Word-Webbing Techniques

Abstract

The present study was an attempt to look into the effect of collaborative learning on the learners’ improvement in vocabulary learning. Moreover, the learners’ attitudes about vocabulary learning were taken into account as well. The study was conducted with the participation of 30 intermediate Iranian EFL (English as a foreign language) learners, who were studying in a private language institute. To collect the data, OPT (Oxford Placement Test) was applied to check the learners’ proficiency level and meet the homogeneity requirements. Then, the learners took the vocabulary pre- and post-test to check the effectiveness of treatment sessions on the learners’ vocabulary learning. Semi-structured interview was also done to investigate the learners’ awareness regarding learning vocabularies before and after the treatment sessions. Findings showed that the applied collaborative techniques, i.e. word-webbing and snowball techniques paved the way for the experimental group to outperform the control group since improvement in vocabulary learning was found to be significant. Moreover, Qualitative results revealed the occurrence of positive changes in the learners’ attitudes about vocabulary learning since almost all the learners concurred that the above-mentioned collaborative techniques assisted them in their better speaking and, by having more interaction through group work, enjoyable environment was created for learning target vocabularies. It was suggested that collaborative instruction should be implemented in teaching vocabulary as it can pave the way for both teachers and learners to benefit from a communicative language classroom.

Keywords

• Collaborative Learning
• Word-Webbing Technique
• Snowball Technique
• Learners’ Attitudes
• Vocabulary Learning