The Effect of Training on Vocabulary Strategy Use: Explicit Teaching of Word Family, Word Network and Word Card Strategies

Abstract

This study measured the impact of explicit teaching of three lexical strategies on the extent to which these strategies were used when faced with unknown words. Seven elementary school teachers from different Innu communities implemented three vocabulary strategies (word family, word network and word card) for a period of three weeks. To assess the impact of strategy training, the students in the experimental (N = 39) and control groups (N = 15) performed tasks using the targeted strategies. There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups, with the experimental group using more efficiently the strategies taught. These results confirmed the positive impact that explicit teaching of vocabulary strategies and it describes the progress made by the students regarding strategic use.

Keywords

• vocabulary, strategy, teaching, French, applied linguistics

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