The Effects of Rote and Contextualized Memorization on Iranian Intermediate Efl Learners’ Vocabulary Development

It is obvious that vocabulary lies in the center of language learning and communication. this issue shows that vocabulary has a vital role in mastering all the skills of a language. vocabulary learning strategies (vls) facilitate the process of learning lexical items. the present study investigated the role of two specific strategies in vocabulary learning, including rote memorization and contextualized among iranian intermediate efl learners. the design of the study was quasi-experimental, which consisted of two experimental groups and one control group. some sixty iranian intermediate female students were selected (twenty per group) based on random sampling. they were selected according to the results of the quick placement test (qpt). before the treatment, a pretest was administered. then, the participants were taught thirty vocabulary items in three sessions from the book named “barron’s 1100 essential words” in two different methods. the control group didn’t receive any of these strategies. afterwards, two posttests (immediate and delayed) were administered. the data were analyzed by spss software. it was revealed that the contextualized strategy group (mean=37.35) outperformed the rote (mean=35.90) and control (mean=25.75) groups. moreover the results of the t-test showed the superiority of the contextualized over rote memorization group. the results of this study can be helpful for both teachers and learners to apply this strategy in the process of teaching and learning vocabulary items. therefore, teachers can use and practice this strategy as one of the many ways of acquiring new vocabulary items. additionally, this strategy can help in the process of long-term retention on the part of the learners.