enhancing english vocabulary retention through short stories in iranian efl learners: a focus on oral and written contexts

Nunan (1999) states that vocabulary learning requires a meaningful context and it doesn’t happen in isolation. one way to create such a context is through short stories. the present study investigated the effect of using short stories on language learners’ vocabulary retention. for this purpose, 60 intermediate language learners in three intact groups in ayandehsazan institute in kerman province were selected. the subjects answered a 100-item vocabulary familiarity judgment task based on the short story corpus available, and thereby 57 unfamiliar words were detected. during the 6-session treatment period, the first group (group a) were given the short stories in the form of copies. while reading the text in class the teacher defined and explained the new words through examples. the second group (group b) listened to the same short stories in class with the new words explained and exemplified after being played. the third group (group c) or the control group were taught the same new words through explanations and examples on the board with no short stories to further contextualize them. at the end of the treatment period, all subjects attended a vocabulary retention test including 20 recognition and 20 production items. the analysis of the results indicated that there wasn’t a statistically significant difference among the three groups in their scores on the recognition subtest, while groups a and b outperformed group c in vocabulary production. in addition, group b managed to outperform group a in vocabulary production, but the difference wasn’t statistically significant. the results of the study suggest more attention to short stories by language practitioners and those involved in materials preparation to enhance language learners’ vocabulary retention.