comparative study of using techniques of keywords and traditional repetition in learning vocabulary

One of the major problems the efl learners in iran face is developing their vocabulary and one of the instructions for learning vocabulary is simple repetition. furthermore, the other teaching strategy for improving vocabulary is using keywords. this quasi-experimental study endeavored to find the effect of two teaching strategies of repetition and key words on vocabulary learning among iranian efl learners. in the pursuit of the purpose of this study, at the beginning of the term, 120 efl learners were selected randomly from one of the high schools of miyaneh, iran. oxford placement test was applied to homogenize the participants. as a result, 80 efl learners were selected out of 120. the participants were then given vocabulary pretest in the form of vks. after that, there were three groups; one control group and two experimental groups that were exposed to the key words and repetition. the results of anova indicated that the learners in the key words group outperformed repetition and control groups. the study has implications for efl learners and teachers in using key words as a pedagogical tool in vocabulary learning courses.