Abstract

Effects of using mnemonic associations on vocabulary recall of Iranian EFL learners were investigated in two separate experiments with adolescents and adults. In each experiment, the students were divided into two groups of experimental (mnemonic) and control (rote). Using a number of predesigned (the researcher-designed) associations as models, the students of the mnemonic groups were trained to generate mnemonic associations of their own for the new vocabulary words they had chosen to learn. Then, their use of the initial (previously student-designed) and the new self-designed associations was assessed by giving four recall tasks. The students of the rote groups, on the other hand, were instructed to learn the words through memorization and repetition. The data analyzed revealed that using mnemonic associations led to significantly better performance of the adult students when comparison was made with an external control group (rote group) and better performance of both adult and adolescent groups when comparison was made with an internal control group (when students used no association in mnemonic group). Furthermore, the higher performance of mnemonic groups who frequently reported using initial associations revealed that these had a significant role at vocabulary recall of students. Finally, mnemonic method significantly affected the vocabulary recall of adult students for both receptive and productive learning.

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