Effects of Using Vocabulary Quizzes on Vocabulary Memorization and Retention of First Year Students at the Faculty of International Studies, Prince of Songkla University, Phuket
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Abstract
This study investigated the effectiveness of vocabulary quizzes on vocabulary memori zation and retention. Vocabulary memorization and retention were measured using a pre test, a post-test and a delayed post-test.
The subjects were 22 first year students at the Faculty of International Studies, Prince of Songkla University, Phuket Campus. The students attended an English for Reading course with the target vocabulary for 20 lessons. In each lesson, students studied the target vocabulary by themselves and in class, the teacher checked if students memorized the correct meanings and checked if they could answer vocabulary exercises in the course textbook before having them take vocabulary quizzes after every lesson.
A pre-test was given at the beginning of the semester and a post-test was administered during the last period to examine whether students could memorize vocabulary. A delayed post-test was administered 28 days after the last lesson to investigate if vocabulary could be retained in the long term memory. Differences between the results of the pre-test and the post-test and those of the post-test and the delayed post-test were measured using mean differences and a T-test.
The results derived from the mean score of the pre-test and the post-test were significantly different at 0.000 (p<.05), and the post-test and the delayed post-test showed no statistically significant differences at 0.025 (p<.05). This indicated that using vocabulary quizzes could help students memorize vocabulary but could not lead to effective vocabulary retention.
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