The The Effectiveness of Memorization Techniques on the Development of Secondary School Students’ Reading Comprehension
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the usage of memorization techniques to enhance Thai EFL students’ reading comprehension. In conducting the study, the main research instrument was the pre-test and post-tests. The instrument was used to assess students’ reading comprehension before and after receiving the treatment which included different memorization techniques, namely using flashcards, chunking, and the alphabetical order technique. The participants consisted of 51 Thai EFL students of Grade 11 in the academic year 2022 from Phokiriratseuksa School, Pattani Province, Thailand. The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the post-test scores and the pre-test scores. In other words, the students’ reading comprehension improved significantly after employing the memorization techniques. This indicated that the students could memorize vocabulary which supported their reading comprehension. From the collected data, it reflected that the usage of memorization techniques had a positive effect on developing reading comprehension as participants could remember vocabulary in reading texts more effectively. Since the participants could memorize vocabulary, they were able to understand the texts and find the main ideas. Moreover, the additional section of the post-test found that the majority of the students preferred to use the alphabetical order technique, followed by using flashcards and chunking respectively. This study proved that the three memorization techniques were suitable for supporting students in learning and remembering vocabulary which could enhance their reading comprehension. These techniques could be included in lessons to promote students’ learning. The benefits of this research was that the teacher could be employed this research to develop students’ vocabulary learning which the teachers might instruct students in various different ways of applying the memorization techniques using flashcards, chunking, and the alphabetical order technique to learn and remember vocabulary from learning materials.
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