A comparison of the effectiveness of vocabulary strategies in the acquisistion of vocabulary by low-ability secondary students : context versus direct

Abstract

This study examined the effectiveness of the context and the direct vocabulary strategies in the acquisition of vocabulary by secondary students. Forty-eight low-ability tenth grade and eleventh grade students were divided into either the direct or context treatment group. One hundred sixty words were presented over a period of sixteen weeks using either the direct or the context vocabulary strategy. A pretest and a post test of fifty randomly selected words from the one hundred sixty words taught were administered to determine any gains in vocabulary acquisition by the students in the two treatment groups. A multivariate analysis of covariance indicated that there was no significant difference in the two different vocabulary strategies of context and direct in the acquisition of vocabulary by low-ability secondary students.