Effect of Phonetic Association on Learning Vocabulary in Foreign Language

Abstract

Word is one of the most important components of a natural language. Speech is meaningful because of the meanings of words. Vocabulary acquired in one’s mother tongue is learned consciously in a foreign language in non-native settings. Learning vocabulary in a system based on grammar is generally neglected or learned in conventional ways. This study is to determine the efficiency of teaching vocabulary from learning speed and retention perspective through means of phonetic association, whose examples are seldom seen in educational institutions. The study’s sample consists of Turkish 5th graders at three junior high school who have just begun to learn English. Sixty-six students, 37 girls and 29 boys from three socio-economically normal state schools. Thirty three students formed the experimental group while the other 33 students constituted the control group in the empirical study. “A phonetic association vocabulary test” consisting of 25 English words, mostly verbs and nouns, was designed. This test containing English words, their pronunciation and homophonous Turkish words was administered to the experimental group, knowing that vocabulary is taught by means of phonetic association. The control group was unaware of the method, and received the conventional teaching method. The control group was given a test containing only English words. The data obtained were decrypted by descriptive and content analysis. The study’s results revealed that words were learned faster and learning was retentive by the phonetic association method. In particular, recall of the words learned differentiates this method from conventional vocabulary learning methods.