A CONTROVERSY IN PRESENTING NEW VOCABULARY IN AN EFL CLASS: SEMANTICALLY RELATED SETS (SR), SEMANTICALLY UNRELATED SETS (SU), THEMATICALLY RELATED SETS (TR)

The present study was designed to investigate if there is a significant difference among SR clustering, SU clustering and TR clustering of vocabulary presented to Turkish EFL learners, and if there is, which way of presentation would be a more useful tool in a Turkish EFL classroom. A total of 46 preparatory school students, studying at Anadolu University School of Foreign Languages, participated in this study. The participants were required to provide Turkish equivalents of the 15 new words presented in semantic, thematic or totally unrelated sets that they were encouraged to learn through word cards. The data gathered from 37 of these participants were analyzed. The results of the delayed tests revealed that semantically related sets (SR) significantly differed from unrelated and thematic sets, and helped the participants learn and recall more words, while the results of the immediate tests did not yield to a statistically significant difference. Keywords: Vocabulary presentation, semantic clustering, lexical sets, thematic clustering