The role of vocabulary notebooks in the retention and use of new words

Research has shown that tasks that involve learners in explicitly attending to words and their meanings lead to retention and accurate use. However less is known about the types of tasks that are most effective. This study of secondary learners of English used a pre-post design to investigate the students' knowledge of 50 words they had studied using two notebook templates, one that focused largely on definitions and another that engaged learners in creating personal knowledge links. It was hypothesized that words entered in the notebook templates would be better retained than control words that did not undergo any treatment. The study identified learning results but the expected differences were not found. It also investigated whether vocabulary that the learners selected themselves for study would be better retained than words selected by the teacher. Contrary to expectation, results showed an advantage for teacher-selected items. A final question was qualitative in nature and looked into students' and a teacher's perceptions of the materials and the learning process. Results showed that over half of the students found the activities relatively easy to use. Most of the students found both templates to be useful. Although a little more than half of the students reported that they did not enjoy using the templates, the teacher was favorable. The findings are discussed in relation to classroom practice and future research