Techniques to improve the vocabulary of the students at the college level

The paper suggests effective techniques to improve the vocabulary of the students in English as a Second Language context based on an experimental study. The study was conducted in India (South Asia), in an Engineering college for freshmen in the age group of eighteen to nineteen years. The paper makes a comparison of two vocabulary teaching strategies and the results show that explicit vocabulary teaching is more effective than implicit vocabulary teaching. The experimental group also showed greater involvement as they enjoyed doing reading and vocabulary exercises than the control group that did only reading activities. The study makes an important contribution to the existing research as it recommends focused vocabulary teaching by suggesting various techniques for teaching vocabulary