Effects of blank-filling exercises and scrambled sentence exercise on vocabulary learning and retention: a case study of grade 9 students at Srimuang Witthayakhan school

The purpose of the current study was to find out which type of vocabulary exercises: a blank-filling exercise and a scrambled sentence exercise, could lead to better vocabulary learning and retention for English as a foreign language learners. The participants were 40 Grade 9 students in the second semester of the academic year 2014. They were divided into two groups due to their normal class. Each group was exposed to the same reading passage, but practiced the ten target words under a different vocabulary exercise type for three times. The immediate posttest and one-week delayed posttest were employed to see the effectiveness of the two types of exercises on vocabulary learning and retention. An independent t-test was employed to find significant differences.
The findings of the current study revealed that a significant difference was detected in the immediate posttest at p<0.05. Although in the one-week delayed posttest, there was no significant difference at p<0.45, students doing three scrambled sentence exercises outscored the other group. Hence, it might be inferred that a scrambled sentence exercise required more word processing efforts.