THE EFFECT OF READING VERSUS TRANSLATION TASKS ON IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS’ KNOWLEDGE OF LEXICON

The present study investigated the effect of reading versus translation tasks on Iranian EFL learners’ knowledge of lexicon. The main question this study tried to answer was whether there would be any difference between the means of the two participant groups in a vocabulary posttest if the groups were taught with two different teaching methods. To investigate the answer to the question, 60 B.A. translator trainees were selected from among a population of 100 through administering an Oxford Placement Test. Then, they were divided into two thirty-member groups, one the experimental and the other, the control group of the study. Then, a pretest of vocabulary was administered to the groups. During a 10-session treatment, the subjects in the experimental group received teaching vocabulary through reading tasks, while the subjects in the control group received teaching vocabulary through translation tasks. Then, the two groups participated in the posttest of vocabulary and the means of the two groups were compared via applying a T-test. Also, a one-way ANCOVA was applied to show a within-group comparison for both groups. The results indicated that the participants’ vocabulary knowledge in the experimental group increase more than the control group as a result of a different treatment.