The Effect of memory games on enhancing students vocabulary learning

Abstract

Vocabulary is an element of language that should be studied at school/ university. This, in turn, can help students to realize its greater influence in communication. However, the teacher should adopt a helpful strategy that encourages them learn english easily. Importantly, the main purpose of this research work is to explore the effect of using memory games as a teaching strategy on enhancing students' vocabulary learning. The hypothesis was set as follows: students who are taught vocabulary through memory games technique would show a significantly higher improvement in their vocabulary learning than those who are taught vocabulary through the traditional method. In order to prove the hypothesis an experimental method was adopted. The participants were twenty eight first year LMD students of english at Larbi Ben M'Hidi university Oum-El-Bouaghi. They were divided in two groups, the control and the experimental groups. Students in both groups were pre-tested at the first meeting with the teacher through vocabulary matching task. Then, the control group received three vocabulary sessions using the ordinary method used by their teacher. However, the experimental group were taught three vocabulary lessons via the use of memory games in order to help students learn new vocabulary items in a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere. After that, the post-test was given to both groups; it was similar to the pre-test. The results showed that there was a considerable improvement comparing with the pre-test and the post-test, it was observed in the post-test that using memory games as a teaching strategy in learning vocabulary makes the students more motivated and intrested to acquire and memorize new vocabulary words. Therefore, it is suggested to include memory games as an effective strategy in teaching vocabulary.