The effects of repetition & generation on Korean EFL adult Learners’ vocabulary learning

The study investigated the effects of two kinds of repetitions (retrieval and generation) on Korean adult learners’ vocabulary acquisition. Twenty-eight adult learners in college of lifelong education in Korea were divided into two experimental groups, and further grouped into intermediate and beginner proficiency levels. Both groups listened to the target expressions (Korean and English) before on-line instructions, where they practiced English production of Korean translation. Then the retrieval group was exposed to the same kind of mechanical repetition while the generation group, to the creative use of the expressions in conversation. The ANCOVA statistics showed no significant differences between the two groups in the post-test, but the paired-samples t-tests indicate that the intermediate levels improved between pre-test and post-test more than the beginner levels in Generation (Creative use). The theoretic and pedagogical discussions were made in the conclusion.