The Effect of the Graphic Organizer Strategy on University Students’ English Vocabulary Building

This study aimed at investigating the effect of the graphic organizer strategy on vocabulary building and vocabulary incremental growth of Jordanian university EFL students. One hundred and two students participated in the study which lasted for one academic semester of four months. Each student enrolled in one of two intact and equally-sized classes of a general English Language course. One of the classes was assigned to an experimental group, whose students were taught eight specific features of vocabulary items using the GO strategy. The eight features were the word’s spelling, pronunciation, part of speech, meaning in the first language, meaning in the foreign language, synonym, antonym and using it in an example sentence. The other class was assigned to a control group, whose students were taught the same vocabulary items using traditional instruction. A pre-test and a post-test were administered to all students whose responses were analyzed using adjusted means, standard errors and an ANCOVA. Results revealed that the experimental group students outperformed those students in the control group concerning their vocabulary building. To decide whether the GO strategy had an incremental growth in students’ vocabulary building, students of both groups sat for three separate evaluative tests. Students’ responses were analyzed using Microsoft Excel sheets and results showed that this strategy significantly improved students’ vocabulary growth over time.