Abstract

Vocabulary knowledge is very complex and learning vocabulary often requires the application of various vocabulary learning strategies (VLS). These strategies recommended by educationists and researchers are based on some theoretical principles and are considered as effective in varying degrees in different contexts. It is important to find out the comparative effectiveness of these strategies in case of the tertiary level students of Bangladesh who are not found to be very good at using VLSs. This study, thus, investigates the comparative effectiveness of three different strategies by randomly assigning 90 tertiary level students into three groups. These three groups received different treatments and were given tests to find out both the short term and long term retention rates of 16 vocabulary items. The findings show that both the short and long term retention rates were the highest when learners were taught vocabulary using the visual aids.