EFFECTS OF TOPIC FAMILIARITY ON VOCABULARY AMONG BILINGUALS AND MONOLINGUALS

This study investigated the role of topic familiarity in developing vocabulary retention and recall through incidental teaching of vocabulary among intermediate bilinguals (i.e., Arabic / Farsi) and monolinguals (i.e., Farsi). Sixty homogenous students (i.e., 30 bilinguals and 30 monolinguals) were randomly selected and divided into two groups. They participated in six weeks of teaching vocabulary while both groups received the same instruction and materials. Two types of topics (i.e., familiar vs. unfamiliar) were adopted among the pool of topics and the participants were taught the intended vocabularies during the research period. Data analysis was administered through Independent Samples t-test. The results showed the difference between the two groups was significant (p<.05). In other words, the group who dealt with familiar topics outperformed the group who worked on unfamiliar topics concerned with vocabulary achievement post-test. The results also indicated that bilinguals outperformed monolinguals in vocabulary learning.