The Effect of Collaborative Summary Writing on the Iranian EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Recall and Retention

The purpose of this study was to discover the effects of collaborative summary writing on vocabulary recall and retention of Iranian EFL learners. For this reason, 45 female students were selected from a university and were then homogenized by the Nelson Test. The participants were randomly divided into three experimental groups: Collaborative summary writing group (n = 15), individual writing group (n = 15) and control group (n = 15). Each writing group had one intensive session for target vocabulary learning. The collaborative summary writing group had three sessions at irregular time intervals. The control group had no vocabulary-focused education. Using before and after design, students were tested again after 5 weeks. To collect data, receptive vocabulary tests were conducted both pre-test and post-test. The results of the one-way ANOVA showed that the collaborative summary writing group significantly outperformed the individual writing group in both immediate and delayed post-tests. The results suggest that EFL practitioners need to incorporate collaborative summary writing into their curriculum, instruction, and teaching materials as a useful teaching method to facilitate vocabulary learning in real-world classroom settings.
Keywords: Collaborative summary writing, Individual writing, Vocabulary recall and retention, EFL Learners