چكيده
The present study was an investigation of the relationship between visual/auditory learning styles and short term vocabulary recall of EFL learners with a consideration of gender as a moderator variable; in other words, the present study intended to determine which group of language learners could recall vocabulary items more successfully. The participants of the study were eighty Iranian EFL learners studying in two language institutes. From among the participants who completed the learning style questionnaire, two groups of 20 elementary-level EFL learners were selected to investigate the relationship between their learning styles (visual or auditory) and vocabulary recall. There were 14 or 35% males and 26 or 65% females at the age range of 11-16 years. Four different instruments were used to collect the data in the present study: 1) Oxford placement test (2007) to determine EFL learnersʹ proficiency level, 2) learning style questionnaire (Chislet & Chapman, 2005) to determine the participantsʹ learning styles, 3) two sets of 10 vocabulary items (visual & auditory words) to teach the participating EFL learners, and 4) two tests of vocabulary recall (visual & auditory) to test the participantsʹ recall ability. The finding of t-test revealed that there was a significant difference between visual and auditory scores of the participants, and visual learning style was found to be more influential and successful in EFL vocabulary recall. Also, correlational analyses indicated that the learning styles of the participants were not related to their gender.
