The Chaining Method for Better Vocabulary Retention: Tunisian University Students as a Case Study

Abstract

A major current focus in vocabulary instruction has been on how to foster autonomous learning and provide learners with techniques to deal with vocabulary retention. In view of this idea, numerous studies have been interested in investigating the effect of teaching such mnemonic strategies on learners’ ability to retain new items. Thus, this paper intends to focus on the concept of the narrative chain method as a memory vocabulary learning strategy that helps EFL learners to remember new vocabulary. It, therefore, aims at shedding light on the importance of learners’ active role in practising the method, creating and imagining the storyline, and reflecting on it at the end of the process. To reach this purpose, fifty first-year Tunisian EFL university students were randomly selected to complete memory vocabulary strategy training. An evaluation checklist was then held to gain more information about their attitudes toward the technique’s efficiency. Qualitative results have provided positive feedback concerning the narrative chain method treatment. The findings of the current study have led to crucial contributions to vocabulary teaching practices that should display the close connection between the active vocabulary learning/retention process and long-term memory in the Tunisian context.