Mohammad Reza Shamsaddini

Vocabulary learning is one of the most important aspects of second language learning. One controversial way of teaching vocabulary is using authentic materials. The current study focused on teaching vocabulary using authentic materials and its influence on learners’ vocabulary achievement. To this end, a population of 80 female Iranian EFL learners aged 17 to 20 from an institute in Bushehr were selected. All of them received Oxford Proficiency Test (OPT). Following the administration of OPT, those whose scores ranged between 105 and 119 (elementary level) were chosen for the purpose of the study. After the OPT only 66 participants were left for both experimental and control groups. Both groups received a pretest at the first session. After that the participants attended the English classes 3 times a week for a month. Every session took one hour. The control group received new vocabularies through their textbook (English Result) in each session and the experimental group received the same vocabularies through The New Straits Time online paper in each session. The students were asked to read and talked about the topics. After a month post-tests were run among all of the participants in both control and experimental groups. The analysis of data showed that the vocabulary knowledge of the participants developed in both groups but the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group.