Developing Spiral Vocabulary Teaching Model: A Communicative and Social Constructivist-Language Instruction Perspective

The aim of this research is to create a practical model for spiral vocabulary teaching through communicative and social-constructivist approach in order to improve learners’ vocabulary learning, and to deal with the problems related to vocabulary teaching. The research was carried out within the framework of a vocational English course involving third-grade students enrolled in a tourism and hotel management school. The specific spiral teaching model which lasted eight weeks and consisted of various communicative activities was originally developed and adapted to the course syllabus by the researcher. Furthermore, an achievement test focusing on vocabulary components outlined in the syllabus was developed. This test served as a pre-test for both the control and experimental groups. Subsequently, the instructional model was implemented for eight weeks with the experimental group, while the control group followed the conventional syllabus utilizing the coursebook. Following the intervention period, the achievement test was administered again to both groups as a post-test, and the results were subjected to statistical analysis for comparison. Additionally, after the implementation, a feedback form with open-ended questions was distributed to the students in the experimental group to gather their opinions and suggestions regarding the instructional model. Based on the results, it could be suggested that the specific spiral vocabulary teaching model developed for this research was efficient in teaching vocabulary items and that it could be adapted to the vocabulary teaching in teaching English as a foreign language.