The Effect of Brain-based Techniques on Vocational Vocabulary Acquisition A Case Study on Technical Diploma Students

The present study explored the impact of a brain-based technique namely; semantic mapping techniques on technical diploma students' learning of vocational vocabulary in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes.Forty-two male students, in total, were equally and randomly assigned to a control group who received traditional vocabulary teaching strategies and an experimental group whose teaching included semantic mapping techniques (i.e., concept categories map, definition-description-example map, and fishbone map).Both groups took an English placement test to assure the similarity of their proficiency levels and a pretest at the start of the intervention to assess their baseline vocabulary knowledge.This procedure was repeated as a post-test, at the end of the learning period to assess the impact of the mapping techniques.The results indicated that both groups had significantly improved their vocabulary of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at posttest, but the improvement was greater for the students whose learning incorporated the semantic mapping techniques.An adopted five-point Likert scale questionnaire (by Hamdan & Alharbi, 2017) was also used to examine the experimental group learners' attitudes toward semantic mapping techniques and were found to be generally positive, particularly concerning the use of conceptual category maps.Some questionnaire statements were found to contribute positively to the learners' vocational vocabulary knowledge.The results are discussed in light of related literature and some recommendations are suggested for further studies.