Vocabulary Teaching in English as a Foreign Language in Turkey*

Abstract

Vocabulary has a crucial role in learning a language and using that language effectively. The purpose of enhancing vocabulary knowledge has attracted second or foreign language researchers’ interest from past to present and resulted in the developments of various vocabulary teaching methods, techniques and practices. This study aims to examine the studies conducted on vocabulary teaching in English as a foreign language and to identify the current tendency of English vocabulary teaching studies carried out in Turkey. The article studies published by Turkish researchers between 2013-2018 and directly related to the subject of this study have been selected with purposeful sampling and examined through meta-synthesis method. Every single study included in this meta-synthesis study has been reviewed through a content analysis method in terms of their purposes, research methodologies, samples, data collection tools, teaching practices and findings. Data gathered in this study have been presented in tables and figures with remarks on frequency. It has been found that the technologically supported vocabulary teaching studies has increased and enriched, vocabulary teaching in context is still of great importance, educational games protects its effectiveness on young learners for vocabulary teaching purposes and vocabulary learning strategies need to be taken into consideration in vocabulary studies.