A Study on Repeating New Words: Korean Students' Learning and Attitudes

The purpose of this experimental study is to investigate the effects of repeating vocabulary exercises on learning and retaining the meaning, the form, and the use of L2 words. To achieve this purpose, the data from the 87 participants who performed the assigned vocabulary exercises were collected immediately and two weeks later on their learning and retention of the target words. In addition, their attitudes toward the given vocabulary exercises were examined. The results show that the participants repeating exercises showed significantly better results in the immediate posttest, whereas no significant differences were found in the delayed posttest. Consequently, although the repetition effect influence positively on the learning of the target words, these effects are not maintained if they are not reinforced subsequently after the initial introduction to them. Most of the participants in this study identified the importance of repetition in learning new words and also noted that only one encounter with words was not enough for them to acquire the words fully.