Crossword puzzles and the acquisition of university students’ vocabulary

Abstract

The research project entitled “CROSSWORD PUZZLES AND THE ACQUISITION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY” observes how the use of crossword puzzles can optimize the vocabulary development of the first level students of the Language Center at Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo. The population consisted of 60 students with A1 level. A field quasi-experimental research study was performed, due to two groups were involved in the implementation: experimental and control group. The research had a qualitative-quantitative approach, which leaded to analyze the problem, establish the relation between variables, generalize and normalize the results gathered from the sample as well as the studied groups. The instruments used for this research were a pre-test and a post-test to measure the effectiveness of the implementation of crossword puzzles in the acquisition of the English language vocabulary. For hypothesis acceptance, the T-test was applied. The results obtained demonstrated that the application of the crossword puzzles promotes the acquisition of English vocabulary. It was concluded that the students had a remarkable improvement in the acquisition of vocabulary after the implementation of the crossword puzzles.