The Role of Using Crossword puzzles as Teaching Strategy to Enhance Students’ Vocabulary

Abstract

The aim behind this present research is to investigate the role of using crosswords as teaching strategy to increase students’ familiarity of new vocabulary items .As first step one main hypothesis is put, if the students learn vocabulary through the use of crosswords, their level will be increase. It is believed that vocabulary is something that can be achieved through practice. The research is qualitative. This research contains two parts the theoretical part and the field work We introduce the subject with vocabulary acquisition; the definition, importance and the main steps and strategies of teaching vocabulary, then we talk about the important concern of this study which is crossword puzzles; we talk about the definition, the history, terminology and also the different types of clues and crosswords, and also the educational value of crosswords. And finally to achieve our aim we relied on two means of research; the teachers’ questionnaire and students test .First, the teachers questionnaire was to gather data about the different techniques which the teacher use to teach new words in their lessons. Second, the test was divided into pre-test and post-test; in the pre-test the students were supposed to fill in the crosswords with the appropriate word and the theme was” stages of life”, and in the post-test the students were asked to write a paragraph about these theme,. The results show that the students have nearly learn the majority of the unfamiliar vocabulary items which they have dealt with in the pre-test in terms of spelling and meaning ;so crosswords should be incorporated in teaching.