International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 1 No. 15 [Special Issue – October 2011] 202 An Investigation into the Impact of Traditional vs. Blended Teaching on EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Acquisition: M-learning in Focus Said Khazaei, M.A. of TEFL Entrepreneurship Center University of Isfahan Hossein Vahid Dastjerdi Professor of Applied Linguistics University of Isfahan Abstract This study aimed to explore the application of SMS to the blended method of teaching L2 vocabulary. It was also aimed at investigating the impact of adding written cues to Iranian high-school juniors' L2 vocabulary learning. To these ends, after conducting Nelson English Language Test (i.e. Test 100 A), 60 out of 74 Iranian high-school juniors in two classes with pre-intermediate level of English language proficiency were selected. Then, they were divided into two equal groups in terms of number. The first group received the learning content in the traditional way (G1); while the second group received the learning content through the blended mode of teaching (G2), with and without written annotation. They were then evaluated on their recognition and recall of vocabulary items. The results showed that the participants who received treatment outperformed significantly the other group in L2 vocabulary learning. Moreover, the blended group performed in a better way than the other group in learning the annotated content. The results of the study also revealed that employing SMS as part of learning content can create a desirable condition to enhance the EFL learners' L2 vocabulary knowledge. Keywords: annotation, blended method, traditional method, vocabulary learning, SMS Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) 1. Background to the study The United Nations reported in 2010 that mobile subscribers surpassed five billion, indicating that 70 percent of the world population is affected. Based on this report, Informa Telecoms and Media (2011) predicted that by 2015, 15 trillion Short Message Service (SMS) texts will be sent annually. At the same time, new educational trend favors a technological outlook in the academics, and this has led to concentration on the use of mobile technology in the educational environment. The cell-phone does not merely combine all previous functions of communication, but its system of norms is less bound to large social environments such as the home, school, or the office (Benedek, 2007). It could be claimed therefore that the ascending application of wireless devices has paved the way for learning anytime and anywhere. Hence, mobile-learning (m-learning), especially instant messaging service, is expected to be used as a bridge between the formal and informal learning approaches (Wagner & Wilson, 2005). In fact, the growth or the existence of m-learning is directly tied to the growth of mobile technology (Caudill, 2007). On the other hand, since English as an international language affects the overall competition of different fields in a country and since to enhance the English proficiency of people is a critical issue in non-English countries (Chen & Hsu, 2008), presently the flexible ways of teaching English (i.e. teaching through mobile) seems to be an important issue in such countries. Learning English is influenced by many factors which directly or indirectly affect the learners’ acquisition. Among these, the learner himself or herself is the most direct and important (Xiong, 2010). According to Alavi and Leidner (2001), most of recent studies have traditionally drawn their bases and procedures from stimulus-response theory, which probed only the relationship between teaching method (stimulus) and learning outcome (response). The new approaches, however, combine human mind operation with a rich learning environment where the crucial features of technology such as text, music, etc. are juxtaposed. This brings up one of the central issues in teaching language via cell-phone which provides proper learning content to be displayed to the learners with a different psychological learning process. As a result, the question of what counts as proper learning materials to be represented to L2 learners involves a consideration of their different psychological characteristics. In this vein, by proposing Dual-Coding Theory (DCT), Mayer and Sims (1994) claim that the combination of the two modalities (pictorial or written) could culminate in the long-term learning of contents. As a result, using different manners of learning content delivery and spending a reasonable amount of time on several dimensions of what is involved in knowing a new vocabulary items such as spelling, meaning, and contexts of use in order to attain the well-established vocabulary learning, as Schmitt (2002) defines, seems indispensable.