SAJMR Spectrum: A Journal of Multidisciplinary Research Vol. 4 Issue 1, January 2015, ISSN 2278-0637, pp. pp. 249-263 (Special Issue on Basic and Applied Sciences) Pinnacle Research Journals 249 http://www.prj.co.in The Relationship between Learning Styles and Vocabulary Learning and Retention *Hekmat Allah Padidar, ** Ghasem Tayebi, ***Alireza Shakarami *English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Islamic Azad University of Yasuj, Iran **Corresponding Author, English Department, Islamic Azad University of Kazeroon, Kazeroon, Iran *** English Department, Islamic Azad University of Kazeroon, Kazeroon, Iran Abstract This study aims at exploring the relationship between students’ different learning styles and their degree of vocabulary retention. The participants of this research were a population of 110 High School Iranian EFL learners in Dehdasht divided into three groups namely visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners. In this study Oxford Placement Test (2007) and Davis’s Questionnaire (1997) were used to determine language proficiency and learning styles of the participants respectively. It has been tried to indicate which group of learners’ learning styles namely visual, auditory and kinesthetic learns and retains vocabularies more optimally in the traditional method of teaching vocabulary. The major findings of this study are as follows; at the outset of this study participants showed nearly similar performance on Oxford Placement Test as pretest, in immediate post-test respectively visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners exhibited superior presentation, finally in delayed post-test again visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners displayed better performance respectively. Accordingly, based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that there is strong relationship between learning styles and vocabulary learning and retention especially in visual learners. Keywords: Learning Styles, Vocabulary Learning, Visual Learners, Auditory Learners, Kinesthetic Learners Introduction It is truly believed that vocabulary is the building block of every language and it is of great importance to and a central part of language learning. Some scholars have even stressed that, no matter how skilled students are at grammar, communication will cease without the words to convey meaning (e.g., McCarthy, 1990). Milton (2009) comments that vocabulary is not an elective or insignificant component in the language acquisition process insomuch as ―words are the building blocks of language and without them there is no language‖ (p. 3). Without an extensive vocabulary and strategies for acquiring new vocabulary, learners often achieve less than their potential and may be discouraged from making use of language learning opportunities around them such as listening to the radio, listening to native speakers, using the language in different contexts, reading or watching television. Zhang (2009) concerning English, states that the effective learning of new lexical items seems to be one of the major aims for learners of English. Practitioners and investigators in the spheres of second-language teaching mainly believe that individual learner differences answer the question of why the prosperity of a second-language