Vocabulary has been regarded as one of the most important subskills for language learners to develop. However, the acquisition of an effective vocabulary depends on following the right strategies. Some ineffective strategies in vocabulary learning like focusing on individual words and memorizing them with bilingual word lists have mostly resulted in failure (Schmitt, 2000). A significant number of English as a foreign language(EFL) learners who still follow these strategies tend to make transfers from their first language and fail to get fluent in English in spite of their huge vocabularies (Hill, 1999). The problem was previously claimed to be a consequent of insufficient exposure to authentic language (Krashen, 1981), low acquisition of frequent multiword units in target lexicon and inadequate knowledge of vocabulary use. (Lewis, 1993; Nation, 2001).

Since the Lexical Approach (Lewis, 1993) came on to the stage, on the other hand, an alternative vocabulary teaching methodology has been adopted by all stakeholders of ELT industry. The theory suggests that language is ‘grammaticalized lexis rather than lexicalized grammar’. In other words, the meaning is conveyed through the multiword units of language like chunks, phrases and collocations, which correspond to individual wholes (Lewis, 1993; Schmitt, 2000). Therefore, language learners should be encouraged to engage with the activities that help them acquire these prefabricated multiword units of language (Lewis, 2000; Nation, 2001; Schmitt, 2004).

In the last two decades, the lexical contents of English course books have been designed in accordance with this theory (Schmitt, 2004). Furthermore, they have been supported with all kinds of multimedia. Together with the use of related multimedia, the Lexical Approach has made great contribution to EFL/ESL classes. On the other hand, course book based classes are believed to reach limited success and not to be enough for the acquisition of high-frequency multiword vocabulary items. That’s why, in EFL/ESL classes the curriculum still needs to be supplemented with extensive reading programs and graded readers (Krashen, 2004; Stanley, 2007)

To make a significant contribution to the field, this study aims to examine the impact of the integration of a multimedia enhanced phrase dictionary into an extensive reading program on A2 level undergraduates’ English vocabulary skills.

To achieve this the following questions have been asked:

1. Is there a significant difference between the control and experimental groups’ receptive vocabulary test scores?
2. Is there a significant difference between the control and experimental groups’ productive vocabulary test scores?
3. 3. What are the participants’ opinions about the treatment?

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