چکیده:
Vocabulary learning has received a grcat deal of attention throughout the years of pedagogy and research, but it is a language that still need continucd growth and developincent for both native
and nonnative speakers. This study is an Attempt to investigate:
1- The effect of prototypicality on vocabulary learning;
2- The effect of culture on prototype sclection;
3- The influence of transfer on prototype sclection;
4- The relationship between family resemblance and prototypieality.
In order to conduct the first phase of this research, 80 adult female Persian speaking learners of English as a foreign language were selected from among 180 students of Najafabad Azad
University, Khorasgan Azad University, and Hekmat Language Institute. Based on their performance on the Oxford Placement Test, the subjects were placed into two groups, namely, high and members of six categories of concrete objects and were asked to rearrange them according to the prototypicality order. They also did the same with their Persian equivalents, but the low group just received the persian lists of category members. Sixty subjects from both high and low groups were asked to list the attributes possessed by each item. To conduct the second phase, 30 pre-elementary subjects were sclected from jihad and Azmoon Language Institutes. A pretest was selected for them to be sure that they have not already been exposed to any of the words. Then they were taught 60 category members. Finally, a posttest was administered. The analyzed data by conducting t-tests suggested that there was no significant relationship between the learning of high and low prototypical category members. The results of the other three hypotheses analyzed by Pearson correlation, showed that: 1) Culture affects prototype selection, 2) Transfer influences on prototype selection, and 3) There was a relationship between family resemblance and prototypicality.