Erten & Tekin: Sematnic related vs unrelated teaching sets

This journal article discussed a study that was done on how vocabulary is learned. This particular study taught 4 different sets of English vocab (2 sets semantically related, the other 2 unreleated) to a group of 4th graders in Turkey. Although there is a common belief (especially among text book authors) that vocabulary is best learned through presenting them in semantically related sets, this belief is not backed up by research. In addition, this study found that the students actually learned the unreleated sets better and were able to complete the tests quicker. I was surpised by the findings of this article. I also thought that learning words in related groups would facilitate learning. However, the idea about cross association and how it can hinder the learning process makes absolute sense. I'm still not exactly sure about the difference between semantic and thematic sets, however.