Applying TRIZ-Based Pedagogical Strategies to Enhance Vocabulary Acquisition in ESL Classrooms: A Conceptual Framework and Instructional Design

Abstract

Vocabulary remains the strongest single constraint on second language communication, yet mainstream ESL vocabulary instruction continues to rely on list-based memorisation that separates words from the communicative problems they exist to solve. This article proposes a systematic alternative by adapting TRIZ, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving developed in engineering, to tertiary ESL vocabulary pedagogy. Drawing on the structural parallels between inventive problem solving and strategic language use, the article develops a conceptual framework in which communication difficulties are reframed as contradictions between competing speaker goals, and vocabulary items are recast as functional tools selected to resolve those contradictions. Four TRIZ constructs are translated for the language classroom: contradiction analysis, the inventive principles, function analysis, and the multi-function component. These are operationalised in a five-step instructional cycle and demonstrated through a complete instructional design, a tertiary unit on first impressions in which personality adjectives are taught as functional components, collocations as stable assemblies, conversational phrases as feedback signals, and the polysemous word like as a multi-function module. The framework is grounded in vocabulary acquisition research, including the involvement load hypothesis and research on formulaic language, and its cognitive plausibility is examined against load and retrieval accounts of learning. A quasi-experimental evaluation protocol combining vocabulary pre-tests and post-tests, learner journals, and interviews is specified for implementation in Malaysian tertiary classrooms. The article contributes an interdisciplinary bridge between systematic innovation and language education and provides a replicable template for TRIZ-based unit design in ESL contexts.