In spite of many years of research, some questions about acquiring new words in the second language remain unanswered or answers remain controversial. That's because vocabulary knowledge is acquired in different ways. A review of literature gives us a clear picture of different methods and techniques for presenting language skills. This study was an attempt to investigate the effects of "peg word method" and "loci word method", on Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners' vocabulary retention and also the possible effects of gender on vocabulary learning regarding the employment of these techniques. A sample of 100 students, with the average ages of 15, took part in this study. They were both males and females. They were divided in to two groups. The numbers of males and females were the same for two groups. After conducting the research, the participants' scores were analysed running the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The results of the study indicated that both "loci word method" and "peg word method" had positive effects on Iranian EFL learner's vocabulary retention (p=0.001). It was also shown that peg word method had a stronger effect on vocabulary retention. Moreover, result showed that gender had no significant effect on Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners' vocabulary recognition.
