The study is based on some theories in psycholinguistics, such as Schema Theory by Rumelhart andAttention Theory by Schimdt. The research question of this study was specified as the following: for the learningof foreign language target words, which modes of word presentation – discourse mode, audio-visual mode, orword list, can produce better memory for word meaning in the immediate and delayed vocabulary retentiontests? The results showed the three modes of word presentation produce no different effects in the immediatevocabulary retention test, but learning words in both discourse mode and audio-visual mode was significantlysuperior to that in isolated word list in four-week delayed vocabulary retention test. Besides,The study revealsthat the two modes of word presentation, namely discourse mode and audio-visual mode have no significantlydifferent effects in both immediate and delayed vocabulary retention test.