Few of the language instructors pay attention to direct vocabulary instruction, and they do not conduct post-reading activities given that they think students will learn words incidentally in the reading contexts. This study used six storybooks to assess the effects of three types of post-reading word instruction on word recognition skills: word instruction in context, word instruction in isolation, and repeated reading, which was served as the controlled condition. Participants of the study were three intact classes of sixth graders at an elementary school in Taipei City. A counterbalanced treatment, post-test-only design was used. Results of the study indicated that word instruction in context promoted written and spoken word recognition skills beyond word instruction in isolation and repeated reading. In addition, for both of the higher- and lower-proficiency students, those receiving word instruction in context performed significantly better than those who received word instruction in isolation as well as those receiving no word instruction but read the stories repeatedly. These findings have important implications for the use of post-reading activities for promoting EFL sixth graders5 word recognition skills.