Retention of new words learned incidentally from reading: Word exposure frequency, L1 marginal glosses, and their combination

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 785-812 ◽  
Author(s):  
(Mark) Feng Teng

This article examines the influence of different reading conditions (i.e. reading only and reading with first language marginal glosses), number of word encounters (one, three, and seven) while reading, and combinations of these two variables on new word retention. This study considered a total of six possible combinations. Six groups of Chinese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) ( n = 240) were randomly selected and each assigned to a condition including 15 target lexical items. Each treatment session lasted for 5 weeks. One delayed test, containing four dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, was intended to measure learners’ retention of unknown words. The delayed test was administered 2 weeks after the experiment and was not disclosed to the learners in advance. The groups whose reading was accompanied by first-language (L1) marginal glosses scored significantly higher than the reading-only groups. The increased effectiveness of repeatedly encountering target lexical items was more pronounced in the reading experiment including L1 marginal glosses. The combination of L1 marginal glosses and seven encounters was found to be the most effective combination for lexical item retention. This study highlighted the effectiveness of repeatedly encountering target words and being provided with L1 marginal glosses to retain new words incidentally learned from reading. The conditions and relevant teaching implications are discussed in this study.

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Gema Alcaraz Mármol

<p>The present study deals with two types of L2 glosses, namely dynamic and traditional text-based glosses. The former were presented to students as a set of prompts designed to help learners identify the correct keyword, whereas the latter were introduced as traditional annotations containing L1 equivalents. A third control group was included in the study. Particularly, the focus is to compare the effects of these two types of glosses in Primary Education students of EFL. During the treatment session the dynamic glossing and the traditional glossing groups were presented three short texts with some unknown words. After the treatment, the three groups were tested in terms of both receptive and productive knowledge of the unknown words. Testing was carried out immediately and some weeks after the treatment. The results of immediate and delayed post tests revealed the superiority of the dynamic condition over traditional glossing and the control group as regards the two types of L2 vocabulary knowledge.</p>


2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Pellicer-Sánchez

Previous studies have shown that reading is an important source of incidental second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition. However, we still do not have a clear picture of what happens when readers encounter unknown words. Combining offline (vocabulary tests) and online (eye-tracking) measures, the incidental acquisition of vocabulary knowledge from reading and the online reading of unknown lexical items were examined. L2 English learners read a story containing unknown items while their eye movements were recorded. After eight exposures, L2 readers recognized the form and the meaning of 86% and 75% of the target nonwords, respectively, whereas they recalled the meaning of 55% of the nonwords. After three to four encounters, nonwords were read significantly faster, and by eight encounters they were read in a similar manner to previously known real words. Results also showed a positive relationship between new vocabulary learning outcomes and online reading, with longer reading times associated with higher vocabulary recall test scores. The study was also conducted with first language (L1) readers to provide baseline data for comparison. Results confirmed the L2 findings while also indicating an interesting L1-L2 distinction in the rate rather than in the ultimate outcome of the acquisition process.


Vocabulary learning is one of the problems in language learning skills. Tackling such problems is to provide useful and effective strategies for enhancing students’ VLSs. Therefore, this study aims to survey vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) utilized among English as a Foreign Language learners (EFL) in Baghlan University of Afghanistan, and to study the high and least frequently used VLSs that contributes to the learners’ vocabulary knowledge. This study utilizes a descriptive quantitative research method with 67 EFL learners who participated in the survey questionnaire adopted from Oxford (1990) taxonomy of VLS from different faculties of Baghlan University. The findings indicated that EFL learners preferably utilize VLSs at a medium level, and the highly used vocabulary learning strategies are the social strategies through which they ask the native speakers, teachers, and classmates for the meanings of new words in English language conversation. Determination, cognitive, and memory strategies are respectively followed by the learners. Whereas, metacognitive strategies are the least used strategies among EFL learners, the reason is that they only focus on the materials related to examination; explore anything about the new words for learning, and rarely think of their improvement in vocabulary learning.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Shiping Duan

Enhancement Techniques are conducive to incidental vocabulary learning. This study investigated the effects of two types of enhancement techniques-multiple-choice glosses (MC) and L1 single-gloss (SG) on L2 incidental learning of new words and retention of them. A total of 89 university learners of English as a Freign Language (EFL) were asked to read the same reading texts with the two types of glossing and no glossing. Vocabulary acquisition was measured with the vocabulary knowledge scale (VKS). The results indicated that there were obvious vocabulary gains for both MC and SG groups. MC glossing is more conducive to incidental vocabulary learning than SG glossing in both immediate and delayed vocabulary post test. What’s more, learners with larger vocabulary size demonstrated much more significant gains than those with small ones.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Sarunya Tarat

This study focuses on the relationship between morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge of English among Thai EFL university students. All participants are taking English language as their major field in the universities situated at the lower northern region of Thailand. The morphological awareness identification test was employed to identify the linkage between morphological awareness and vocabulary gain Thai EFL learners. The test was divided into 2 parts: self-checking and morpheme identification. Fifty English vocabularies in intermediate and upper-intermediate level were used in the test in which the participants were requested to check whether they have seen the vocabularies in the test and also asked to break those vocabularies into morphemic units. The results showed that the participants possessed an adequate level of morphological awareness to break words into morphemes correctly even though they were unknown words of the participants. Additionally, the findings also revealed that there is no significant difference between male and female in acquiring morphological awareness of English and gaining English vocabularies.


1980 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-103
Author(s):  
John D. Mcneil ◽  
Lisbeth Donant

The present study was an investigation of the transfer effect from training in three word recognition strategies. Results are based upon a test of ability to decode unknown words classified as graphophonic, structural, and contextual. Ninety second, third, and fourth grade children and an equal number of children in a non-instructional control group provided the data. Significant results are discussed in light of the effectiveness of the training in helping pupils decode new words and the specific rather than the general values of each strategy. The data support the efficacy of children learning multiple word recognition strategies for decoding purposes. The study does not, however, treat the relation of word recognition strategies to comprehension of text.


Author(s):  
Mai Samir El-Falaky

Second language learning requires more than memorizing rules and vocabulary detached from contexts. Language teachers have to encourage the exposure to real context to enable their students to ‘acquire' the language in the same way they acquire their first language. This could entail an unconscious induction called ‘analogy'. Analogy may enable language learners to create neologisms for the purpose of communicating. This could also enable them to obtain a better understanding of lexical items in context. This chapter highlights the benefits of direct exposure to neologisms in journalistic texts, which influences learners' morphological choice. Mass media in general and journalism in particular are thought to be a perfect means of learning any language in its natural context.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-142
Author(s):  
Werner Abraham

Abstract The main designs of modern theories of syntax assume a process of syntagmatic organization. However, research on first language acquisition leaves no doubt that the structured combination of single lexical items cannot begin until a critical mass of lexical items has been acquired such that the lexicon is structured hierarchically on the basis of hierarchical feature bundling. Independent of a decision between the main views about the design of a proto language (the grammarless “Holophrastic view”, Arbib & Bickerton 2010: 1, Bickerton 2014) or the ‘Compositional View’ as taken by Rizzi (2010), Carstairs-McCarthy (2010), and others. What seems to be the minimal offset for language is the existence of grammatical categories like verb and noun, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, functional categories as needed for the expression of all kinds of agreement between the distinct categories to form recursively structured complexes. I follow the different stages of complexification asking whether there is paradigmatic next to syntagmatic organization and what its added value is for the evolution of grammar. The conclusion will be that paradigmatics is an indismissible part of the organization of early language in that it structures the lexicon so as to make primary and secondary syntactic merge possible and, consequently, is also a prerequisite for movement. The guiding idea of this position is Roman Jakobson’s insistence on the twofold organization of language and grammar. The two organizational designs, syntagmatics and paradigmatics, are manifest within each module: in the phonetic, the morphological, the syntactic, the semantic, and the pragmatic form (consider Jakobson’s 1971a, b reiterated argument).


1981 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 227-245
Author(s):  
Caroline Schouten-Van Parreren

In the recent literature on the methodology of foreign language teaching there is a growing consensus that new words should be presented in texts and not in vocabularies. The theoretical background of this assumption is explained through Van Parreren's theory of trace systems in memory. In particular it is argued that a good retention of new words requires that the traces of meaningfully related words be connected in many diffe-rent ways. Words in texts are already so connected (whereas words in vo-cabularies etc. are not). Moreover it is also possible to treat words in texts in a number of different ways. Although it is thus generally acknowledged that presenting words in texts is preferable, little is known about the nature of the psychological processes of comprehending and retaining new words when presented in texts. In order to gain insight into these processes a qualitative investigation was carried out. Texts in different foreign languages were read by adult subjects. These texts contained several words unknown to them. These words were tested twice: after a short and after a longer interval. While recalling the meaning of the words the subjects had to think aloud. These recall protocols were qualitatively analysed with respect to a number of questions. It was concluded that presenting words in texts offer many possibilities to ''embed" words in meaningful memory systems. However some linguistic and psychological conditions (concerning the text and the treatment of the text by the subjects) have to be taken into ac-count. In particular attention has to be paid only to a part of the unknown words, i.e. to the words in linguistically favourable positions. As a fa-vourable psychological condition for comprehension and retention diversity of treatment of the target words by the subjects seems to be required.


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