iReasearch学术科研网

摘要：This study examines the effects of interactive versus simultaneous display of visual and verbal multimedia information on incidental vocabulary learning and reading comprehension of learners of English with lower proficiency levels. In the interactive display condition, learners were allowed to select the type of multimedia information whereas the simultaneous display condition presented the verbal (definitions) and visual (associated pictures) information in a single gloss. Eighty-two students were randomly assigned to the treatment conditions and were asked to read an annotated expository text. Reading comprehension was measured through a recall protocol and a multiple-choice test. Incidental vocabulary learning was measured through unannounced vocabulary tests of form recognition, meaning production, definition match, and bilingual synonym match. T-tests and ANOVA analyses indicated that the participants utilized glosses less frequently when they were given the control over access to the type of multimedia information. In addition, simultaneous display of multimedia information led to better performance on reading and vocabulary tests. The results are in line with the contiguity principle of Generative Theory of Multimedia Learning, which posits that presenting verbal and visual information simultaneously reduces cognitive load and results in better learning. The findings have implications for both the development of multimedia materials for L2 learners and training of learners to interact with multimedia materials. Adapted from the source document

摘要：The close relationship between children's vocabulary size and their later academic success has led researchers to explore how vocabulary development might be promoted during the early school years. We describe a study that explored the effectiveness of naturalistic classroom storytelling as an instrument for teaching new vocabulary to 6- to 9-year-old children. We examined whether learning was facilitated by encountering new words in single versus multiple story contexts, or by the provision of age-appropriate definitions of words as they were encountered. Results showed that encountering words in stories on three occasions led to significant gains in word knowledge in children of all ages and abilities, and that learning was further enhanced across the board when teachers elaborated on the new words' meanings by providing dictionary definitions. Our findings clarify how classroom storytelling activities can be a highly effective means of promoting vocabulary development.

摘要：This study investigates whether the integration of ICT in education can facilitate teaching and learning. An example of such integration is computer assisted language learning (CALL) of English technical vocabulary by undergraduate physics students in Rwanda. The study draws on theories of cognitive load and multimedia learning to explore learning in a one-computer classroom in an environment where textbooks and multiple computers are not available. Two groups of students attended a 4-week English-language technical vocabulary course (eight three-hour sessions) taught by two ESP trained science teachers. One group (n = 13) was taught using computer-mediated multimedia to present technical vocabulary on-screen. The other group (n = 19) received blackboard presentations employing traditional methods to help students internalize the same vocabulary. Post-test scores of the two groups were compared. The results show that the effect of multimedia on the recall of the concepts taught is large (Cohen's d 0.95). [Copyright The American University; published by Elsevier Ltd.]

摘要：Previous research investigating the effects of unassisted and assisted repeated reading has primarily focused on how each approach may contribute to improvement in reading comprehension and fluency. Incidental learning of the form and meaning of unknown or partially known words encountered through assisted and unassisted repeated reading has yet to be examined in an ecologically valid context. This study investigated the effects of assisted and unassisted repeated reading on incidental vocabulary learning with beginner readers over two seven-week periods. A total of 82 students who were 15-16 years old and studying English as a foreign language in Taiwan read or read and listened to 28 short texts several times. To measure the effects of each condition, a modified vocabulary-knowledge scale was used in a pretest and post-test design. The results indicated that both types of repeated reading contributed to vocabulary learning with assisted repeated reading leading to significantly greater vocabulary knowledge. The implications for the development of reading skills and vocabulary size are discussed in detail. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This new strand in the journal provides a space for contributors to present a personal stance either on future research needs or on the perceived current applications of research in the classroom. Like much of our current content, it echoes the historical uniqueness of this journal in terms of its rich and expert overview of recent research in the field of L2 teaching and learning. However, this new strand takes such research as its starting point and attempts to look forward, using these findings both to debate their application in the language learning classroom and also to suggest where research would be best directed in the future. Thus, the objective of both types of paper is eminently practical: contributors to the research agenda will present suggestions for what research might usefully be undertaken, given what is currently known or what is perceived to be necessary. In the research into practice papers there will be critical appraisal both of what research is, and is not, getting through to the language learning classroom, policy making, curriculum design, evaluation of teaching and/or assessment programmes, and practical suggestions made for improving such outcomes. This article is a personal view of the application of research on vocabulary to teaching and how there are three different types or categories of relationship between that research and the teaching to which it is applied: first, where the research is not applied or not applied well, second, where it is reasonably well applied, and third, where it is over-applied. For each of these three categories, I look at what I consider to be the most important areas of research and suggest why they fit into that category. The topics covered include planning vocabulary courses, distinguishing high frequency and low frequency words, extensive reading, the deliberate learning of vocabulary, academic vocabulary and vocabulary teaching. Adapted from the source document

摘要：Vocabulary knowledge is of fundamental importance to reading comprehension, and many students lack the vocabulary knowledge necessary to facilitate learning to read. A study was conducted to determine the effects of an individualized, online vocabulary program on picture vocabulary test scores. Elementary summer school students (N = 43), entering grades 2-4, who scored poorly on a vocabulary pretest were randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. Students in the treatment condition received computer-delivered vocabulary instruction on a stratified sample of 100 words selected from 4000 of the most common words in written English. Posttest scores on a picture vocabulary test showed that students in the treatment condition outperformed control students by more than one standard deviation. The computer-adaptive, individualized instruction provided by this vocabulary program addresses a need for efficiency in remediation of vocabulary deficits. Further study is planned to determine whether improved vocabulary performance mediated by this computer assisted language learning (CALL) program might transfer to broader measures of vocabulary knowledge or reading comprehension. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This study aims to investigate whether teaching vocabulary in immersion courses in two instructional contexts results in improvements in lexical acquisition. It was conducted with 11 students of law and 13 students of history who were enrolled in adjunct language courses linked to immersion courses at the University of Ottawa. Each week, for one university semester, the students completed a series of activities related to discipline vocabulary drawn from their readings or lectures. The participants' gains in target vocabulary knowledge were determined using pre-, post-, and delayed post-tests. The gains were compared for vocabulary items that were acquired incidentally and those that were explicitly taught. This study takes into account the specific characteristics of the vocabulary related to each discipline, how the vocabulary appears in the discipline course, and how it will have implications for the best pedagogical approach for the two language courses. Adapted from the source document

摘要：We investigated how long-term retention of new words was affected by task type, number of word occurrences in the teaching materials and the combination of the two factors. The tasks were: reading a text with occasional Focus on Form when learners used dictionaries (T+F), or reading a text with Focus on Forms, i.e. word focused exercises (T+Fs). The words occurred 2-3, 4-5, and 6-7 times. Consequently, there were six conditions that reflected the 2 * 3 'task * occurrence' combinations. Learners were exposed to 60 target words, 10 words in each condition during a 13-week course of study, and were subsequently tested on them by two unannounced tests: passive recall and passive recognition. An increase in word occurrence was found to have an effect on retention in T+Fs only. Starting with 4 occurrences, T+Fs fared better than T+F. Task type effect was superior to the effect of word occurrence in recall only (2 word exercises fared better than 6-7 occurrences in text). The value of word-focused practice was also confirmed by learners' responses to an introspective questionnaire. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright holder.]

摘要：The study reported in this article investigated the comparative effects of two types of treatment - one of which emphasized input and the other output - on the vocabulary acquisition of young EFL learners. In the input-based instruction, the students were not required to produce output whereas in the production-based instruction the students were required to produce output. Thirty-six Japanese children aged 6-8 were divided into three groups (input-based, production-based and control group), received six weeks instruction and took four types of vocabulary tests as a pre-, post- and delayed post-test. The findings provide further evidence that both input-based and production-based instruction lead to both receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge. In general, the results show similar levels of effects for input-based and production-based instruction on vocabulary acquisition. However, an examination of process features indicates that the input-based tasks provided opportunities for richer interaction for the learners than the production-based activities. This may explain the better performance of the input-based group on the task-based comprehension test and the same levels of achievement in the production tests despite relatively fewer opportunities for second language (L2) production. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright holder.]

摘要：Vocabulary researchers have established that multiple aspects of word knowledge need to be mastered in order for a learner to truly know a word. Teachers, however, seem to follow the commonsense view that equates learning words with learning meanings, and to mostly ignore other aspects of word knowledge. This study seeks to discover whether the same is true of textbooks. The vocabulary activities in nine General English textbooks at three proficiency levels were analysed and each activity's focus on one or more of nine aspects of vocabulary knowledge noted. The results show that a single aspect of vocabulary knowledge -- form and meaning -- receives by far the most attention in the textbooks at all three levels, while two other aspects -- grammatical functions and spoken form -- also receive attention. The other six aspects receive little or no attention. This study thus suggests that a more rounded view of vocabulary knowledge needs to be adopted by materials writers, and argues for an approach in which items are revisited regularly as different aspects of vocabulary knowledge are introduced. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright holder.]

摘要：In this study, the scripts of 288 television episodes were analyzed to determine the extent to which vocabulary reoccurs in related and unrelated television programs, and the potential for incidental vocabulary learning through watching one season (approximately 24 episodes) of television programs. The scripts consisted of 1,330,268 running words and had a total running time of 203 hours and 49 minutes with a mean running time of 42 minutes. The vocabulary from a single season of six individual television programs (142 episodes) was compared with six sets of random television programs (146 episodes). The results indicated that, when there are an equivalent number of running words, related television programs are likely to contain fewer word families than unrelated programs. The findings also indicated that word families from the 4,000-14,000 levels were more likely to reoccur in a complete season of a television program than in random television programs. The percentage of low-frequency word families encountered 10 or more times was higher, and the percentage of word families encountered once was fewer in all six programs than in the random television programs. Adapted from the source document

摘要：Learners of English as a second language (L2) face a debilitating lexical gap between the words they know and those they need to know, as even well-educated English language learners may know less than a quarter of their native counterparts' vocabulary. This article considers some key pedagogical questions in presenting several teaching applications from the current body of L2 vocabulary research. Adapted from the source document

摘要：Vocabulary is an essential element of every second/foreign language teaching and learning program. While the goal of language teaching programs is to focus on explicit vocabulary teaching to promote learning, "materials which provide visual and aural input such as movies may be conducive to incidental vocabulary learning." (Webb and Rodgers, 2009,, p. 412) The present study uses corpus-based techniques to investigate the extent to which watching discipline-related movies and TV shows in a second/foreign language may facilitate incidental learning of technical vocabulary. A corpus of 130,000 words was compiled from movies/TV shows with legal content to track the frequency and vocabulary distribution of legal technical vocabulary items. The findings show that the majority of technical terms is encountered more than ten times in movies/shows, and that technical terms tend to co-occur together in particular segments of movies and episodes. The results suggest that the potential for incidental vocabulary learning through movies and TV shows with a legal content is high and that these media could also be used for teaching language patterns in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classroom with relevant focus. Hence, watching discipline specific TV shows and movies is beneficial for both incidental learning and explicit teaching. [Copyright Elsevier Ltd.]