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LEARNING VOCABULARY THROUGH READING, LISTENING, AND VIEWING

WHICH MODE OF INPUT IS MOST EFFECTIVE?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2019

Yanxue Feng Open the ORCID record for Yanxue Feng [Opens in a new window]  and
Stuart Webb
Yanxue Feng*
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario
Stuart Webb
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Yanxue (Michelle) Feng. E-mail: yfeng273@uwo.ca
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Abstract

This study used a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest design at one-week intervals to determine the extent to which written, audio, and audiovisual L2 input contributed to incidental vocabulary learning. Seventy-six university students learning EFL in China were randomly assigned to four groups. Each group was presented with the input from the same television documentary in different modes: reading the printed transcript, listening to the documentary, viewing the documentary, and a nontreatment control condition. Checklist and multiple-choice tests were designed to measure knowledge of target words. The results showed that L2 incidental vocabulary learning occurred through reading, listening, and viewing, and that the gain was retained in all modes of input one week after encountering the input. However, no significant differences were found between the three modes on the posttests indicating that each mode of input yielded similar amounts of vocabulary gain and retention. A significant relationship was found between prior vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary learning, but not between frequency of occurrence and vocabulary learning. The study provides further support for the use of L2 television programs for language learning.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 42 , Special Issue 3: Language Learning from Multimodal Input , July 2020 , pp. 499 - 523
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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Footnotes

The experiment in this article earned an Open Materials badge for transparent practices. The materials are available at www.iris-database.org/iris/app/home/detail?id=york%3a936661&ref=search.

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