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Elke Peters Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

This study explores the influence of task instruction and word relevance on word retention in vocabulary acquisition. The results suggest that comprehension questions highlighting new words and their relevance positively impact word retention. The study provides pedagogical implications for enlarging vocabulary size and improving form-meaning connections.

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Elke Peters Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

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  1. Elke PetersKatholieke Universiteit Leuven Word relevance and task instruction. Do they make a difference for word retention? TBLT 2005 LEUVEN

  2. Introduction • Aim • Design • Research questions • Results • Conclusion TBLT 2005

  3. Aim • Task instruction: Can we foster vocabulary acquisition by forewarning students of a vocabulary test? • Word relevance: Can we have students notice the lexical gap in their voc. knowledge by reading comprehension questions? • Text as opportunity for new vocabulary and cultural knowledge? TBLT 2005

  4. Design • Experimental design on computer • Task instruction • Forewarned or not forewarned of an upcoming vocabulary test • Incidental versus intentional vocabulary learning (Hulstijn 2001, 2003) • Single versus dual TBLT 2005

  5. Design • Word relevance: • Plus-relevant target words need to be consulted in the online dictionary in order to answer comprehension questions • Minus-relevant target words are not related to comprehension questions TBLT 2005

  6. TBLT 2005

  7. Materials • Text < Die Zeit • Online dictionary • Target words = pseudowords;  relevant • Quantitative data • 3 vocabulary tests (recall, recognition) • 3 test moments (short & longterm) • Qualitative data • Tracking technology • Retrospective questions • Think-aloud protocols TBLT 2005

  8. Research questions • Effect of task instruction on • Effect of word relevance on • Students' look-up behaviour • Students' word retention • recall (2 tests) versus recognition (1 test) • on the short and on the long term • Interaction task instruction - word relevance TBLT 2005

  9. Hypotheses • Task instruction • Forewarned of a vocabulary test • more intensive look-up behaviour • better word retention on the short term • better word retention on the long term TBLT 2005

  10. Hypotheses • Word relevance • Plus-relevant words will be looked up more frequently • Plus-relevant words will be retained better • on the short term • on the long term • Interaction: minus-relevant words TBLT 2005

  11. Procedure • 84 participants (upper-intermediate/advanced) • Reading task instruction • Reading text - looking up words - answering reading comprehension questions • Vocabulary tests • Retrospective questions • Vocabulary size test TBLT 2005

  12. Results: task instruction ancova-analyses (vocabulary size = covariate): no significant difference between group 1 and group 2 TBLT 2005

  13. Results: word relevance p < .0001 TBLT 2005

  14. Results: interaction plus-relevant * = p<.05 minus-relevant TBLT 2005

  15. Results: in summary • No effect of task instruction • Significant effect of word relevance • Plus-relevant > minus-relevant words • on look-up behaviour (p<.0001) • short-term word retention (p<.0001) • long-term word retention (p<.0001) • Interaction: • Dictionary use - minus-relevant target words TBLT 2005

  16. Discussion: task instruction • "It is not the presence or absence of a voc.test which determines word retention and processing"(Hulstijn, 2001: 275) • Comprehension questions  priority for meaning (VanPatten, 1990)  vocabulary • Not trained to read text with vocabulary learning aim  focus on content • Target words not visually enhanced TBLT 2005

  17. Discussion: word relevance • Comprehension questions highlight new, unknown words (FonF) • Noticing • Attention • Looked up • Repetition/frequency • More elaboratively engaged • Corroborates Hulstijn 1993 TBLT 2005

  18. Pedagogical implications • Enlarging vocabulary size • attention to individual lexical items • attention to form-meaning connections • comprehension questions  noticing • dictionary information for acquisition • easy access to dictionary • inferability of words • text = content + form TBLT 2005

  19. Conclusion • Dual task instruction does not foster vocabulary acquisition • Comprehension questions can foster vocabulary acquisition • Further research TBLT 2005

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