L2 learners' look-up behaviour
during a reading task and word retention afterwards
1) not forewarned of an upcoming vocabulary test
or 2) forewarned of a vocabulary test (intentional condition)
Our findings show a significant effect of Test Announcement and Word Relevance on whether a target word is looked up.
Word retention is only influenced by Task-induced Word Relevance.
* How can they know when and if students look up words?
- post by mabelquiroga
* Of course!!! - post by mabelquiroga
manipulate students' online look-up behaviour
effects would be on short-term and long-term word retention
* At this point in the reading I'm not sure how they link forwarning of test and look up behavior. What I mean is, forwarning behavior operates not only in call contexts.
- post by mabelquiroga
L21 learners need to notice language features in order to acquire them
Retention of new words is further determined by the way in which these words are processed, whereby deeper and more elaborate processing results in better word retention
The construct of task-induced involvement consists of one motivational and two cognitive components: Need, Search, and Evaluation
Evaluation "entails a comparison of a given word with other words, a specific meaning of a word with its other meanings"
many studies have shown the beneficial effects of dictionary use
marginal glosses
dictionary on incidental vocabulary acquisition with advanced L2 learners.
16 target words
retention scores were higher in the marginal glosses group than in the dictionary and control group.
the effect of dictionary use on word retention in an incidental vocabulary learning condition
electronic dictionary has a positive effect on incidental vocabulary learning
a good alternative to a paper dictionary
the effects of multimedia annotations on word retention are not clear-cut.
"text and video" proved to be most effective for vocabulary acquisition.
log files,
opportunity to either consult a L2 synonym or defion, or a L1 translation.
Electronic dictionaries, especially, are said to induce shallow processing of the dictionary information
* Why is this so? - post by mabelquiroga
Students were inclined to click more often on words in a text when visible hyperlinks were provided, but this more frequent clicking did not result in better text comprehension nor in better word retention.
Students who had to attend to vocabulary looked up more words. However, this did not affect word retention, but it did influence text comprehension in a negative way.
* Well, this is quite a warning!!
- post by mabelquiroga
1) forewarned of a vocabulary test, 2) forewarned of a comprehension test, 3) forewarned of both a vocabulary and a comprehension test, and 4) not forewarned of any test.
Peters found that Test Announcement affected neither word retention nor text comprehension.
The findings showed that L2 learners looked up more words when these words were deemed relevant for task completion than when these words were not considered relevant.
* Well, it makes sense. People will try to sort obstacles. - post by mabelquiroga
no study has investigated the effect of Word Relevance on word retention.
* But I think it can be empirically claimed - post by mabelquiroga
* I don't think this might work as a long term strategy for vocabulary acquisition. - post by mabelquiroga
students who are forewarned of a vocabulary test will look up more words than students who are not forewarned
* Do students remember words after having looked them up in an online dictionary during a reading comprehension task?
* Is there a relationship between students' frequency of lookups and word retention?
* I hypothesize that look up only does not guarantee retention - post by mabelquiroga
dictionary consultation will affect word retention in a positive way.
he higher the frequency of lookups,
Time consisted of three levels: immediate word retention, word retention after one week, and word retention after two weeks.
The 16 target words, split up in eight plus-relevant and eight minus-relevant words, were all replaced by pseudowords in order to ensure that no student knew the target words
* So what were they looking up? - post by mabelquiroga
When students did not look up a plus-relevant word for answering the accompanying reading comprehension question
We developed a test containing 50 multiple choice items presented in isolation. For every test item, we provided four options: the correct solution and three distractors.
* From words in context to words in isolation. If I understood correctly everybody was given the same text. What changed were the tasks and warnings. - post by mabelquiroga
Vocabulary retention was measured in four receptive vocabulary tests (Figure 3) in order to capture partial vocabulary retention because after one exposure
We administered first a recognition5 test, two recall tests, and finally a second recognition test. If a word was noticed and/or looked up, students would probably remember having seen that word in the text.
we developed a recognition test, which offered a list of 40 word forms, each accompanied by the question whether the word had appeared in the text or not. This test was labelled "lexical noticing test"
first recall test, we offered the target words in isolation; students were required to supply their meaning by writing a L1 translation or L2 synonym
n the second recall test, the target words were offered in the sentences as they had occurred in the text (ContTest). Finally, the fourth test was a matching test, in which students had to tick off the correct meaning of the target words (
elicit students' strategy use and how they had processed the dictionary information.
Before starting with the experiment, participants were shown how to use the online dictionary, but they were not told that their look-up behaviour would be registered.
Consequently, they clicked more readily on a word to find out its meaning.
* Yes, but how can more readily be measured. - post by mabelquiroga
However, Vocabulary Test Announcement did not affect the frequency of lookups
In other words, the participants approached the task in a way they found appropriate, irrespective of the pre-learning instructions.
it is what students actually do with words and not the absence or presence of a test which determines the success of word retention. In short, word processing in the intentional condition was not as we anticipated.
These data showed a "focus on content and not a focus on individual words"-strategy.
* So wouldn't it be better to forwarn them of a different purpose?
- post by mabelquiroga
What are the pedagogical implications of this study? When reading a text, students are guided by a priority for meaning, even if they are forewarned of a vocabulary test.
plus-relevant than minus-relevant words
it does make a difference when students know that a vocabulary test will follow.
Though Vocabulary Test Announcement has an effect on L2 learners' noticing of a target word, it does not affect their word retention
Vocabulary Test Announcement does not induce deeper levels of word processing
* Yes, this strategy in designing reading comprehension and vocabulary development activites goes a long way back - post by mabelquiroga
word-directing reading comprehension questions.
Such questions are a very efficient means to draw students' attention to unknown words
individual lexical items
because of the growing interest in multiword units, research is needed into the effect of this enhancement technique on retention of collocations or formulaic sequences as well.
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