Input, Intake, and Retention
Effects of Increased Processing
on Incidental Learning
of Foreign Language Vocabulary
Presenter: Fanny Chang
May 26, 2011
1
Table of Contents
Introduction
Review of the Literature
Methodology
Results
Discussion
2
Introduction

The study investigated the effects of text modification and
task on incidental learning of foreign language vocabulary
by reading.

The focus of the study was on how different cue types
(appositives and single and multiple-choice marginal
glosses) and a task (translation) would affect processing of
input, initial learning, and retention of the meaning of target
words in a text.
3
Literature reviews

Input modification has been an important area in second
language research. The motivation behind this has been the
assumption that input must be comprehensible to become
intake (Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991).

Studies have been conducted to examine the effects of input
modification on increased comprehensibility in listening and
reading (e.g., Parker & Chaudron, 1987; Yano, Long, & Ross,
1994).

Few studies have investigated whether the increased
comprehensibility actually promotes learning of language.
4
Literature reviews

Some studies in L1 reading research have investigated ways
to improve vocabulary learning through reading.

Konopak and Konopak (1988) extracted four major
characteristics of helpful context:




proximity of the illuminating context to the unknown word
clarity of the connection between the context and the unknown
word
explicitness of the contextual information
completeness of the contextual information
5
Literature reviews


Use of vocabulary gloss is a common practice in L2 reading
materials. Although the main purpose of glosses is to aid text
comprehension, glosses are also used to promote vocabulary
learning.
Jacob et al. (1994) tested both L1 glosses and L2 glosses.
Students who read versions with glosses of a passage, either in
the L1 or L2, scored significantly better than those who read an unglossed
version of the same passage in the glossed vocabulary items.
6
Literature reviews

As a compromise between guessing meaning from context
and understanding them from glosses, Hulstijn (1992)
proposes multiple-choice (MC) glossing.

Multiple-choice glossing: more than one synonym, definition,
or translation is given for each target word and the reader has
to choose the best alternative.

Hulstijn argues that, because the MC procedure gives
learners a cue, it compensates for the limited information
provided by the context as well as any learner deficiency in
problem-solving skills.
7
Method

Research questions:
1. Do input modifications by way of adding vocabulary explanations
enhance incidental learning of vocabulary by reading?
2. How do vocabulary explanations by appositives and marginal
glosses differ in their effects on vocabulary learning?
3. Do multiple-choice glosses and a translation task promote the
retention of newly learned vocabulary knowledge?
4. Does a translation task promote the retention of newly learned
vocabulary knowledge?
8
Method


The vocabulary explanations investigated were the following:
appositives, marginal glosses, and multiple-choice marginal glosses.
Appositives
Ex: Each year in the U.S. about 7000 infants die in their cribs, babies’ beds,
for no apparent reason.

Marginal glosses
Ex: Each year in the U.S. about 7000 infants die in their cribs for no
apparent reason.
Cribs = babies’ beds

MC glossing
Ex: Each year in the U.S. about 7000 infants die in their cribs for no
apparent reason.
Crib = 1 babies’ beds
2 small beds
9
Method

The translation task was expected to induce the students to
engage in more elaborate processing of the target words and their
meanings by forcing them to…




(a). Understand the meaning of a target word
(b). Find an appropriate L1 word from the mental lexicon that represents
the meaning, and
(c). Write it down
Purposes:

to investigate how this task would enhance the retention of newly
learned vocabulary knowledge

to see how much the students could understand the target vocabulary in
the unmodified, appositive, gloss, and multiple-choice gloss conditions.
10
Method
Appositive + translation task
Marginal glosses + translation task
MC glossing + translation task
11
Method

Based on past findings on reading and vocabulary learning in
L1, L2, and cognitive psychology research, it was
hypothesized that …




(a). Appositive explanations would give potential clues to
understanding unfamiliar words
(b). Marginal glosses would provide clues with more clarity of
connections between a word and its explanation
(c). MC marginal glosses would provide both clues and clarity
of connections with deeper processing of the word and its
explanations, and
(d). The learning and retention of vocabulary would increase.
The translation task was expected to enhance retention.
12
Method
 A pretest-posttest control group with a 5 x 2 factorial betweengroups design was adopted in this study.
control
Note: Text 1 = “Beware of Pillows” ; Text 2 = “How to Heal Our Inner Cities”
13
Method

Subjects


231 undergraduate students in four universities in Japan
participated in this study as subjects. They were all native
speakers of Japanese.
Materials

The passage for treatment group (Text 1), “Beware of Pillows”
was adapted from the Time magazine. The text contained 500
words. 16 target words were selected from the text, based on two
criteria:


(a). Assumed unfamiliarity to the target students
(b). Ease of supplying a synonym or a definition in English that
would be comprehensible to the target students and from which
they could supply an appropriate translation in Japanese.
14
Method

Materials

The passage for the first control condition (original) was the
same as for the treatment groups.

The passage for the other control condition (control; Text 2),
“How to Heal Our Inner Cities” was adapted from an article in
The Honolulu Advertiser.

16 target words for the control groups were selected and two versions
were made:



one with the 16 words underlined (without-translation-task)
the other with the words not underlined (with-translation-task)
No explanations of the words were given for either of them.
15
Method

Comprehension Questions.


Five open-ended comprehension questions in Japanese were
created for each passage to measure students; level of text
comprehension and also to make sure the students engaged in
normal reading behavior.
The questions for the treatment passage were:





1. What is this passage about?
2. Which country’s situation does the passage describe?
3. What experiment did the two doctors in the passage conduct?
4. What did they learn from the experiment?
5. What do the doctors warn about?
16
Method

Procedures

Time: two regular 90-minute class sessions.
Section 1:
20 minutes
A vocabulary
pre-test &
questionnaires.
Section 2:
25 minutes
treatment
Section 3:
Section 4:
20 minutes
10 minutes
A proficiency
test
A vocabulary
posttest
A week later, the students took two unexpected delayed posttests on the target
vocabulary. The time limit was 10 minutes for the first test (words in isolation) and
17
15 minutes for the second test (words in context).
Instrumentation

Delayed posttests.

One was (word in isolation) identical to the posttest given in the
first session.

The other (word in context) was a test of the target words in
context.

Each year in the U.S. about 7000 infants die
in their cribs for no apparent reason.
Crib =
21
Scoring
Vocabulary Tests
0-3 point scale
Comprehension Questions
0: no response/incorrect
meaning
0: no response/ incorrect response
0-2 point scale
1: partially correct response
1: a distant partial meaning
2: correct response
2: a very close partial meaning
3: a reasonably complete
correct meaning
22
Analysis

A three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)
It used a 5(text modification types) x 2 (with or without translation task
during treatment) x 3(pretest, posttest, Delayed posttest design.

Another three-way ANOVA
It used a 5(Modification) x 2(Task) x 2(Delayed Posttest1, Delayed
Posttest 2) design.

Three separate one-way analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs)
It was a design of immediate posttest, the first delayed posttest, and
the second delayed posttest.
23
Results

Preliminary Analysis

One-way ANOVA results on the cloze test scores (3rd session-a
proficiency test) indicated that there were no significant
differences among the 10 condition groups.

ANOVA results on pretest scores indicated that the 10 condition
groups were equivalent in terms of their performance on the
pretest on 16 target items.
24
Results

Vocabulary Test Scores

Effect for the text
modification types was
statistically significant.

Effect for the three tests was
significant.

There was no effect for
translation task.
25
Results

In the immediate posttest, there were significant differences
between all the pairs except between control and original, original
and appositive, and gloss and MC gloss.

A second three-way ANOVA looked at the two delayed posttests to
examine the difference in recall between a condition with only a
vocabulary list provided and a condition with the text in which the
target words were embedded.
26
1. Results of a one way ANCOVA on during-reading translation task scores with the
modification type (4) as an independent variable and pretest scores as a covariate
indicated that there was a significant difference among the four conditions.
2. The gloss and the MC gloss conditions’ scores were significantly higher than either
the original or the appositive condition’s scores.
29
3. The gloss condition’s scores were significantly higher than those of the MC gloss.
Discussion

The study provides positive evidence for the effect of adding
marginal glosses to a passage as a way of enhancing vocabulary
learning through reading.

Whether they were multiple-choice or single glosses, the passages
with marginal glosses induced significantly more learning of
unfamiliar words and their meanings than the passage without such
enhancing devices.

In fact, contrary to expectations, the gloss condition generally
yielded higher mean scores than the MC gloss condition on the
posttests.
One possible reason is that students chose the wrong alternatives from the multiple
30
choices in the text margin during the treatment.
Discussion

The performance of the control group indicated virtually no change
from the pretest to the immediate posttest, followed by a slight
increase in the first delayed posttest and a much larger increase in
the second delayed posttest.



Test effects
Uncontrolled treatment
The performance of the four treatment groups on the first delayed
posttest may not be regarded as the pure retention of what they
learned during the treatment.
31
Conclusion

Implications

The failure of appositives to promote vocabulary learning
illustrates the importance of clarity of connection between
explanations and what is being explained.

Language acquisition cannot be expected unless students notice
the form, understand its function, and establish form-function
mapping between them.
32
33