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Agenda

THE INFLUENCE OF ELECTRONIC GLOSSES ON WORD RETENTION AND READING COMPREHENSION WITH SPANISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS Doctoral Dissertation Elyes Ben Salem December 11 th 2006 The University of Kansas. Agenda. I. Introduction The problem Rationale Research questions II. Literature Review

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Agenda

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  1. THE INFLUENCE OF ELECTRONIC GLOSSES ON WORD RETENTION AND READING COMPREHENSION WITH SPANISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS Doctoral Dissertation Elyes Ben Salem December 11th 2006 The University of Kansas

  2. Agenda I. Introduction The problem Rationale Research questions II. Literature Review III. Method IV. Results V. Implications VI. Future research

  3. Introduction Vocabulary acquisition is the single most important aspect of second language learning (Knight, 1994). Vocabulary knowledge is fundamental to reading comprehension (Nagy, 1988). Readers consult electronic glosses much more frequently than the glosses on paper because glosses offer easier access to meaning (Aust, Kelley, & Roby, 1993).

  4. Introduction Glosses in various modalities, such as printed text, graphics, video, and sound, might have differing capacities to facilitate vocabulary acquisition and retention. (exp:Chun & Plass, 1996; Lyman-Hager, Martinez-Lage, 1997). A number of studies have been conducted to examine the impact of different glosses that use different media on vocabulary acquisition and retention among second language learners (Al Seghayer (2001), Chun & Plass, 1996a; Davis & Lyman-Hager, 1997; Lyman-Hager, Davis, Burnett, & Chennault, 1993; Kost, Foss, and Lenzini, 1999).

  5. The Problem It still remains unclear which combination of media is most effective in helping second language (L2) learners achieve better reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. This area of research regarding the effects of hypermedia glossing on vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension, especially with L2 readers, is still at the beginning stage (Kamil & Lane, 1998).

  6. Rationale Need to measure the impact of different types of electronic glosses. Discover whether sound adds significant benefit to text or pictures for language learners. The outcome will offer suggestions for the design of effective glosses in the future.

  7. Research Questions Q1: What is the influence of electronic glosses on reading comprehension and word retention? Q2: Is there a correlation between the frequency of access to glosses and reading comprehension and word retention? Q3: Is there a correlation between the length of reading times and reading comprehension test scores?

  8. Review of the Literature The Impact of Electronic Glossing on Vocabulary Acquisition Students who used multimedia glosses outperformed those who used printed definitions (Lyman-Hager et al.,1993). Lexical items with different types of media fosters richness of recall cues and increases the likelihood of retention (more paths for information retrieval) (Chun and Plass, 1996). Students who used a combination of text and pictures had a better performance on both production and recognition tests than those who used text or pictures only (Kost, Foss, and Lenzini ,1999).

  9. Review of the Literature The Impact of Electronic Glossing on Reading Comprehension Lomicka (1998) looked at the effectiveness of glossing for L2 reading comprehension. -The results indicated that computerized reading with full glossing promoted text comprehension. Sakar and Ercetin (2005) examined whether multimedia annotations facilitated reading comprehension. -Participants preferred visual annotations more than textual and audio annotations. - Annotations, especially, pronunciations, audio recordings, and videos, did not have a positive impact on reading comprehension.

  10. Dual-coding theory: learning becomes better when the information is received through two channels (verbal and visual) to construct meaning (Paivio, 1986; Clark & Paivio, 1991; Mayer, 1997; Mayer & Sims, 1994). Generative theory of learning: learning is better when information is presented in multiple forms so that the learner can select relevant information to construct meaning (Mayer, 1997). Review of the Literature

  11. Method Participants: 93 students: 61 females and 32 males. Intermediate Spanish. Third-semester beginning Spanish class (Spanish 212). Randomly assigned to one of the five conditions: 1) No Gloss 2) Text only (T) 3) Text, Audio (TA) 4) Text, Audio, Picture (TAP) 5) Text, Audio, Picture, Writing (TAPW)

  12. Method Continued… Reading passage and gloss selection: • Original text: A day with the Lopez family: 602 words. • Procedure included word rating and cloze activity. • Original method of gloss selection (25 glosses: 8 verbs and 17 nouns). • Validated pictures: words were tested for name consistency.

  13. Instruments Comprehension test: Designed to measure the impact of glosses on reading comprehension. 25 items with four alternatives and a coefficient alpha of .78. Each item asked the reader about one particular idea in the text. None of the four alternatives featured the gloss verbatim. Instead, a synonym was provided.

  14. Sample Comprehension Test Items 1. [ saltara ] What did Maria do when she heard a loud SNAP? a. leaped* b. run away c. screamed d. hid 2. [ tiburón ] What does the white statue depict? a. a bird b. a farmer c. a fish* d. a dragon 3. [ arrastrar ] What was the boy doing to his toy when Roberto and Maria smiled ? a. bouncing it b. swinging it c. pulling it* d. kicking it

  15. Vocabulary Test Designed to measure the effect of each type of gloss on word retention. Administered immediately after the reading comprehension test and again two weeks after to measure word retention. The test included 13 recognition items and 12 production items.

  16. Sample Vocabulary Test Items 1. tronco ____________________________________________ 2. gotear ____________________________________________ 3. cometa ___________________________________________ 4. tejir ______________________________________________

  17. Background Questionnaire Students’ age, nationality. Linguistic background, foreign language learning experience. Self-assessment of foreign language ability, L1 and L2 reading skills. Self-assessment of computer skills. Frequency of dictionary use.

  18. Procedure Data collection took place during several sessions scheduled in the evening. Participants read the text under one of the five conditions mentioned above. Participants took two vocabulary tests (immediate and delayed) and one comprehension test.

  19. Results: Impact of Glosses on Reading Comprehension Gloss users achieved significantly higher scores on reading comprehension test than non-gloss users. Moderate positive correlation between frequency of gloss access for all conditions (M=48) and reading comprehension (M=17.8), (r=.4, p>.002). Significant only for the Text + Audio group. Positive correlation between minutes reading time (M=9.2) of students who had access to glosses and comprehension (M=17.9), (r=.29 p>001). Significant and moderately strong for Text + Audio group (r=.5) and the Text + Audio + Picture group (r=.63).

  20. Reading Comprehension Test Scores *1) No Gloss 2) Text only 3) Text, Audio (TA) 4) Text, Audio, Picture (TAP) 5) Text, Audio, Picture, Writing (TAPW) significance: **P>.01 ***P>.05

  21. Results: Impact of Glosses on Vocabulary Gloss users achieved significantly higher scores on both immediate and delayed vocabulary tests than students who did not have access to glosses. - On the immediate vocabulary test, gloss users were able to respond correctly to about 14 of the 25 questions. Non-gloss users scored only 7 out of 25 questions. - On the delayed vocabulary test, gloss users outperformed (M=11.5) non-gloss users (M=5.4).

  22. Immediate Vocabulary Test Scores *1) No Gloss 2) Text only 3) Text, Audio (TA) 4) Text, Audio, Picture (TAP) 5) Text, Audio, Picture, Writing (TAPW) significance: **P<.05

  23. Immediate Vocabulary Test Scores *1) No Gloss 2) Text only 3) Text, Audio (TA) 4) Text, Audio, Picture (TAP) 5) Text, Audio, Picture, Writing (TAPW) significance: **P>.01 ***P>.05

  24. Delayed Vocabulary Test Scores *1) No Gloss 2) Text only 3) Text, Audio (TA) 4) Text, Audio, Picture (TAP) 5) Text, Audio, Picture, Writing (TAPW)

  25. Delayed Vocabulary Test Scores *1) No Gloss; 2) Text only; 3) Text, Audio (TA); 4) Text, Audio, Picture (TAP); 5) Text, Audio, Picture, Writing (TAPW)

  26. One-Way ANOVA Analysis for Word Retention Rate Over Time

  27. Vocabulary Retention Over Time

  28. Correlation Between Gloss Access and Word Retention There was a significant moderate positive relationship between the amount of glosses students consulted and the level of word retention they achieved over time (combined  M=11.42), (r=.48 p>.000). -The correlation is significantly strong (r=.63, p>.02) for Text + Audio group and Text, Audio, Picture, and Writing group (r.70, p>.03).

  29. Immediate Vocabulary Test Scores *1) No Gloss; 2) Text only; 3) Text, Audio (TA); 4) Text, Audio, Picture (TAP); 5) Text, Audio, Picture, Writing (TAPW) significance: **P>.002 ***P>.026

  30. Delayed Vocabulary Test Scores *1) No Gloss; 2) Text only; 3) Text, Audio (TA); 4) Text, Audio, Picture (TAP); 5) Text, Audio, Picture, Writing (TAPW) significance: **P>.01 ***P>.03

  31. Implications Foreign language learners should be provided with glosses while engaged in reading. Learners should be encouraged to consult glosses as frequently as needed. Since vocabulary learning is incremental and an ongoing process the values of glosses with a combination of media may not be fully realized in a single exposure. Outcomes of this study support the need to include well-designed feature-rich glosses in language learning resources.

  32. Suggestions for Future Research Replicate this study with larger sample sizes and different reading passages. Future studies should try to identify which gloss features are most beneficial to learners with a different level of proficiency, different linguistic abilities and learning styles (verbal / visual). The scope of glosses should go beyond nouns and verbs to include parts of speech such as adjectives and adverbs. A need for a longitudinal study to explore the influence of glosses.

  33. Questions?

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