Effects of exposure to l1 translation in vocabulary acquisition in english as a foreign language with college students
- Autores: Cristina Palacios Vivar
- Directores de la Tesis: Cristina Pérez-Guillot (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de València ( España ) en 2022
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: María Luisa Carrió Pastor (presid.), Neus Figueras Casanovas (secret.), María Noelia Ruiz Madrid (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Lenguas, Literaturas y Culturas, y sus Aplicaciones por la Universitat de València (Estudi General) y la Universitat Politècnica de València
- Calificación: Notable
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: RiuNet
- Resumen
Vocabulary acquisition is one of the major challenges for language learners and the lack of proper vocabulary is the first impediment to successful communication. A literature review of vocabulary teaching and learning identified an important gap; most research is conducted under controlled conditions. There is a necessity to understand the influence of vocabulary instruction in real classroom settings. This study specifically examines the influence of vocabulary teaching methodologies in the classroom.
This study was conducted in a private university with 37 participants in a pilot study and 166 in the main study, both divided into control and experimental groups using a pretest-posttest design in order to analyse the influence of explicit vocabulary instruction in classes. Vocabulary knowledge was assessed before and after interventions with an adapted version of the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) (Paribakht & Wesche, 1993).
This research consisted of two phases. First, explicit vocabulary instruction through visual exposure to target vocabulary with Spanish translation and aural input was assessed in a pilot study. This stage focused on the first step for vocabulary learning mentioned by Nation (2013): Noticing. Results obtained from the pilot study presented no significant difference between the control and the experimental group. Therefore, it was decided to include an additional activity to enhance vocabulary learning.
In the second phase, which included 166 students, employed a web-based vocabulary activity as well as the visual exposure. This was introduced to evoke the second step of vocabulary learning: Retrieval. This methodology provided opportunities for participants to explore vocabulary with a new learning tool; allowing students to not only notice target vocabulary, but also to retrieve it. The results from the main study were encouraging, the experimental group outperformed the control group in the posttest (p<0.001) showing significant improvement in most words in the experimental group. We may assume that the additional methodology included in the main study could be responsible for the vocabulary enhancement. After the intervention, a semi-structured interview with participants from the experimental group elicited information about their ideas toward their own learning and the methodology used. Participants gave a positive opinion of web-based activities and acknowledged the importance of vocabulary development in their language-learning process.
This study highlights the positive influence of explicit vocabulary instruction in English Learning classroom settings. Technology provides opportunities to replicate this methodology with little time investment; a beneficial tool for teachers and students. In this sense, pedagogic implications are discussed.
