Processing Glosses: A Qualitative Exploration of How Form-Meaning Connections Are Established and Strengthened.

Using a think-aloud procedure this study explored why certain vocabulary interventions are more facilitative for word learning than others. Second Language (L2) readers' quality and quantity (Hulstijn, 2001) of word processing strategies were recorded to determine the effect on (a) establishing and (b) strengthening lexical form-meaning connections ( FMCs) as well as (c) text comprehension. L2 learners read a text enhanced with either multiple-choice glosses ( MCGs) or single-translation glosses ( STGs). In both conditions the target words ( TWs) occurred three more times in the text after the first glossed occurrence. The data-analyses suggested that MCGs may lead to more robust and complete FMCs than STGs. Strengthening of FMCs seemed to be related to the integration of multiple meta-cognitive and semantic-elaborative resources, the repeated search and evaluation of individual word meanings as well as recursive reading strategies. Weaker FMCs were marked by the use of only meta-cognitive resources, linear text processing, and a lack of motivation to assign concrete word meaning. Readers in both conditions comprehended main ideas equally well. But MCG readers showed a tendency to comprehend more supporting ideas.

[1]  P. Meara,et al.  Beyond A Clockwork Orange: Acquiring Second Language Vocabulary through Reading. , 1998 .

[2]  Angela Joe,et al.  Text-based tasks and incidental vocabulary learning , 1995 .

[3]  ● Pytorch,et al.  Attention! , 1998, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[4]  Nick C. Ellis,et al.  Memory for language , 2001 .

[5]  C. Fraser,et al.  LEXICAL PROCESSING STRATEGY USE AND VOCABULARY LEARNING THROUGH READING , 1999, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[6]  J. Hulstijn,et al.  Incidental Vocabulary Learning by Advanced Foreign Language Students: The Influence of Marginal Glosses, Dictionary Use, and Reoccurrence of Unknown Words , 1996 .

[7]  Tom Cobb,et al.  Acquiring Vocabulary through Reading: Effects of Frequency and Contextual Richness , 2001 .

[8]  J. Hulstijn,et al.  INCIDENTAL VOCABULARY ACQUISITION IN A SECOND LANGUAGE: THE CONSTRUCT OF TASK-INDUCED INVOLVEMENT , 2001 .

[9]  F. Craik,et al.  Depth of processing and the retention of words , 1975 .

[10]  Jan H. Hulstijn,et al.  Incidental learning of second language vocabulary in computer-assisted reading and writing tasks , 1998 .

[11]  I. S. P. Nation,et al.  Learning Vocabulary in Another Language: Frontmatter , 2001 .

[12]  Bill VanPatten,et al.  Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen , 1995 .

[13]  J. Hulstijn.  Intentional and incidental second-language vocabulary learning: A reappraisal of elaboration, rehearsal and automaticity , 2001 .

[14]  R. Oxford,et al.  A GENDER-RELATED ANALYSIS OF STRATEGIES USED TO PROCESS INPUT IN THE NATIVE LANGUAGE AND A FOREIGN LANGUAGE , 1997 .

[15]  M. Wesche,et al.  READING AND “INCIDENTAL” L2 VOCABULARY ACQUISITION , 1999, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[16]  Susan M. Gass,et al.  Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course , 1995 .

[17]  Angela Joe,et al.  What Effects Do Text-based Tasks Promoting Generation Have on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition? , 1998 .

[18]  P. Prince.  Second Language Vocabulary Learning: The Role of Context versus Translations as a Function of Proficiency , 1996 .

[19]  M. Wesche,et al.  Reading-Based Exercises in Second Language Vocabulary Learning: An Introspective Study , 2000 .

[20]  A. Baddeley.  Human Memory: Theory and Practice, Revised Edition , 1990 .

[21]  Rod Ellis,et al.  Learning Vocabulary Through Interacting With a Written Text , 1999 .

[22]  M. Smith.  Comprehension versus Acquisition: Two Ways of Processing Input , 1986 .

[23]  Jan-Arjen Mondria.  THE EFFECTS OF INFERRING, VERIFYING, AND MEMORIZING ON THE RETENTION OF L2 WORD MEANINGS , 2003, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[24]  M. Wesche,et al.  Assessing Second Language Vocabulary Knowledge: Depth Versus Breadth. , 1996 .

[25]  Yuichi Watanabe.  INPUT, INTAKE, AND RETENTION , 1997, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[26]  G. Jacobs,et al.  L1 and L2 vocabulary glosses in L2 reading passages: Their effectiveness for increasing comprehension and vocabulary knowledge , 1994 .

[27]  Peter Robinson,et al.  Cognition and Second Language Instruction: COGNITION AND INSTRUCTION , 2001 .

[28]  Jessica Williams,et al.  The effect of multiple-choice L1 glosses and input-output cycles on lexical acquisition and retention , 2002 .

[29]  J. Hulstijn.  When Do Foreign‐Language Readers Look Up the Meaning of Unfamiliar Words? The Influence of Task and Learner Variables , 1993 .

[30]  Myong Hui Ko.  Glossing in Incidental and Intentional Learning of Foreign Language Vocabulary and Reading , 1995 .

[31]  J. Hulstijn.  Retention of Inferred and Given Word Meanings: Experiments in Incidental Vocabulary Learning , 1992 .

[32]  F. Craik,et al.  Levels of Pro-cessing: A Framework for Memory Research , 1975 .

[33]  Henri Béjoint,et al.  Vocabulary and Applied Linguistics , 1992 .

[34]  Diana Frantzen.  Factors Affecting How Second Language Spanish Students Derive Meaning from Context , 2003 .

[35]  Renée Jourdenais.  Cognition and Second Language Instruction: Cognition, instruction and protocol analysis , 2001 .

[36]  Patricia L. Carrell,et al.  METACOGNITIVE AWARENESS AND SECOND LANGUAGE READING , 1989 .

[37]  Ellen L. Block.  The Comprehension Strategies of Second Language Readers , 1986 .

[38]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data , 1984 .

[39]  B. Vanpatten,et al.  Input Processing and Grammar Instruction: Theory and Research , 1998 .

[40]  David D. Qian.  8. Second language lexical inferencing: preferences, perceptions, and practices , 2004 .

[41]  J. Richards.  The Role of Vocabulary Teaching. , 1976 .

[42]  M. Wittrock.  Learning as a Generative Process , 1974 .

[43]  Rod Ellis,et al.  Learning a second language through interaction , 1999 .

[44]  Kate Parry.  Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition: Vocabulary and comprehension: Two portraits , 1996 .

[45]  S. Gass.  Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition , 1988, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics.

[46]  Jessica Williams,et al.  Making Form-Meaning Connections While Reading: A Qualitative Analysis of Word Processing. , 2003 .

[47]  Susanne Rott.  THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE FREQUENCY ON INTERMEDIATE LANGUAGE LEARNERS' INCIDENTAL VOCABULARY ACQUISITION AND RETENTION THROUGH READING , 1999, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[48]  R. Waring,et al.  AT WHAT RATE DO LEARNERS LEARN AND RETAIN NEW VOCABULARY FROM READING A GRADED READER , 2001 .

[49]  Michael J. Lawson,et al.  The Vocabulary‐Learning Strategies of Foreign‐Language Students , 1996 .

[50]  James N. Davis.  Facilitating Effects of Marginal Glosses on Foreign Language Reading , 1989 .

[51]  Batia Laufer,et al.  Reading, Word-Focused Activities and Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition in a Second Language. , 2001 .

[52]  Elliot L. Judd,et al.  Vocabulary Teaching and TESOL: A Need for Reevaluation of Existing Assumptions. , 1978 .