TESOL Quarterly Research Evaluation

TaeJong Yu — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 04:57:34 +0000

Kim, Y. G. (2006). Effects of input elaboration on vocabulary acquisition through reading by Korean learners of English as a foreign language. TESOL Quarterly, 40(2), 341-373.

RELEVANCE
This study is targeted for adult (university-level) learners of English in terms of vocabulary acquisition.

CONTENT
Research questions:
Through reading selected text, whether…
1. Lexical elaboration affects incidental English vocabulary acquisition without enhancement,
2. Typographical enhancement affects incidental English vocabulary acquisition without elaboration,
3. Lexical elaboration and typographical enhancement combined affect incidental English vocabulary acquisition,
   4. A certain type of lexical elaboration distinctively affects incidental English vocabulary acquisition,
   5. A certain type of lexical elaboration and typographical enhancement combined affect incidental English vocabulary acquisition.
Summary of previous research:
   Research in text modification was implemented applying Krashen’s input hypothesis and Long’s interaction hypothesis to incidental vocabulary acquisition. Research that tested the combination of textual input elaboration and written input enhancement was rarely implemented. Written input elaboration research has been implemented in various ways, but written input enhancement research was implemented only in certain field of the acquisition of L2 morphosyntax. Laufer and Hill (2000) strived to examine typographical input enhancement by using highlighting in CALL context. However, they did not control highlighting to examine the effectiveness on incidental vocabulary acquisition.
Summary of related conceptual work:
   Krashen (1989): insisted that L2 acquisition can be achieved by exposure to comprehensible input like words and spellings through broad reading and conceptualized “input hypothesis”.
   Long (1994): explained how input can be comprehensible (through modifying interactional form of conversation or text), characterized by “interaction hypothesis”.
   Sharwood Smith (1991): conceptualized “input enhancement” by wording with pedagogical skills to catch L2 learners’ attention to structural features in the input like vocabulary.
Definition of terms:
   Lexical elaboration (LE): offering meaning of unknown words and has three types: explicit, implicit, and unelaborated lexical elaboration. Input elaboration entails LE.
   Typographical enhancement (TE): drawing attention by visually or acoustically and has two kinds: enhanced or unenhanced typographical enhancement. Input enhancement entails TE.

FORMAT
Quantitative posttest-only study
   297 students at a university in Korea were asked to take posttests featuring three kinds of vocabulary evaluation.
Procedure of data collection:
   Three posttests: form-recognition vocabulary posttest (choosing words they thought they had seen while reading the given text), meaning-recognition vocabulary posttest (checking the correct meaning for the word), and retrospective vocabulary posttest (selecting the word they had known), Six categories: explicit LE with TE, implicit LE with TE, unelaborated with TE, explicit LE with typographical unenhancement, implicit LE with typographical unenhancement, and unelaborated with typographical unenhancement.
Data analysis:
   Using a two-way factorial multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) on discovery of the effect of the connection between lexical elaboration and typographical enhancement.

RESULTS
Findings:
   Lexically elaborated text did not feature high results in form-recognition vocabulary posttest.
   Explicitly lexically-elaborated text resulted in the high meaning-recognition vocabulary posttest.
   Typographically enhanced text did not come to effect on form-recognition vocabulary posttest.
   Typographically enhanced text did not come to effect on meaning-recognition vocabulary posttest.
   The combination between lexical elaborated and typographically enhanced text resulted in no significant effect on form-recognition vocabulary posttest.
   The combination between lexical elaborated and typographically enhanced text resulted in significant effect on meaning-recognition vocabulary posttest.
   The types of lexical elaboration – explicit and implicit – did not differently affect form-recognition posttest.
   The types of lexical elaboration – explicit and implicit – did not differently affect meaning-recognition posttest.
   The types of lexical elaboration – explicit and implicit – with either typographically enhanced text did not differently affect both form-and meaning-recognition posttest.
What has been learned?
   1. LE alone did not affect form-recognition. However, explicit LE alone affected meaning- recognition.
   2. TE alone did not affect meaning- and form-recognition.
   3. LE and TE combined did not affect form-recognition. However, LE with TE affected meaning-recognition.
   4. A certain type of LE did not distinctively affect meaning- and form-recognition.
   5. Both explicit LE in TE and implicit LE in TE affected meaning-recognition. However, implicit LE affected meaning-recognition only when it combined with TE.
Implications for teacher education
   Connect explicit lexical elaboration to acquiring the meaning of the unknown words from reading.
   Combine explicit lexical elaboration with typographically enhanced textbooks for better acquisition of unknown words.
   Recognize the necessity of a wide-ranging exposure to words for L2 learners to explicitly comprehend the meaning of the words.

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TESOL Quarterly Research Evaluation