Abstract
Deliberate vocabulary study has mostly been studied within a strictly experimental framework of learning and memorization. More ecologically valid investigations embedded in existing study contexts have been rare. This study fits into the latter paradigm, investigating how students attempted to learn 90 English words over a period of three weeks and tracking their efforts via study logs and intermediate receptive and productive tests, with final testing five weeks after the study period. The results are in line with findings from earlier research. Study logs showed students mainly relied on different kinds of repetition and retrieval. Selective attention for specific items was an important predictor for short-term learning, and sufficient spacing was the most important predictor for longer-term learning. From a pedagogical point of view, a point of attention is that students mostly practised retrieval after first repeating, making retrieval less difficult and creating an impression of knowledge.
Highlights
This study aims to trace the effects of different kinds of vocabulary learning strategies on immediate and longer-term learning in the context of a regular study assignment and strives to maximize ecological validity
The study consisted of four stages: a three-hour classroom session with a pre-test, a one-hour study period and immediate post-tests; three one-hour study sessions at home spread over two weeks; announced post-tests; and announced delayed post-tests five weeks later
During the one-hour study period, all students went through the materials repeatedly reading and rereading and practised retrieval, with the exception of one student who looked further ahead and started making flashcards
Summary
Studies of general strategy use in vocabulary learning have yielded divergent results with respect to the popularity of strategies and their (believed) usefulness. Schmitt’s (1997) survey of Japanese EFL students showed that memorization strategies like repetition (oral or written) and paying attention to spoken and written form were among the most frequently used strategies (usage scores around 70%) that were judged most useful (> 80%), while deeper strategies like the keyword method or using semantic maps were much less popular and judged as less useful. Van Hell and Candia-Mahn (1997) report on two experiments comparing the keyword method to subvocal repetition; in the first, experienced Dutch foreign language learners studied 60 Spanish words, in the second inexperienced US students studied 56 Dutch words following the same procedure In both experiments, subvocal repetition yielded better results on immediate and delayed tests, the differences between the groups of inexperienced FL learners were not significant. Their own experiment in which Dutch youths study 16 French words under three conditions (receptive, productive, receptive + productive) confirms these results, and shows that a combination of receptive and productive learning does not lead to better results on either immediate or two-week delayed tests In both of his studies, Webb (2005, 2009) investigated the learning of FL words by Japanese students using ten different tests in an attempt to isolate different types of productive and receptive knowledge. The testing effect and the spacing effect have been explained alternatively by the elaborative retrieval hypothesis (Carpenter and Delosh, 2006) and the retrieval effort theory (Pyc and Rawson, 2009); both rely on the assumption that more difficult access to an item during learning creates stronger memory traces
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