Abstract
Laboratory research has demonstrated that multisensory enrichment promotes verbal learning in a foreign language (L2). Enrichment can be done in various ways, e.g., by adding a picture that illustrates the L2 word’s meaning or by the learner performing a gesture to the word (enactment). Most studies have tested enrichment on concrete but not on abstract words. Unlike concrete words, the representation of abstract words is deprived of sensory-motor features. This has been addressed as one of the reasons why abstract words are difficult to remember. Here, we ask whether a brief enrichment training by means of pictures and by self-performed gestures also enhances the memorability of abstract words in L2. Further, we explore which of these two enrichment strategies is more effective. Twenty young adults learned 30 novel abstract words in L2 according to three encoding conditions: (1) reading, (2) reading and pairing the novel word to a picture, and (3) reading and enacting the word by means of a gesture. We measured memory performance in free and cued recall tests, as well as in a visual recognition task. Words encoded with gestures were better remembered in the free recall in the native language (L1). When recognizing the novel words, participants made less errors for words encoded with gestures compared to words encoded with pictures. The reaction times in the recognition task did not differ across conditions. The present findings support, even if only partially, the idea that enactment promotes learning of abstract words and that it is superior to enrichment by means of pictures even after short training.
Highlights
Despite progress in second language (L2) instruction, vocabulary learning remains a task that people still accomplish by reading bilingual word lists and by repeating them until the words are memorized, as described by Oxford and Crookall (1990)
Items trained in the gesture encoding (GE) condition were better remembered than those trained in the picture encoding (PE) and verbal encoding (VE) conditions in both by subjects and by items analyses (p < 0.01)
Post hoc tests in the by subjects analysis revealed that the GE condition was more effective than PE (p = 0.03), whereas PE and VE did not differ (p = 1)
Summary
Despite progress in second language (L2) instruction, vocabulary learning remains a task that people still accomplish by reading bilingual word lists and by repeating them until the words are memorized, as described by Oxford and Crookall (1990). Concepts are large brain networks that retain the combined information and make it more resistant to decay Another influential theory, the Level of Processing Framework (LOP) (Craik and Lockhart, 1972) explains why enrichment by pictures leads to better memory performance. Macedonia et al (2011) designed their experiment in order to determine whether the memory enhancement comes from the motor trace itself or from the motor image related to the word They compared the impact of iconic versus meaningless gestures on retrieval of novel words. Zimmer et al (2000) observed enhanced efficiency of retrieval in free recall tests if the subjects had enacted the words during study This “pop-out” effect (POE) was credited to the motor trace created in memory by the actions performed. Representation in a widely interconnected network could accelerate the speed of retrieval
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