Abstract
The present study is set to explore the way the orthographic distributional properties of novel written words and the number of exposures to these words affect their incidental learning in terms of recall and recognition. To that end, two experiments were conducted using videos with captions. These videos included written nonwords (orthographically marked language-specific items) and pseudowords (orthographically unmarked items) as captions paired to the spoken targets, presented either in isolation (Experiment 1) or within sentences (Experiment 2). Our results consistently show that items containing legal letter combinations (i.e., pseudowords) are better recalled and recognized than those with illegal combinations (i.e., nonwords). Further analysis in the recall task indicate that frequency modulates the learning of pseudowords and nonwords in a different way. The learning of pseudowords increases linearly with repetitions, while nonwords are equally learned across frequencies. These differential effects found in the recall task do not show up in the recognition task. Although participants took more time to recognize nonwords in the recognition task, increased exposure to the items similarly modulated reading times and accuracy for nonwords and pseudowords. Additionally, higher accuracy rates were found in Experiment 2, which underscores the beneficial effect of supportive visual information.
Highlights
The acquisition of new vocabulary is a foundational part of language learning, and the only requirement to learn vocabulary is input [1]
In one’s native language, incidental vocabulary acquisition is regarded as the primary mode of vocabulary acquisition [see 2, 3]
The results showed that low orthotactic probabilities contributed positively to incidental acquisition of novel word meanings in the first language, but no such effect was found in the foreign language
Summary
The acquisition of new vocabulary is a foundational part of language learning, and the only requirement to learn vocabulary is input [1]. On-screen text aids such as native or foreign language subtitles or captions could be effective ways to turn video materials into effective didactic tools for foreign language incidental word learning, given the evidence showing their effectiveness in vocabulary learning [27, 29, 30] It is worth exploring the mediating role of the amount of exposures (i.e., the frequency effect) to a new item in audiovisual settings with bimodal presentation to understand how incidental vocabulary learning occurs in naturalistic learning contexts. The manner in which orthographic markedness and number of encounters or frequency interact during incidental word learning and how they modulate the ability to recognize and recall these words was explored To this end, and following the line of research using subtitles and captions to study incidental language learning, two experiments were conducted using videos with captions. After the passive perception of the videos and soundtracks, participants completed a recall and a recognition test
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