The use of multimodal tips in lexical inferencing of English as a foreign language

Abstract

The present work is an exploratory study aimed at investigating the use of multimodal tips in the lexical inferencing of English as a foreign language. On theoretical grounds, the work is based on the assumptions of Connectionism Approach and Lexical Inferencing. In the experiment,162 students of English at the elementary level, were divided into two groups: experimental and control group. In the experimental group, Group A received oral and written tips, group B received only oral tips, and group C only written tips to infer the meaning of the target vocabulary. In the control group, group D did not receive any tips. In the analysis, data generated in the vocabulary test and evaluation questionnaire were considered. The results show that the use of both modalities of tips, oral or written, may contribute to inferencing and vocabulary learning. However, the combined use of oral and written tips revealed to be more efficient. Besides, in the comparative condition, the relevance of oral tips, in an explicit approach, for inferencing and vocabulary learning was observed. With this research, we intend to contribute to the students’ development of lexical inferencing and memory retention of the vocabulary in English as a Foreign Language.