English Glosses Research Articles

L1 and L2 vocabulary glosses in L2 reading passages: Their effectiveness for increasing comprehension and vocabulary knowledge

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the effect of vocabulary glossing on recall and vocabulary learning, as well as learners’ preferences as to glossing. Eighty‐five native speakers of English studying Spanish at the university level participated.Participants read a Spanish text under one of three treatment conditions: no gloss, English glosses, or Spanish glosses. They then were asked to write what they recalled of the passage, translate a list of the glossed vocabulary, and complete a questionnaire. The translation task was repeated four weeks later.Results showed that glossing did not significantly affect recall for the participants overall, but that those with higher than average proficiency recalled more if they had read a glossed version of the text. Those who had glosses outperformed their peers on the translation task administered immediately after they had read the text. However, this difference disappeared on the retest. Participants expressed preference for glosses, wished that they be located in the margin, and favoured Spanish glosses if they were comprehensible.

Using Mnemonic Explanations to Improve Sign Lexicon Learning With Children & Young Adults

One hundred two naive subjects in three age groups were trained and tested on recalling the meanings (English glosses) of 32 ASL nouns and 32 ASL verbs arranged in 32 sentences. Half the signs were highly translucent; i.e. connection between the sign’s meaning and appearance was easily perceptible. Half the sentences were presented with a mnemonic explanation; e.g. “The sign for cow shows the cow horn.” Test responses were spoken translations of the sentences seen. Subjects did significantly better on signs of high translucency and signs learned with mnemonic explanations; but contrary to expectation, the fifth graders did better than both the second and the eleventh graders.

A comparative manual of affixes for the Inuit dialects of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska

The information gathered in the present work is aimed at use both by students of the Eskimo languages and by Inuit speakers wishing to comprehend and communicate more directly with speakers of dialects other than their own. Productive affixes for fourteen dialect areas from East Greenland to North Alaska are presented for the first time in one place and in common orthographical form. These morphological elements, often difficult to isolate and subject to continual innovation within individual dialects, represent one of the most problematic areas for mutual comprehension.Particular emphasis has been placed on divergences from Central West Greenlandic in three other cardinal dialects, namely Tarramiut for the eastern Canadian Arctic, Copper for the western Canadian Arctic (where the author carried out field work in the summer of 1980), and North Slope Iriupiaq for Alaska. For each of these dialects comprehensive lists containing morphophonemic information and English glosses are arranged in parallel columns according to twenty-six easily comparable semantic groups. Divergences from the main lists for the remaining ten dialects are presented in alphabetical lists. The introductory sections describe the phonological correspondences between the dialects (plus important grammatical differences) and explain how the book can be used in practical terms. To this end a translation into West Greenlandic is included. Linguistic isogloss maps and examples of usage of affixes with no direct equivalent in West Greenlandic are supplied, as is a short sample text for each dialect treated (with English glosses). Further, there is included an overview of the various orthographic systems to be encountered for material in Canada and Alaska, an essay on successive affix ordering, and, for the sake of comparison, a similarly organized list of affixes for Central Alaskan Yupik.

Two old English glosses

Two old English glosses

Old English Glosses (A Collection).

Old English Glosses (A Collection).