The Effects of Different Presentation Methods on Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition Based on Contextual Theory

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.220131.094How to use a DOI?

Keywords

presentation methods; second language vocabulary acquisition; Context Theory; college non-English majors

Abstract

Based on Contextual Theory, this study compared the effects of three different presentation methods on second language vocabulary acquisition of college non-English majors. The study has been applied in three classes of 155 second-year students in an ordinary college in Fuzhou, China. These classes have been instructed on words in three different techniques; one of which is teaching vocabulary in the context of an essay (the essay group), the second is teaching vocabulary in the context of sentences (the sentence group), whereas another is teaching words by providing only the words’ definitions and Chinese equivalents (the glossary group). A vocabulary test composed of three parts has been constructed and applied after the instruction. Three vocabulary tests are applied: a pretest to show the selected words are unknown by the students, an immediate test to assess the short memory of the target words and a delayed vocabulary test to evaluate the retention of the words. According to one-way AVOVA analyses and paired t-tests of SPSS, there is a statistically significant difference between the essay group and the glossary group as expected in the immediate test concerning the overall performance in vocabulary tests. Unexpectedly, no significant difference was revealed either between the sentence group and the glossary group or between the sentence group and the essay group in the immediate test. Furthermore, there is no significant difference of overall performance among the three groups in the delayed test. However, the group differences vary in the three parts of the vocabulary tests in both immediate and delayed tests. As a result, the presenting methods of the target words in context and by definitions or meanings have different effectiveness on learners’ overall performance in vocabulary acquisition.

Copyright

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Xiaojuan Yin
AU  - Yafang Su
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/02/01
TI  - The Effects of Different Presentation Methods on Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition Based on Contextual Theory
BT  - Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Education, Language and Art (ICELA 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 519
EP  - 528
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220131.094
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.220131.094
ID  - Yin2022
ER  -