Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition: a Study on the Effectiveness of the Vocabulary

Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition: A study on the effectiveness of the vocabulary index cards learning strategy and the kind of learners who could benefit most from this strategy

Lai Y.S.

Chapter 1Introduction

1.1Historical Background to vocabulary acquisition

“Vocabulary acquisition: A neglected aspect of language learning.”

That’s the title of Paul Meare’s article published in 1980.In the past, vocabulary acquisition was only a by-product of language teaching or communicative functions. Hence, research on vocabulary acquisition was minimal compared to what was going on in other areas such as syntax and phonology. It was not until the late 1970’s or early 1980’s that the tide gradually turned in favor of vocabulary research. Linguists were gradually shifting their attention from sounds, speech and language structures to social and functional aspects such as meaning, discourse and speech acts. At the same time, cognitive psychologists started to appreciate the influence of vocabulary learning process. The input hypothesis proclaimed by Stephen Krashen (1981) was a good example of it. This language acquisition model stresses competence more than performance and competence is measured in terms of adequate words use. Vocabulary has then become a main theme for many language-related studies.

1.2The present situation in Hong Kong

In second language (L2) vocabulary teaching and learning, many problems are desperately in need of some speedy answers. Many countries in the world such as the United States and Canada are looking for methods to assist their newly arrived immigrants to improve their English proficiency. Hong Kong is also confronting similar but perhaps even more serious problems.

In fact, the decline in English standard has been a widespread concern in the local community. The Subject Report of the Hong Kong Examination Authority (1996) also agrees to this view.

“They (Candidates) must acquire a good command of a range of vocabulary, especially on topics related to everyday life, common place names, common English names, etc. as well as common idiomatic expressions.”

In fact there is general consensus that the ability to communicate appropriately and reasonably accurately in English is nevertheless an important skill that helps sustain Hong Kong’s economic prosperity. To develop the skill, one has to have an adequate command of basic grammatical structures and vocabulary, plus a satisfactory level of understanding of their respective functions. More and more applied linguists and language teaching professionals believe that accuracy of language use starts with words. An effective learning strategy can contribute very much in enhancing one’s vocabulary size.

1.3The need for effective strategies

As a remedy, educational institutions and teachers of English have devised various schemes and effective means to help enhance their students’ English standards. These include organizing fun activities to encourage the use of English campus, arranging informal meetings to promote the discussion of current affairs in English, and making available a variety of interesting self-access materials for self-learning purposes. Various teaching methods have been popular at different times, but not all of them have been proved effective. It will be worthwhile to test the effectiveness of different methods empirically before one can decide which one may best be used in classroom situation or by different learners. Even though some language teachers believe that vocabulary does not need to be actively taught in class, many others still believe appropriate strategies can provide tremendous help to increase learners’ vocabulary power and language ability eventually.

1.4Why choose the index card method

The innovation of independent learner strategies has aroused much attention recently in Hong Kong. Yet, not much about it has been explored in the local educational setting. In a Chinese society, English as a L2 is rarely used as a natural medium of communication among local Chinese. It seems that to promote and cultivate independent study skill, students should be encouraged to put more efforts in learning.

Most L2 learners agree that one major difficulty to learn a L2 is to remember the huge number of new words both in forms and meanings. What is more, forgetting is in fact part of human nature (Baddeley, 1990) and the limited exposure of English outside the classroom is another obstacle which makes it difficult for learners to convert the vocabulary word from short term memory to long term memory. If learners are self-motivated and the ‘motivated’ learners know how to increase and create opportunities of exposure to the target language, then the efficiency of vocabulary acquisition will surely be enhanced.

Using dictionaries is a common vocabulary learning strategy in Hong Kong classroom. No doubt, a good dictionary is just like a “silent teacher” who is available around the clock. Yet, some ELT professionals share an opposite opinion. They think that dictionary should be a tool of last resort (Lay, 1995).

Other ELT professionals like to prepare selected vocabulary lists to assist vocabulary teaching and learning (Graham, Harris and Loynachan, 1993). They claim that such lists can reinforce students’ memories of the spelling of the words. In Hong Kong, some publishers also included vocabulary lists in their textbooks. However, it is impossible to compile a vocabulary list that is appropriate for all the students in a class with different English levels.

Semantic mapping is another popular strategy used in the Hong Kong classrooms. Learners are encouraged to use concepts and relationships to create a semantic map in which keywords are highlighted. Linkage is formed between the above information and the new word so as to reinforce the memory of the new word. Researchers have both positive and negative comment toward this method (Nation, 1990). How well can this method help students memorize the novel word is still a question at the moment.

Stroller and Grabe (1993) claim that the keyword method is the best memory technique in vocabulary learning and teaching. To use the method, students have to find a keyword in L1 that sounds like the target L2 word and an image (such as picture) to link up the two words. This is again done to reinforce the memory of the target word. Some point out that this method can be useful for learning concrete words (such as stool) but not abstract words (such as truth) (Gairns and Redman, 1986).

Schmitt and Schmitt (1995) suggest that the use of vocabulary notebook/index cards can be an effective shortcut to achieve this. Ideally, the words recorded in the notebook/index cards are chosen according to the need of individual learners, thus learner autonomy is raised. As a matter of fact, learner autonomy and its effectiveness have been widely recognized.

The introduction of effective learning strategies will undoubtedly be welcome by most language teachers as well as teaching professionals. It is believed that once this strategy is implemented in a larger scale, teacher’s teaching workload can be partly alleviated and they can save time and effort in explaining words that are already known to some of the students in class. As for the students, an effective learning strategy enables them to learn both in and outside the classroom. It can enhance learners’ language proficiency (Nation, 1990) and raise learners’ awareness to language acquisition and hence facilitates learning.

In view of the above reasons, the following action research was done.

Chapter 2Methodology

2.1The research questions:

The research thus focused on two aspects:

1. Does keeping index cards make vocabulary learning more effective in theHong Kong classroom?

1. What type of learners with regard to personality can benefit most from this learning strategy?

2.2Subjects of the study

The subjects of the research came from two Form Three classes of our school. Each of the two classes consisted of 20 boys and 20 girls. The 80 subjects were the top 40 boys and 40 girls among 240 Form Three students in the school. The 80 ‘elite’ students were selected by their overall academic performance after the end-of-term examination in Form Two. They were then divided into Class A and Class B randomly. Since all the subjects were Form Three students from the same school and nearby district, they were basically considered to be homogeneous.Class A was targeted as the experimental group. Class B was targeted as the control group. Both classes were taught by the researcher to eliminate other unnecessary variables, such as teacher’s teaching style.

2.3Instruments

In Research Question One, the dependent variable was ‘the learning outcome’ after the treatment and the independent variable was ‘the use of index cards entries’ in vocabulary learning. It was hypothesized that the use of the above method could enhance vocabulary acquisition.

The instruments of the research were the vocabulary tests and the interviews. The vocabulary tests included four diagnostic tests and five performance tests. There were altogether five trials of teaching. The diagnostic tests were conducted with Class A to determined which words would be used in the trials of teaching. The performance tests were conducted after each trial with both Class A and Class B to find out the learning outcome after the experiment. The two interviews with guided questions were conducted with twelve selected students from Class A after the performance tests to find out their vocabulary learning expectation, habits and methods as well as what kind of learners could benefit most from the strategy being experimented.

2.4Procedures

The study reported here lasted for about half a year. The entire study was accomplished in five sessions from December to April. The subjects of the experimental group received a pre-experimental treatment first. And they had to finish four diagnostic tests. Based on the results of the four diagnostic tests, thirty words were chosen. Then five trial teachings each comprising six words taken from the thirty words were conducted with both the experimental and the control group. Followed each trial, there was a performance test to find out the learning outcome of the subjects.

Two group interviews each consisted of six subjects from the experimental group were conducted after performance test 5. The subjects were invited to express their attitude toward and the effectiveness of the target strategy in their vocabulary learning process. Their opinion were compared with their learning outcome for analysis in order to find out what type of learners would prefer to use the target method and what kind of learners would best benefit from it.

A brief rundown of the actual collection procedures is displayed in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Rundown of the data collection procedures

Session /

Date

/ Focus
1 / December -
January / Familiarize students in class A with the use of index cards method in vocabulary learning
2 / February / Diagnostic Tests 1 to 4
3 / February / Shortlist 30 target words
4 / March / Trials 1 to 5 , Performance Tests 1 to 5
5 / April / Group Interviews 1 to 2

Chapter 3Findings and Discussion

3.1Vocabulary index cards – an effective learning strategy

According to the results of the five performance tests, subjects in the experimental group outperformed subjects in the control group in all the five performance tests.

In each performance test, a multiple-choice(MC) test and a production test were set to test learners’ receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge. In the multiple-choice test, there were altogether 29 items (1 item was eliminated). Class A did better in twenty-four items and the two classes performed equally well in two items. In the production test, there were thirty words. Class A had better achievement in twenty-seven items and the two classes showed the same results in two items.

To versify the results found in the performance tests, a T-test was conducted to test their reliability.In the five MC tests, three tests out of the five were found to be significant as their t-value were all less than 0.05. In the other five sentence production tests, the result was again similar. Among the five tests, four were found to be significant.

The result showed that keeping vocabulary index cards was an effective strategy in expanding both learners’ receptive and productive vocabulary. In the interviews, some subjects also expressed that keeping vocabulary index cards helped them achieve higher marks in the performance tests since making vocabulary entries reinforced their memories of the words and facilitates revision.

3.2More learner autonomy

In the interviews, most of the subjects stated that they preferred using dictionaries to keeping vocabulary index cards in vocabulary learning although they believed that that the former was not interesting at all and the latter could be considered as an effective method. They reasoned that making vocabulary entries was time-consuming and troublesome. Besides, to make input equal for all subjects, the researcher supplied information for all the entries in the five trials. One of the interviewees pointed out that the thirty items were not all what she wanted to learn. She preferred to pick up her own words and make her own entries. She added that she was using vocabulary index cards to remember words in other subjects at the moment. Teachers were thus advised not to give students too much information. Students’ independence and learning outcome would be enhanced if they were encouraged to discover details of the words using their own effort (Schmitt and Schmitt, 1995).

3.3Individual difference

It was found from the interviews that students who were more mature, independent and could work systematically in learning coped better with the target learning strategy. Undoubtedly, to make the most use of keeping vocabulary index cards, initiative, endurance and being systematic in learning are very important. As pointed out by most interviewees, making vocabulary entries constantly is never easy. What’s more, reading academically in public is not socially approved among most Hong Kong students. Most youngsters in Hong Kong feel uneasy and embarrassing reading word cards for instance in LRT or on buses. No doubt, to take index cards out for revision in public needs courage. Learners who have strong meta-cognitive strategies can overcome these barriers since they always have clear future plans for themselves. This kind of learners usually has the endurance to make vocabulary entries and do revision regularly until they build up their own word bank. Every learner is unique. They may have diverse learning styles and different ways to learn. They should be introduced to a variety of learning strategies that are likely to arouse their interest and meet their needs. For students who are self-motivated and mature, the teacher can introduce vocabulary index cards to promote self-learning among them. Students who are less motivated in English learning need more immediate reward and encouragement. For these students, some more interesting strategies such as the semantic map approach may better be introduced.

3.4Teacher’s role in vocabulary acquisition

The findings in the interviews indicate that teachers play an important role in learners’ vocabulary learning. Although the call for using information technology is at its climax, nevertheless, teachers’ role should not be underestimated. One interviewee expressed that she used vocabulary index cards for revision although she did not like to do so because she had to obey her teacher. Some of them said that they would not use the cards for revision if they did not need to take the tests.

This implies that students need stimulus and encouragement, for instance teachers’ request and tests, to motivate them to learn. Teachers can incorporate more activities and methods to assist learners in acquiring and reinforcing the vocabulary knowledge. As mentioned above, some learners preferred having their own way of learning to following teachers’ instruction strictly while some might need more teachers’ guidance. Teachers are thus advised to equip learners with various strategies in vocabulary acquisition. This can help students develop their individuality in learning and individualized learning promotes learners’ autonomy that fosters better learning outcome.

Besides, there is no point spending time studying wrong information, so teachers should occasionally check what students have written for accuracy as suggested by Kramsch (1979). And students should also be reminded to revise their index card entries regularly; otherwise, their efforts in keeping vocabulary index cards would be wasted.

3.5Pronunciation

In the interview, pronunciation was found to be one of the biggest difficulties students encountered when they learned a new word. In the vocabulary entries, students included the phonetic symbols of the words, however, when asked to read the word, they felt tongue-tied. That’s another main reason why many of them felt reluctant to use the method in future even though they believed the method was effective. It was because they felt vocabulary index cards could not teach them how to pronounce the words. Hence, pronunciation, that is, to be able to “decode” the phonetic symbols, is very important in vocabulary acquisition. However, in most English textbooks published by the local publishers, phonetic symbols are not dealt with systematically and sufficiently in depth. It is therefore suggested that more emphasis should be placed in this aspect.