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*[[REAP Study on Hearing Words Pronounced (Summer 2007)]]. | *[[REAP Study on Hearing Words Pronounced (Summer 2007)]]. | ||
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=== Annotated bibliography === | === Annotated bibliography === | ||
Revision as of 00:20, 24 July 2007
Contents
The REAP Project Root Node
Logistical Information
See individual studies under Descendants.
Abstract
The REAP project investigates the effects of implicit and explicit instruction on the learning of word meanings. The REAP tutor (http://reap.cs.cmu.edu) is in LearnLab studies at the English Language Institute at the Univ. of Pittsburgh.
Glossary
Implicit Learning: The learning of meaning for a word from the context in which that word occurs.
Explicit Learning: The learning of meaning for a word from explicit instruction, either in the form of a dictionary definition or a practice exercise.
Intentional Learning: The learning of meanings for words that are focused on in instructional materials. Targeted words might be highlighted in a reading, or practiced in vocabulary exercises.
Incidental Learning: The learning of meanings for words that appear in instructional materials but are not explicitly taught. For example, a student may learn an unknown word that occurs in a practice reading but is not the focus of the reading.
Research question
The general question of the Coordinative Learning cluster that the REAP project is aimed at is the following: "When and how should explicit explanations be added or requested of students before, during, or after example study and problem solving practice?" In REAP's case, the verbal explication comes primarily in the form of dictionary definitions of vocabulary words. However, in contrast to other domains, explicit instruction is the first means of instruction for vocabulary rather than the secondary means of instruction. In the case of vocabulary for second language learners, explicit instruction may provide the most economical means of learning, but this learning may be shallow. The question for language learning is then, "How much and in what ways does adding or requesting coordinated implicit examples (of word usage in context) increase robust learning?"
Additional questions: What are the characteristics of instruction that lead to robust knowledge of vocabulary? Do students learn better from explicit instruction (e.g., dictionary definitions), or can they learn implicitly (e.g., from context)? To what extent does incidental learning of vocabulary occur (e.g., learning of words not targeted by a practice reading, but looked up by the student as he or she read the text.)?
Examples of REAP Issues in a table of Different Types of Instruction and Learning
| Passive | Active | Interactive | |
| Explicit (general) | Dictionary definitions | Multiple-choice definition questions (for practice or assessment) | |
| Implicit (instance) | Interpreting meaning in context while reading | Novel sentence production (post-test measure of transfer) | Cloze Vocabulary Practice Questions |
Dependent variables
Normal post-test scores, on exercises similar to practice exercises. These test items are usually cloze/fill-in-the-blank questions on target vocabulary words.
Long-term retention test scores similar to post-test but administered at least one month later.
Transfer of knowledge: practice vocabulary questions of other types, sentence production tasks for target words, correct use of words in writing assignments for other courses.
Independent variables
e.g., availability of dictionary definitions, presentation of definitions, highlighting of target words in readings, personalization of readings by topics of interest, etc.
Hypotheses
Students require both explicit and implicit instruction to effectively acquire vocabulary. Students do not efficiently learn vocabulary implicitly (e.g., from context alone). Similarly, learning solely from explicit dictionary definitions will lead to shallow acquisition. Students who only have definitions available will have difficulty generalizing their knowledge and producing sentences using new vocabulary. Therefore, words need to be seen in context with definitions available in order for robust learning to occur.
Explanation
Notes
The words which the REAP tutor provides practice for are from the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000).
Beginning with the Spring 2006 study, dictionary definitions were available for all words in a reading unless noted otherwise. Definitions came from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (dictionary.cambridge.org) unless noted otherwise.
ELI students use REAP in their reading class about 40 minutes per week as part of a 4 hour reading course. The rest of the class time is spent on the textbook and other vocabulary exercises.
Descendents
- REAP Summer 2005 Study
- REAP Fall 2005 Study
Annotated bibliography
Craik, F. & Lockhardt, R. (1972). Levels of processing: a framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11, 671-684.
Cobb, T. (2006). The old vocabulary, the new vocabulary, and the Arabic learner. A TESOL symposium on Vocabulary words matter: The importance of vocabulary in English Language Teaching and Learning. Alexandria, VA: TESOL.
Coxhead, Averil (2000) A New Academic Word List. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2): 213-238.
Ellis, N. C., & Sinclair, S. (1996). Working memory in the acquisition of vocabulary and syntax. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology, 49, 234-250
Hatch, E., & Brown, C. (1995). Vocabulary, semantics, and language education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hulstijn, J., Hollander, M., & Greidanus, T. (1996). Incidental vocabulary learning by advanced foreign language students: the influence of marginal glosses, dictionary use, and re-occurrence of unknown words. Modern Language Journal, 80, 327-339.
Krashen, S. (1989). We acquire vocabulary and spelling by reading: additional evidence for the input hypothesis. Modern Language Journal, 73, 440-464.
McCarthy, M. (1994). A new look at vocabulary in EFL. Applied Linguistics, 5, 12-22.
Meara, P. (1984). The study of lexis in interlanguage. In A. Davies, C. Criper & A. Howatt (Eds.), Interlanguage (pp. 225-235).
Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Prince, P. (1996). Second language vocabulary learning: the role of context versus translations as a function of proficiency. Modern Language Journal, 80, 478-493.
Richards, J. (1976). The role of vocabulary teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 10, 77-89.
Stanowicz, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: some consequences of individual differences in the aquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 360-407.
Heilman, M., Collins-Thompson, K., Callan, J. & Eskanazi, M. (2006). Classroom success of an Intelligent Tutoring System for lexical practice and reading comprehension. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Spoken Language Processing. [PDF]
Heilman, M. & Eskenazi, M. (2006). Language Learning: Challenges for Intelligent Tutoring Systems. Proceedings of the Workshop of Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Ill-Defined Domains. 8th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems. [Heilman, M. & Eskenazi, M. (2006). Language Learning: Challenges for Intelligent Tutoring Systems. Proceedings of the Workshop of Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Ill-Defined Domains. 8th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems. [PDF]
J. Brown, G. Frishkoff, and M. Eskenazi. (2005). "Automatic question generation for vocabulary assessment." In Proceedings of HLT/EMNLP 2005. Vancouver, B.C. [PDF]
J. Brown and M. Eskenazi. (2005). "Student, text and curriculum modeling for reader-specific document retrieval." In Proceedings of the IASTED International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 2005. Phoenix, AZ. [PDF]
J. Brown and M. Eskenazi. (2004.) "Retrieval of authentic documents for reader-specific lexical practice." In Proceedings of InSTIL/ICALL Symposium 2004. Venice, Italy. PDF]
A. Juffs, L. Wilson, M. Eskenazi, J. Callan, J. Brown, K. Collins-Thompson, M. Heilman, T. Pelletreau, and J. Sanders. (2006.) "Robust learning of vocabulary: investigating the relationship between learner behaviour and the acquisition of vocabulary" (poster). At The 40th Annual TESOL Convention and Exhibit (TESOL 2006). [PDF]
K. Collins-Thompson and J. Callan. (2004.) "A language modeling approach to predicting reading difficulty." In Proceedings of the HLT/NAACL 2004 Conference. Boston. [PDF]
Pelletreau, T. (2006). Computer assisted vocabulary acquisition in the ESL classroom. Unpublished Master of Arts, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh. [1]
