Learning ESL Vocabulary with Context and Definitions: Order Effects and Self-Generation

Abstract

Previous research in our lab has shown that there was a benefit for vocabulary learning when learners were exposed to a vocabulary word in a sentence and asked to generate/guess a definition for the word based on the sentence before they were given the word's definition (Balass et al., in prep). This could be due to either a benefit from receiving the word in context before getting the word's definition (an order effect) or due to the deep generation task of constructing a definition for the word, or both. The experiment we are conducting in the classroom is designed to test the effects of both deep generation tasks and order-of-exposure of definitions and contexts using the REAP software tool. It is also designed to test whether these findings extend to a real classroom situation with ESL learners reading longer texts. All learners will get both a context and a definition for each word during learning; only the order of exposure and the generation task will vary. They will then be tested on the words immediately afterwards with multiple choice tests of spelling, best use of the word in a sentence, and related words, as well as a multiple choice comprehension question to ensure they read the passage and a brief definition generation question. They will also be tested again on each set of words the following week to test retention. We predict that the condition in which they receive context first and are required to do the deep generation task of generating a definition will result in the most robust learning.