COMBINING EXPLICIT AND SENSITIVE INDICES FOR MEASURING L2 VOCABULARY LEARNING THROUGH CONTEXTUALIZED INPUT AND WORD-FOCUSED INSTRUCTION. Issue 5 (19th December 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vandenberghe, Bert; Perez, Maribel Montero; Reynvoet, Bert; Desmet, Piet
• Is Part Of: Studies in second language acquisition. Volume 43:Issue 5(2021)
• Page Start: 1009
• Page End: 1039
• Publication Date: 2021-12-19
• Subjects: Second language acquisition -- Periodicals; Language and languages -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; 401.9
• DOI: 10.1017/S0272263120000431
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0272-2631

Abstract

Abstract: This study combines explicit (pen-and-paper) and sensitive (time-pressured) measures to gauge the impact of three instructional interventions (contextualized input with meaning-focused activities, contextualized input with word-focused activities, and decontextualized input with word-focused exercises) on the learning of 20 L2 French target verbs. Participants ( N = 313, L1 = Dutch) completed a combination of explicit (form recognition, meaning recall, grammatical preference) and time-pressured sensitive tests (lexical decision, semantic relatedness, grammaticality judgment) as immediate and delayed posttests. Explicit posttests show the beneficial effects of word-focused instruction, and underline the efficiency of context for meaning-related knowledge. Sensitive posttests generally confirm the explicit results, but reveal differences between both word-focused conditions related to lexical processing and strength of knowledge. This study suggests that combining explicit and sensitive measures can provide a more complete picture about the effects of L2 vocabulary instruction and shows that contextualized and decontextualized word-focused instruction benefit vocabulary learning in a complementary way.