2.4.2　Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition through Listening

2.4.2IncidentalVocabularyAcquisitionthroughListeningMostworkonsecondlanguageincidentalvocabularyacquisitionhasfocusedonhowsuchlearningoccursduringinteractionswithwrittentextsordiscourse,i.e.,howsuchlearningoccursinreading(e.g.,Hirsh&Nation1992;Laufer1997).Considerablylessworkhaslookedatincidentalvocabularyacquisitionthroughlistening.Nevertheless,manyL2learners,likeL1learners,relyonauralinputastheprimarysourceofinformationaboutthetargetlanguage.Throughlisteningtheylearntoidentifytheformsandmeaningsofnewwords,whichtheythenrememberandinduecoursecometousethemselves.ThissectionfirstbrieflyreviewsstudiesinincidentalvocabularyacquisitionfromlisteningtostoriesinL1,andthenreportsstudiesthatinvestigatedincidentalvocabularyacquisitionfromL2listening.

2.4.2.1IncidentalVocabularyAcquisitionfromListeningtoStoriesinL1

ThereissomeevidencethatchildrencanpickuptheirL1vocabularyastheyarebeingreadto(e.g.,Elley,1989;Fondas,1992;Penno,Wilkinson,&Moore,2002).

InNewZealand,twostudiesbyElley(1989)investigatedtheeffectsonvocabularyacquisitionofreadingastorybooktosome7-8-year-oldpupils.Inthefirststudy,twentytargetwordswereselectedfromabookthoughtbytheresearchertobeunfamiliartostudentsofthisagegroup.Amultiple-choicepre-testwasgiventothestudentspriortothetreatment.Thetestincludedtenpicturevocabularyitemswheretheteacherreadaloudthetargetwordandaskedthestudentstoselectwhichofthefourpicturesbestmatcheditsmeaning.Anothertwentywordswerepre-testedusingwordsynonyms.Duringthetreatment,studentsheardthestoryreadaloudthreetimesoverthecourseofoneweek.Resultsindicatedameanincreaseof15.4%overallwithchildrenscoringhigheronmosttargetwordsontheposttestthanonthepre-test.

Inhissecondexperiment,Elley(1989)soughtfurtherconfirmationoftheincidentallearningmeasuredinthefirstexperiment.Inaddition,thisstudyconsideredpermanenceoflearningandintroducedteacherexplanationofvocabularyasatreatmentvariable.Theexperimentfollowedapre-test/posttestdesigntocomparetheeffectsofreadingtwostoriesaloud,withandwithoutexplanationofthetargetwords.Asinthefirstexperiment,thestudentsheardthestoriesreadthreetimesoverthecourseofoneweek.Threemonthsafterthereadingofthestories,adelayedposttestwasgivenwithoutwarningtothestudents.Analysisforthestoryreadwithoutteacherexplanationwasnearlyidenticaltothefindingsinthefirstexperiment.Themeangaininvocabularywas14.8%.However,forthegroupofstudentswhoheardanexplanationofthevocabulary,theoverallgainwas39.9%.Theresultsofthedelayedposttestsofthetargetwordsrevealedadeclineofonly2-3%,whichtheresearcherconsiderednegligible.Inanattempttostudyword-relatedvariablesthataffectvocabularygain,hefoundthemostreadilylearnedwordswerethosewithahelpfulsurroundingcontext,morethanonceoccurrence,andillustratedbypictures.Elleythusconcludedthat“storiesreadaloudinthiswayappeartoofferapotentialsourceforreadyvocabularyacquisition...[and]repeatedexposureandhelpfulcontextaresignificantfactorsinvocabularyacquisition”(p.180).

Brett,Rothlein&Hurley(1996)examinedtheeffectsof3listeningconditions(storyonly,storywithwordexplanation,andnostory)on175fourth-gradersandfoundthatthestory-with-word-explanationgroupmadesignificantlymoreprogressinvocabularyfromthepre-teststothepostteststhanthestory-onlygroupandtheno-storycontrolgroup.UnlikeElley'sstudies,thestudentsinthisstudyheardthestoriesonlyonce,but“thefindingsindicatedthatrepeatedreadingsofthesamestoryarenotnecessaryforvocabularyacquisitionifnewwordsareexplainedastheyareencounteredinthestory”(p.419).

Penno,Wilkinson&Moore(2002)evaluatedtheeffectsofrepeatedexposuretoastoryandtheadditiveeffectsoftargetwordmeaningexplanationonchildren'svocabularyacquisition.Twostorieswerereadtoforty-seven5-6-year-oldchildrenonthreeoccasions,eachoneweekapart.Onestorywasreadwithexplanationsofthetargetwords,buttheotherwasreadwithoutexplanations.Twomultiple-choicevocabularytestsweregiventoensurethatnochildrenalreadyknewthetargetwordsinthestudy.Allthechildrenwereaskedtoindividuallyretellthestorytotheexaminerandtheretellingwasaudiotapedforlatertranscriptionandcoding.Thesamemultiple-choicetestwasgiventothechildrenatthebeginningandtheendofthestudy(week1andweek9)aswellastheintervalofthetwostories(week5).Resultsshowedbothofthefactorsunderstudy(repeatedexposureandexplanation)contributedsignificantlytovocabularygrowth.Thechildrenwhoreceivedexplanationsscoredsignificantlyhigheronthemultiple-choicevocabularytestthanthosewhodidnot.Asingleexposuretothestoryresultedinwordsbeinglearned,andthesecondandthirdreadingstothemresultedinchildrenbeingabletousewordswithincreasingaccuracyintheretellingtask,suggestingamorecomprehensiveunderstandingofthewordmeaning.

ThesestudiespointoutsomefactorsthatencourageincidentalvocabularyacquisitionforchildrenlisteningtostoriesinL1,namelyrepetitionofthestoryandexplanationofthetargetwords.AsnotedbyNation(2001),thereareseveralconditionsthatmakelearningvocabularyfromlisteningtostoriesmorelikely:

1.interestinthecontentofthestory;

2.comprehensionofthestory;

3.understandingoftheunknownwordsandretrievalofthemeaningofthosenotyetstronglyestablished;

4.decontextualizationofthetargetwords;

5.thoughtfulgenerativeprocessingofthetargetvocabulary.(p.118)

Theprecedingreviewsuggeststhatlisteningtostoriesbeingreadhasthepotentialtobeamajorcontributortogrowthinchildren'sL1wordbanksbecauseitisacommonoccurrenceintheclassroomofprimaryschools.Significantbenefitsarederivedbychildrenwhenteachersreadstoriesaloudtothem.Amongthesebenefitsareincreasedlisteningskills,readingcomprehension,andvocabularygains.However,theresearchinthisareahasmainlyfocusedonchildren,i.e.,thebeginningstagesoffirstlanguagevocabularylearning.Sincevocabularylearningdoesnotnecessarilyoccurinsimilarwaysatdifferentstagesofproficiency(Meara,1984),thevocabularyacquisitionofmoreproficientstudentsdeservesfurtherexploring.

2.4.2.2IncidentalVocabularyAcquisitionthroughL2ListeningComprehension

ApartfrompositivefindingswithL1children,researchwithL2learnershasalsoprovidedevidenceofincidentalvocabularyacquisitionfromlistening(e.g.,Vidal,2003;Brown,Waring,&Donkaewbua,2008).

Vidal's(2003)studyinvolved122Spanishfirst-yearuniversitystudentstoexploretheeffectsofEFLproficiencyandlecturecomprehensiononvocabularyacquisition.Theparticipantswerepre-testedontheirknowledgeofthetargetwords,andwerepresentedwithaseriesofthree15-minutevideotapedacademiclectureswithsometrue-or-falsecomprehensionquestions.Theparticipantsweretestedontheirknowledgeofthetargetwordsimmediatelyafterthelecturesandweretestedagainonemonthlaterfortheirretentionofthesamevocabularyitems.EachtargetwordwasmeasuredonamodifiedversionoftheVocabularyKnowledgeScale(VKS)originallydesignedbyParibakht&Wesche(1997).Themaineffectoftime(i.e.,beforelistening,immediatelyafterlistening,andonemonthafterlistening)wasfoundtobestatisticallysignificant,andtheinteractioneffectbetweenlecturelisteningandproficiencywasalsofoundtobestatisticallysignificant.VidalthusconcludedthatlisteningtoacademiclecturescanbeasourceofEFLvocabularyacquisition.ThefindingsofherstudyalsoindicatedthatthestudentswithahigherlevelofEnglishproficiencyacquiredmorevocabularyknowledge.Moreover,thestudyshowedthatsomewordswereretainedoveraperiodofonemonth.

Smidt&Hegelheimer(2004)investigatedtheeffectsofonlinelecturesonvocabularyacquisitionof24universityESLlearnersinUSA.Theparticipantscompletedapre-test,apost-testandadelayedpost-testonvocabulary,andacomputer-assistedlanguagelearning(CALL)activityincludinganacademiclecture.Thethreevocabularytestswereconstructedusing20ofthemostdifficultvocabularyitemsintheacademiclecture.TheCALLtaskconsistedofthreecomponents,anauthenticacademiclecture,tenmultiple-choicecomprehensionquestions,andaccesstoanonlinedictionary.TheCALLactivitywasadministeredthedayafterthevocabularypre-test,andthevocabularypost-testanddelayedpost-testwereseparatelyconductedtwoweeksandfourweeksafterthepre-test.Resultsshowedastatisticallysignificantdifferencebetweenthepre-testandthepost-test,andbetweenthepre-testandthedelaypost-test,whilethedecreaseofthemeanvocabularyretentionfromthepost-testtothedelayedpost-testwasnotstatisticallysignificant.TheresearchsuggestedthatincidentalvocabularyacquisitionoccurredthroughtheuseofauthenticonlinevideosofacademiclecturesintheCALLactivity.

Brown,Waring&Donkaewbua(2008)examinedvocabularyacquisitionof35pre-intermediatetointermediate-levelstudentsofEnglishinaprivateJapaneseuniversity,whoweredividedbyvariousconditionsintoareading-onlygroup,areading-while-listeninggroup,andalistening-onlygroup.Three5,500-word-longgradedgroupsofreaderswereemployedwithatotalof28substitutewordsembeddedwithineachreadingtext.Fulltextsofallthethreestorieswereprintedwithshortwrittenstoryintroductionsanddeliveredtotheparticipantsinthereading-onlyandreading-while-listeninggroups.However,onlythestoryintroductionsweregiventothelistening-onlygroup,withfullstoriesreadandrecordedatameanspeechrateof93wordsperminute.Thereadingandlisteningactivitiestookplaceduringthreeregularclassesatintervalsoftwoweeks.Twotests,ameaning-translationtestandamultiplechoicetest,weregiventoassessvariouslevelsofwordknowledge.Thesetestswereadministeredimmediatelyafterthestoryreadingorlistening,and,toexamineretentionofwordknowledge,thesametestswithadifferentitemorderweredeliveredagainoneweekafterandthreemonthsafterthetreatments.

Resultsoftheimmediatemultiplechoicetestindicatedsomeimpressivevocabularygainsof48%and45%fromthepre-testforthereading-while-listeninggroupandreading-onlygroup,andforthelistening-onlygroup,therewasa29%vocabularygain.Nevertheless,themeaning-translationtestrevealedfewerwordgains,only16%,15%and2%forthethreegroupsintheaboveorder.Brownandhiscolleaguesattributedthecomparativelyminimalvocabularyacquisitionratesofthelistening-onlygrouptothefactthatJapaneselanguagehasadifferentsyllablestructuretoEnglishandthelearnerswere“incapableofprocessingthephonologicalinformationasfastasthestreamofspeech,”andthus“failedtorecognizemanyofthespokenformsofwordsthattheyalreadyknewintheirwrittenforms”(p.148),andtheyconcludedatthisstagethatthe“inaccurateperceptionofthepronunciationofwordsandphrasesispotentiallyagreaterbarrierinlisteningthaninreading”(p.157).Anotherreasontheygavewasthatthecoveragerateofalreadyknownwords,i.e.,95%wastoolowforthelistening-onlygroup,whichmadethetaskofinferringthemeaningofthe28targetwordstoochallenging.

Kazuya(2009)investigatedtheeffectsofexplanationfromlisteningonvocabularyacquisitionof116second-yearJapanesehighschoolstudents.Ninelisteningpassageswereused,with45vocabularyitemsembedded.Inthefirstgroup,thestudentswereprovidedwithaspokenJapanesetranslationforeachtargetword;inthesecondgroup,thestudentswereprovidedwithaspokenEnglishdefinitionofeachtargetword;andinthecontrolgroup,novocabularyexplanationwasgiven.Approximately30minutesaftereachlisteningsession,animmediaterecognitionposttestandamultiple-choiceposttestweregiven.Twoweeksaftertheinstruction,thesametestswereadministeredagainasthedelayedposttests.Resultsshowedthattherewasastatisticallysignificantdifferencebetweenthethreegroupsinboththeimmediateanddelayedrecognitionposttests.TheL1translationconditionwasmoreeffectivethantheL2definitioncondition,andthecontrolconditionwastheleasteffectiveone.However,asfortheimmediateanddelayedmultiple-choiceposttests,nostatisticallysignificantdifferencebetweentheL1andL2conditionswasfound.

ThereviewedstudiesdemonstratethatlearnersacquiremeaningofnewwordsthroughlisteninginL2.VanPatten(1990)administeredastudyin202universitystudentsofSpanishtodeterminewhetherlearnersofdifferentcompetencelevelswereabletoconsciouslyattendtobothvocabularyformandmeaningwhileprocessinginputfromlistening.Thestudentswereaskedtoperformvarioustaskswhilelisteningtoapassageformeaningtotestthefollowingresearchhypotheses:①Iflearnershavedifficultyindirectingattentiontowardbothcontentandform,thenataskinvolvingconsciousattentiontonon-communicativegrammatical-morphologicalformsintheinputwillnegativelyaffectcomprehensionofcontent.②Ifthesesamelearnersarebasicallygoingformeaningfirst,ataskinvolvingconsciousattentiontoimportantlexicalitemswillnotaffectcomprehensionofcontent.③Moreadvancedlearnerswillnotexhibitthesamepatternsofperformanceonthetasksastheearlystagelearners,i.e.,moreadvancedlearnerswillbemoreabletodirectattentiontoformsincetheyarebetterequippedtoattendtocontent.

Theparticipantswereputinthreedifferentclassesaccordingtotheirlanguagelevels.Eachclasslistenedtotwopassages.Thefirstpassageservedasawarm-upandthesecondpassage,a3-minutelongrecordedsegmentoninflationinLatinAmerica,wasusedastherealsourceofdata.Theclasseswererandomlyassignedtocompleteoneoffourlisteningtasks.Task1,thecontroltask,consistedoflisteningtothepassageforcontentonly.Task2consistedoflisteningtothepassageforcontentandsimultaneouslynotingakeylexicalitem(inflación).Task3consistedoflisteningtothepassageforcontentandsimultaneouslynotingadefinitearticle(la).Task4consistedoflisteningtothepassageforcontentandsimultaneouslynotingaverbmorpheme(-n).Eachitemoccurred11or12timesinthepassage.Theparticipantswereaskedtoplaceacheckmarkanywhereontheirpapereachtimetheyheardtheitem.Foralltasks,theparticipantswereinstructedtolistenformeaningandweretoldthattheircomprehensionofthepassagewouldbeassessedafterward.Theparticipantsweretoldaboutthetopicofthepassageandsomerelatedinformationbeforelisteningtothepassage,sothattheymightactivaterelevantbackgroundknowledgetoassistintheircomprehension.ThecomprehensionassessmentconsistedoffreewrittenrecallsinEnglish.Immediatelyaftertheparticipantsheardthepassage,theywererequiredtowritedownanythingandeverythingthattheycouldrememberfromthepassage.Theserecallprotocolswereconsideredasageneralindicationofcomprehensionandwouldreflecttherelativedegreeofattentionthattheparticipantscouldpaytothecontent.Therecallprotocolsweresubsequentlyscoredindependentlyandtheinterraterreliabilitywas0.98.

Concerningthefirsttworesearchhypotheses,theresultsrevealedasignificantdropinrecallscoreswhentheparticipantswereaskedtosimultaneouslylistenforcontentandnoteagrammaticalmorphemeoflittlereferentialmeaning.Meanwhile,therewasnoevidencethatthesimultaneoustasksoflisteningforcontentandnotingalexicalitemresultinasignificantdropinrecallscores.Inotherwords,consciousattentiontoimportantlexicalitemsdidnotaffectcomprehensionofthecontent,whileconsciousattentiontonon-communicativegrammatical-morphologicalformsintheinputnegativelyaffectedcomprehensionofthecontent.Withempiricalsupportforresearchhypotheses1and2fromthestudy,theresearcherthussuggestedthat“thecommunicativelyloadeditemsininputreceiveconsciousattentionfromearlystagelearnersandbecomeavailableasintakeofthedevelopinglanguagesystem,whilegrammaticalmorphemesoflittlemeaningmaybeleftunattendedsincethey‘escape'attentiondirectedtowardmeaningorinformationcontent”(p.294).

Regardingthethirdhypothesis,mixedresultswerereceivedfromthestudy.WhileLevelIIIstudentshadsignificantlydifferentrecallscoresfromLevelIandLevelIIstudentsonthecontentonlytask(i.e.,LevelIIIcouldrecallmuchmore),theyperformedaboutthesameontheverbinflectiontask.Thisfindingshowedthatforlowerlevelstudents,theremaybenodifferencebetweenboundandfreemorphemes,butthatforhigherlevelstudentsthereis.Theresultsdonotsuggestthatearlystagelearnersarecompletelyincapableoffocusingonformintheinput,buttheresultsdosuggestthatafocusonformisprobablynotcontinuousintherealworldofinputprocessingwherethereisaprimaryfocusonmeaning.AsVanPattennoted,“simultaneousconsciousattentiontoinformationalcontentand‘meaningless'formintheinputisdifficultfortheearlystageandtheintermediatestagelearner”(p.296).

ThefindingsthatlearnershaddifficultyinattendingtoformwhichdidnotcontributesubstantiallytothemeaningoftheinputregardlessoftypeofinputledVanPattentoconcludethatconsciousattentiontoformintheinputcompeteswithconsciousattentiontomeaning,andonlywhentheinputiseasilyunderstoodcanlearnersattendtoformofimportantlexicalitemsaspartoftheintakeprocess.Inotherwords,studentscannotconcentrateonbothformandmeaningsimultaneously.

Viewedretrospectively,itcanbeconcludedfromthestudiesreviewedsofarthat:

(a)incidentalvocabularyacquisitionoccursthroughlisteninginL2;

(b)meaningofthelexicalitemsthatareimportanttothecontentismorelikelytobeacquiredthannon-communicativeitemssuchasanarticleoramorpheme;and

(c)onlywhentheinputiseasyenoughforlearnerstounderstandcantheyalsoattendtotheformoftheimportantwords.