The effect of type of written exercise on L2 vocabulary retention

    Authors

    K. S. Folse

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Tesol Q.

    Keywords

    Education & Educational Research; Linguistics

    Abstract

    The present Study used a within-subjects design to examine the effect of the type of written exercise on L2 vocabulary retention. Using input for the meaning and usage of the new words from a specially prepared minidictionary, university intensive English program students (n = 154) practiced target vocabulary in three types of written exercises conditions: one fill-in-the-blank exercise, three fill-in-the-blank exercises, and one original-sentence-writing exercise. Ail unannounced posttest Using a modified version of the vocabulary knowledge scale tested the meaning of the word (L1 translation or L2 synonym) and usage of the word in a student-written sentence. A repeated measures ANOVA revealed that mean scores for the three exercise types were significantly different from each other, with words practiced under the three fill-in-the-blank exercises condition retained much better than those practiced under either of the other two exercise conditions. The findings Suggest the important feature of a given L2 vocabulary exercise is not depth of word processing but number of word retrievals required. This result has implications for language teachers, curriculum designers, and, in particular, materials writers of traditional workbooks and CALL materials.

    Journal Title

    Tesol Quarterly

    Volume

    40

    Issue/Number

    2

    Publication Date

    1-1-2006

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    273

    Last Page

    293

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000203292600002

    ISSN

    0039-8322

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