The Effect of Flipped Classroom on Iranian Adolescents: Elementary EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Recall and Retention

Vocabulary as an inseparable part of language learning has a vital role in communication, which requires to be taught in new approaches. A quasi-experimental method was used to achieve the aims of the current study. In doing this, 48 Iranian female adolescent elementary learners (13–17) were assigned based on the Oxford Quick Placement Test from 70 female students to take part in 4 sessions of treatment. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: an experimental group (n = 24) and a control group (n = 24). The experimental group was taught using the flipped classroom, while the control group was exposed to the conventional methods. Research instruments involving an English language placement test, vocabulary pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed test (the study lasted for 9 weeks). A list of 28 target words was given to both groups. Words were selected by the Lawshe content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI) to have validity. The findings of ANCOVA indicated that conducting the flipped classrooms has significant impacts on Iranian adolescent elementary students’ vocabulary recall and retention. Hence, it is an applicable approach that carries important implications for teachers, foreign language syllabus designers, and curriculum planners.

EMOTION-LADEN TEXTS AND WORDS

This study takes a mixed-methods approach to explore the influence of emotion-laden (positive vs. negative vs. neutral) texts and words on vocabulary learning for Spanish heritage and foreign language learners. Participants (N = 121) were tasked with learning emotion-laden pseudowords embedded in three emotion-laden texts centered around themes of bilingualism, immigration, and identity. Form recognition, translation, and multiple-choice tests were designed to measure vocabulary recall and retention. Results from a mixed-effects modeling analysis showed that the neutral and negative emotion-laden texts predicted better vocabulary learning outcomes than the positive text for both HLLs and FLLs and that neutral words were learned best by all learners. Qualitative findings from open-ended questionnaires suggest emotional arousal as another influential affective factor in vocabulary learning for learners of diverse sociolinguistic backgrounds. Directions for future emotions research in SLA and pedagogical implications of socially relevant, emotion-laden material for vocabulary learning are discussed.

Using Memes in the Language Classroom

Teaching vocabulary is a big challenge for teachers, and also a huge difficulty for students is to remember the vocabulary items. The main purpose of this study is to create an enjoyable learning and teaching environment to help students revise certain vocabulary items and make students have fun by being creative. In that, memes are trendy phenomena which are both entertaining and creative way of expressing one’s feelings on one topic. In this study, memes were used for vocabulary revision. To see its effect on vocabulary recall, a quiz was conducted before and after the experiment. To determine its effect on students’ opinions, a feedback form was also applied after the experiment. The results show that the use of memes affected the vocabulary recall of the Medicine students positively. Therefore, they could be used as one of the strategies to create an innovative learning and teaching process.

An exploratory analysis of the impact of learners’ first language on vocabulary recall using immersive technologies

This exploratory post-hoc analysis examined the impact of learners’ first language (L1) on learning vocabulary annotated in immersive 360º pictures. This analysis is a part of a larger, between-subjects study (Papin & Kaplan-Rakowski, 2020) in which learners (N=63) of French as a second language (L2) studied vocabulary annotated in (1) Two-Dimensional (2D) pictures viewed on a desktop monitor, (2) 360º pictures viewed on a desktop monitor, and (3) 360º pictures viewed using a Virtual Reality (VR) headset. A multiple regression linear model revealed that native speakers of English benefited significantly more from immersive technologies compared with L1 Chinese speakers. When low-immersion and high-immersion technologies were used, Chinese L1 speakers were significantly disadvantaged by high-immersion VR. This study has implications in the field of L2 vocabulary research and learning materials design.

Language Learning Difficulties Reported by Beginner-Level Learners of Arabic Using Online Tools

This study examined how two classes used online supplementary material to learn Arabic and the difficulties they reported in the process of their learning. The two classes have a total of 33 students who completed the course. The data from their weekly journal entries and log information from the site where the material was housed are used to describe the extent and the ways in which students used the material and issues they faced learning Arabic. Results show that students in both classes spent roughly 265 hours practicing Arabic with an average of 8 hours per student throughout the semester and that vocabulary recall and pronunciation were key struggles in their learning. Furthermore, this paper discusses some of the themes that emerged of students’ journal entries about their learning Arabic. Further implications are provided and discussed.

Situated incidental vocabulary acquisition: The effects of in-class and out-of-class novel reading

Researchers investigating the incidental acquisition of vocabulary through reading have often required participants to read in controlled classroom or lab environments. This method delimits reading to short texts read in one sitting and fashions an anomalous reading context (i. e. not mimicking ecologically valid extensive reading situations). To investigate whether the physical reading context affects incidental vocabulary acquisition, an empirical study was conducted with two groups of participants that read the same 36,711-token novel containing 49 target words – in-class readers (n = 48) and out-of-class readers (n = 32). Results showed reading context has a large effect on vocabulary recall and a medium effect on vocabulary recognition. Medium correlations were found between incidental acquisition and reading context as well as second language (L2) vocabulary size. Two standard three-explanatory-variable (L2 vocabulary size, reading context, reading time) multiple regressions accounted for 40% of the variance in vocabulary recall and 44.5% of the variance in vocabulary recognition. Nuanced distinctions between in-class and out-of-class readers were uncovered by analyzing responses to open-ended reflective questionnaire items about the study, novel, target vocabulary, and vocabulary learning strategies. A lens of criticality was used to discuss the findings in terms of their pedagogical and methodological implications.

Predicting L2 reading proficiency with modalities of vocabulary knowledge: A bootstrapping approach

Vocabulary’s relationship to reading proficiency is frequently cited as a justification for the assessment of L2 written receptive vocabulary knowledge. However, to date, there has been relatively little research regarding which modalities of vocabulary knowledge have the strongest correlations to reading proficiency, and observed differences have often been statistically non-significant. The present research employs a bootstrapping approach to reach a clearer understanding of relationships between various modalities of vocabulary knowledge to reading proficiency. Test-takers ( N = 103) answered 1000 vocabulary test items spanning the third 1000 most frequent English words in the New General Service List corpus (Browne, Culligan, & Phillips, 2013). Items were answered under four modalities: Yes/No checklists, form recall, meaning recall, and meaning recognition. These pools of test items were then sampled with replacement to create 1000 simulated tests ranging in length from five to 200 items and the results were correlated to the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC®) Reading scores. For all examined test lengths, meaning-recall vocabulary tests had the highest average correlations to reading proficiency, followed by form-recall vocabulary tests. The results indicated that tests of vocabulary recall are stronger predictors of reading proficiency than tests of vocabulary recognition, despite the theoretically closer relationship of vocabulary recognition to reading.