Evaluating phrasal verb exercises: An investigation into the effectiveness of error-free and trial-and-error learning

<p>Although phrasal verbs are perhaps the most challenging type of verb phrase for L2 students to learn, only a handful of studies have looked into the effects of methods to enhance their acquisition, but these studies focused exclusively on the use of exemplary study input materials. The present thesis investigates this topic by examining and comparing learning procedures that consist of a study trial followed by a test trial (retrieval conditions) with learning procedures that include a test trial followed by a study trial (generation conditions). In the field of cognitive psychology, these two procedures have received considerable attention for the learning of single words but less so in the field of applied linguistics for the learning of phrases. In essence, the use of retrieval and generation conditions for the learning of phrasal verbs by non-native speakers of English was examined in three separate studies in this thesis. Additionally, it investigated the extent to which versions of these conditions occur in general ESL/EFL course textbooks. The studies were carried out in L2 classrooms and data were collected electronically from a group of L2 learners whose L1 system lacks phrasal verbs. In the first study, 199 students from five parallel classes were assigned to either a retrieval condition or a generation condition. In the retrieval condition, the study trial presented a phrasal verb and a paraphrase of its meaning, and then the test trial displayed the initial letter of the verb followed by the paraphrase of the phrasal verb’s meaning. The generation condition was comprised of the same two trials; however, the order of their presentation was reversed, so the test trial preceded the study trial. In the second study, 153 students from four parallel L2 classes were assigned to one of four conditions. All the conditions were comprised of the same study trial and test trial. The study trial presented a phrasal verb along with a paraphrase of its meaning. The test trial displayed the verb of the phrasal verb followed by the paraphrase of its definition. In the study-test condition, the study trial and the test trial occurred consecutively, while in the study-delay-test condition, they were separated by approximately 6.5 minutes. In the test-study condition, the study trial occurred immediately after the test trial, while in the test-delay-study condition, a 6.5-minute interval separated the two trials. The last study examined contextualized versions of the retrieval condition and the generation condition on 172 L2 students from six parallel L2 classes. This thesis produced the following main findings. First, a vast majority (72% to be exact) of phrase learning conditions in existing course textbooks are generation-oriented. Second, the experimental studies showed that retrieval learning conditions offer significantly better short-term learning of phrasal verbs than generation learning, although no such advantage was found in long-term learning retention. Third, contextualized learning (i.e., learning phrasal verbs with the contextual support of exemplars) yields more effective learning than decontextualized learning does. Fourth, errors produced in generation conditions are difficult to unlearn. Overall, these findings provide us with some new insights about the learning and teaching of phrasal verbs. These results also have direct, meaningful pedagogical implications for the teaching of phrasal verbs as they show specifically which teaching procedures are more effective and which ones are less effective or ineffective for the learning of these difficult English verb phrases.</p>

Evaluating phrasal verb exercises: An investigation into the effectiveness of error-free and trial-and-error learning

<p>Although phrasal verbs are perhaps the most challenging type of verb phrase for L2 students to learn, only a handful of studies have looked into the effects of methods to enhance their acquisition, but these studies focused exclusively on the use of exemplary study input materials. The present thesis investigates this topic by examining and comparing learning procedures that consist of a study trial followed by a test trial (retrieval conditions) with learning procedures that include a test trial followed by a study trial (generation conditions). In the field of cognitive psychology, these two procedures have received considerable attention for the learning of single words but less so in the field of applied linguistics for the learning of phrases. In essence, the use of retrieval and generation conditions for the learning of phrasal verbs by non-native speakers of English was examined in three separate studies in this thesis. Additionally, it investigated the extent to which versions of these conditions occur in general ESL/EFL course textbooks. The studies were carried out in L2 classrooms and data were collected electronically from a group of L2 learners whose L1 system lacks phrasal verbs. In the first study, 199 students from five parallel classes were assigned to either a retrieval condition or a generation condition. In the retrieval condition, the study trial presented a phrasal verb and a paraphrase of its meaning, and then the test trial displayed the initial letter of the verb followed by the paraphrase of the phrasal verb’s meaning. The generation condition was comprised of the same two trials; however, the order of their presentation was reversed, so the test trial preceded the study trial. In the second study, 153 students from four parallel L2 classes were assigned to one of four conditions. All the conditions were comprised of the same study trial and test trial. The study trial presented a phrasal verb along with a paraphrase of its meaning. The test trial displayed the verb of the phrasal verb followed by the paraphrase of its definition. In the study-test condition, the study trial and the test trial occurred consecutively, while in the study-delay-test condition, they were separated by approximately 6.5 minutes. In the test-study condition, the study trial occurred immediately after the test trial, while in the test-delay-study condition, a 6.5-minute interval separated the two trials. The last study examined contextualized versions of the retrieval condition and the generation condition on 172 L2 students from six parallel L2 classes. This thesis produced the following main findings. First, a vast majority (72% to be exact) of phrase learning conditions in existing course textbooks are generation-oriented. Second, the experimental studies showed that retrieval learning conditions offer significantly better short-term learning of phrasal verbs than generation learning, although no such advantage was found in long-term learning retention. Third, contextualized learning (i.e., learning phrasal verbs with the contextual support of exemplars) yields more effective learning than decontextualized learning does. Fourth, errors produced in generation conditions are difficult to unlearn. Overall, these findings provide us with some new insights about the learning and teaching of phrasal verbs. These results also have direct, meaningful pedagogical implications for the teaching of phrasal verbs as they show specifically which teaching procedures are more effective and which ones are less effective or ineffective for the learning of these difficult English verb phrases.</p>

What’s New to You? Preschoolers’ Partner-Specific Online Processing of Disfluency

Speech disfluencies (e.g., “Point to thee um turtle”) can signal that a speaker is about to refer to something difficult to name. In two experiments, we found evidence that 4-year-olds, like adults, flexibly interpret a particular partner’s disfluency based on their estimate of that partner’s knowledge, derived from the preceding conversation. In entrainment trials, children established partner-specific shared knowledge of names for tangram pictures with one or two adult interlocutors. In each test trial, an adult named one of two visible tangrams either fluently or disfluently while children’s eye-movements were monitored. We manipulated speaker knowledge in the test trials. In Experiment 1, the test-trial speaker was the same speaker from entrainment or a naïve experimenter; in Experiment 2, the test-trial speaker had been one of the child’s partners in entrainment and had seen half of the tangrams (either animal or vehicle tangrams). When hearing disfluent expressions, children looked more at a tangram that was unfamiliar from the speaker’s perspective; this systematic disfluency effect disappeared in Experiment 1 when the speaker was entirely naïve, and depended on each speaker’s entrainment experience in Experiment 2. These findings show that 4-year-olds can keep track of two different partners’ knowledge states, and use this information to determine what should be difficult for a particular partner to name, doing so efficiently enough to guide online interpretation of disfluent speech.

Pendeteksi Gerakan Menggunakan Sensor PIR untuk Sistem Keamanan di Ruang Kamar Berbasis SMS

Room safety is very important considering that the crime scene is very disturbing to the public, one of which is the usual theft case. This might be caused partly because of economic factors that cause people to sometimes take shortcuts to make ends meet by stealing. So the PIR sensor sensor tool was made to detect human movements making it easier for us to control security when leaving a room empty, the media used is Mobile, by utilizing SMS facilities. The purpose of this research is the implementation of the PIR sensor as a detector of human motion in a room based on sms. This tool consists of a sensor that is a pir sensor as a detector of human motion around, and the bazzer will sound every time there is a movement that is captured by a pir sensor, a GPRS Shield which has a sim card inside that works to send SMS. This type of research used is qualitative research with experimental methods, namely by conducting a cona test (trial and error) for mechanical and electronic design components of the hadware and trying to explain. From this research produced information provider using two KC7738 PIR-based SMS sensors can be applied by the public so that they can provide information when leaving a room empty.

PERANCANGAN VIDEO ANIMASI EDUKATIF PERUBAHAN ENERGI PADA SISWA KELAS TIGA SEKOLAH DASAR

Media Pembelajaran merupakan suatu alat untuk mengkomunikasikan suatu pelajaran dari guru/pengajar untuk dapat membuat anak didik lebih mengerti dengan materi ajar. SDN 1 JATISEENG adalah sebagai objek penelitian karena selain telah menorehkan banyak prestasi di sekolah dasar yang berlokasi di kecamatan Ciledug kabupaten Cirebon ini belum memiliki media pembelajaran dalam bentuk video edukatif, dari hasil survei terhadap obyek yang penulis teliti, sekitar 28% responden anak didik merasa kesulitan dalam memahami pelajaran dan sekitar 84% tertarik untuk belajar dengan metode baru yang lebih inovatif.Teknik ini sangat menarik dan inovatif sehingga mempunyai daya tarik tersendiri bagi siswa didik dan membuat pemahaman terhadap materi bertambah, video edukatif ini akan digunakan saat mata pelajaran IPA berlangsung yaitu pada saat anak didik kelas 3 sekolah dasar mendapat materi Energi dan Perubahannya. Anime Studio Pro, Blender 3D dan Cyberlink Power Director adalah perangkat lunak untuk membuat teknik animasi dan Adobe Flash untuk membuat interaksi antar video dan pengguna.Setelah melakukan test/trial di sekolah dasar negeri 1 Jatiseeng yang ada di kecamatan Ciledug Kabupaten Cirebon, video edukatif “Energi dan Perubahannya” dengan teknik animasi ini mendapatkan hasil yang baik dengan 84% responden anak didik mengerti dengan materi yang disampaikan dalam animasi, 70% anak didik lebih memilih belajar dengan animasi dibanding dikelas dan 100 % setuju animasi diterapkan di kelas ketika belajar berlangsung. Kata kunci : video edukatif, animasi, sekolah dasar, energi dan perubahannya.

Virtual Reality Training Improves Real-World Performance on a Speeded Task

We investigated whether virtual reality (VR) training transfers to real-world performance. Participants were trained to complete a real-world maze task, which involved quickly moving an object through a tabletop maze without hitting the maze walls. Participants either trained in VR, trained by physically simulating the task (PS), or received no training (NT). After five timed training trials (or no training in the control condition), participants completed five timed test trials using the real-world maze. The VR training condition completed the maze significantly faster than the other conditions across each test trial. Other than the initial test trial where the NT condition was the slowest, the PS and NT conditions were comparable on the remaining test trials. These results suggest that VR provided trainees with an opportunity for meaningful encoding of the task, beyond the act of physically simulating the motions of the task.