A Study on Facilitating Senior High School Students' L2 Literacy through Meaning-inferred and Meaning-given Vocabulary Activities

• Main Authors: Shu-Ning Weng, 翁淑寧
• Other Authors: Pi-Ching Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/40507297459782047797

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 外國語文學系專班 === 97 === This study was to investigate the effects of vocabulary learning methods on the L2 literacy development of senior high school students. In addition, the researcher explored whether the instruction enhanced the students’ vocabulary knowledge, reading comprehension, and writing ability. With the two vocabulary learning methods: the meaning-inferred (MI) method and meaning-given (MG) method, the researcher would like to know the relationship among senior high school students’ vocabulary acquisition, reading comprehension, and writing ability. The subjects in this study included 78 twelfth graders in a private high school in Shin-Ying, Tainan County. A nine-week study, composed of 8 forty-minute classes, was conducted. All the subjects were tested and received the instruction according to the class schedule. All the subjects in both groups acquired the vocabulary through different vocabulary learning methods. In the MI group, the subjects acquired the target words by doing some exercises that inferred the meaning of the words. In the MG group, they were given the meaning of the target words directly. They didn’t do any exercise to acquire the words. After that, all the subjects read the selected texts which involved the target words in it and answered the reading comprehension questions. After the instruction, all the subjects had to write a composition on the same theme as the selected texts. All the subjects took the vocabulary quizzes, including pretests, posttests and delayed-recall tests. An online assessment system was also used to know the improvement of their writing performance. In the data collection, all the vocabulary tests were collected. Learners’ response toward the questionnaire, SORWA, was also gathered to know their attitudes toward the instruction. The findings from the study were: 1.Students in both groups (MI and MG) gained in their knowledge of target words. 2.The MI group led to greater gains and greater retentions than the MG group. 3.The MI group outperformed the MG group on reading comprehension. 4.Students in both groups (MI and MG) made some improvement in writing the composition whose theme was the same as the selected text. Students in the MI group applied more target words than those in the MG group when writing related composition. 5.Students in both groups considered the instruction useful and appropriate. The subjects in the MI group estimated they had learned about 58% of all the target words, while the subjects in the MG group estimated they had learned about 30% of the target words. 6.Students in both groups considered that reading selected texts enhanced their writing ability and writing practice helped them apply the words more appropriately. According to the result of the study, the two vocabulary learning methods led to the gain of the vocabulary knowledge. Moreover, acquiring vocabulary by inferring the meaning of the word is more effective on the retention of the vocabulary, reading comprehension and writing performance than acquiring vocabulary by giving the meaning of the word directly.