the acquisition of vocabulary through extensive reading in second language acquisition

108 Pages·2017·2.07 MB·English

CARTHAGE COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES

THE ACQUISITION OF VOCABULARY THROUGH EXTENSIVE
READING IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
A STUDY IN A BEGINNER’S SPANISH COURSE AT COLLEGE LEVEL

JENNIFER SEGADO JIMÉNEZ

A thesis submitted to Carthage College in fulfillment of the
requirements for the Degree of Master in Education
Spring 2017
ACQUISITION OF VOCABULARY IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

ABSTRACT

This study was undertaken with the goal of increasing the available
information for the debate around the best teaching strategies to use in the
learning of lexical items in Second Language Acquisition. Its purpose was to
determine the extent that extensive reading, compared to wordlists that provide
students with the translation from their first language, fostered lexical acquisition
and retention in a group of beginning college students learning Spanish. The 30
voluntary subjects in this study were enrolled as freshmen in a beginner’s
Spanish course at a private liberal arts college in the Midwest. This class was
taken as part of their language requirement. They were unmotivated and held
negative attitudes towards Spanish. The study consisted of a two-group,
pre/posttests design. The results were analyzed using a Student’s t-test. There
were 31 target words selected according to the criteria established by the
researcher. They were extracted from the text ‘Don Quijote, el último caballero’,
an adaptation of the classic work of Miguel de Cervantes by Karen Rowan. The
instrument used to prepare the participants in the control group was a 50-item
wordlist that included the target words. They were merely told to commit to
memory as many words as possible. The experimental group was instructed to
read once the text focusing on the story. The immediate posttest was
administered after they completed the treatment, whereas the delayed test took
place a week later. Both types of tests were assessed in terms of right (+1) or
wrong answer (0).
The results and data analysis confirmed the hypotheses tested. In this
study extensive reading did benefit vocabulary acquisition. As the data analysis
showed, after the treatment the voluntary participants in the experimental group
learned an average of 53.33% of the 31 target words that were selected by the
researcher. This means they increased their vocabulary an average of 6.89% by
the end of the study. That is, they at least retained 2 new words after reading the
text only once. When compared to the control group, the results found that
extensive reading was a more efficient method to acquire vocabulary than
wordlists, as the final gain of the control group was 0.63%, which translates into
only an average of 0.1953 new words learned. Likewise, given that the higher
results in the delayed posttest were those of the experimental group, it was
concluded that extensive reading led to better results in terms of word retention.
Finally, the study supports the claim that beginner readers can benefit from
extensive reading and overcome the so-called beginner’s paradox.

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ACQUISITION OF VOCABULARY IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my
committee chair, Professor Allen Klingenberg, for his guidance and assistance
throughout the writing of this research project, as well as for his kindness,
dedication and passion towards education and quantitative research. Moreover, I
really appreciate Professor Paul Zavada’s help and advice, which steered my
work in the right direction. I would also like to extend my gratitude and
appreciation to Carthage for giving me the opportunity to continue my training
and education in the US, and all the professors who have guided me in my
journey as a Target Language Expert. I leave this college with new skills, a
deeper knowledge, and a better understanding of education thanks to them.
Likewise, I owe my students much gratitude for my becoming a better teacher, a
better professional, and most importantly, a better person. They truly inspired me
day after day, and they will continue to do so when I am no longer part of
Carthage’s team. Furthermore, I should mention Ruth Solarte González, whose
warmth, sympathy, and encouragement gave me hope when I needed it the
most; and whose friendship is one of the greatest treasures I found in this land. I
cannot forget my sister, Saray, who helped me understand statistics; my cousin,
Tania, who always believed in me; and my friend, Marina, who always stayed
with me in spite of the distance. Finally, I would like to thank Ciara, Esteban, Isa,
Jun, Edgar, Claudia, Stacia, Will, Mario, Irene, Shilpa, Mónica, María, and all my
friends and family for their constant love and support wherever I may be.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT.…………...………….…………………………………..………I

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.……………………………………………..………II

TABLE OF CONTENTS...…………………….………………………..….III-IV

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION.…………………………….………..….…1-10
THE ROLE OF WORDS IN LANGUAGGE TEACHING AND LEARNING…..…..1-5
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM……...…...………….……….………….5-6
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY…………………….…………...………………..6
RESEARCH QUESTIONS….…...…………………...………...…...............7
HYPOTHESES………...….…...……………………...…………………..7-8
DEFINITION OF TERMS……...…………………………………..............8-9
CHAPTER SUMMARY……………………………………………..........9-10

CHAPTER 2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE…………….….……..11-27
HOW THE HUMAN BRAIN LEARNS WORDS….……..……...…….…....11-14
THE BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS OF EXTENSIVE READING…………..14-19
EXTENSIVE READING AND VOCABULARY ACQUISITION….……….....19-26
CHAPTER SUMMARY………………………………………………….26-27

CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY…………………....…………..........…..28-37
SAMPLE……………………………................................................28-30
DESIGN……………......................................................................30-31
MATERIALS………………………..................................................31-34
PROCEDURE……..........................................................................34-36
CHAPTER SUMMARY………………………………………………….36-37

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CHAPTER 4. RESULTS….……….....…………….…………………….38-42
OVERVIEW…………………….……...……………………………….38-39
DATA ANALYSIS RESULTS…….……………..……………………....39-41
CHAPTER SUMMARY………………………………………………….41-42

CHAPTER 5. DISCUSSION, IMPLICATIONS, AND CONCLUSIONS............43-60
DISCUSSION…………………………………………………………..43-49
RELATION OF THE RESULTS TO PREVIOUS STUDIES……..................49-51
LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH OPTIONS……..………....….52-55
CONCLUSIONS.………………………………………………………..55-60
CHAPTER SUMMARY……………………………………………...………60

REFERENCES………………………….………..……………………...61-67

APPENDIXES…………………..……….…………..…………………68-103
APPENDIX A: INFORMED CONSENT FORM.……….………………….68-69
APPENDIX B: DATA CONTROL GROUP – PRETEST…...……....…….70-74
APPENDIX C: EXPERIMENTAL CONTROL GROUP – PRETEST............75-79
APPENDIX D: DATA CONTROL GROUP – POSTTEST 1………...…….80-83
APPENDIX E: DATA EXPERIMENTAL GROUP – POSTTEST 1.........….84-87
APPENDIX F: DATA CONTROL AND EXPERIMENTAL GROUP – POSTTEST 1
………………….…………………………..……………………….……88
APPENDIX G: DATA CONTROL GROUP – POSTTEST 2………….…..89-92
APPENDIX H: DATA EXPERIMENTAL GROUP – POSTTEST 2…...……93-96
APPENDIX I: DATA CONTROL AND EXPERIMENTAL GROUP – POSTTEST 2
……………………………………………………………………….……97
APPENDIX J: DATA CONTROL AND EXPERIMENTAL GROUP – PRETEST
AND POSTTEST 1, POSTTEST 1 AND POSTTEST 2, PRETEST AND
POSTTEST 2…............................................................................98-100
APPENDIX K: OTHER TABLES.….………………...……………….101-103
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

THE ROLE OF WORDS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING
Learning a language is learning how to convey meaning(s). In other
words, learning a language is tantamount to learning meanings. This was
precisely what Halliday (1975), creator of the systemic functional linguistic model
of language, argued. His belief was that language is a product of the social
process, which arises in the life of the individual through an ongoing exchange of
meanings with significant others (1978). Nonetheless, he was not alone. Many
authors have supported the prioritization of lexis –words– over grammar (Stevick,
1976; Lewis, 1993; and Little, 1994). In fact, Lewis (1993) defended the idea that
language consists of grammaticalized lexis rather than lexicalised grammar.
Among Halliday’s supporters, it is pertinent to broach Widdowson (1989: 135), for
this linguist went so far as to state that communicative competence is not
dependent on the speaker’s knowledge of grammar rules, but on their “knowing a
stock of partially pre-assembled patterns” –which implies that the former is only
useful as long as it is put at the service of the latter.
Thus, words, as opposed to a language’s structures –grammar–, should
come first. And indeed they do, in the natural world. If one thinks of children’s
acquisition of language and speech, it seems appropriate to refer that infants
start to communicate verbally –meaning with actual words– prior to their
production of grammatically correct structures. As a matter of fact, research
(Vihman, 1996; Ferguson, 1964)–, and worldwide evidence from children and
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parents show that babies go from babble-words to an actual vocabulary of about
20 words from their 12th to their 18th month of life. More importantly, every baby
reaches a significant language milestone before they are 2 years old: the ability
to create two-word phrases1. What is extremely interesting about these two-word
phrases is that they are indistinguishably incorrect from a grammar perspective,
but irrevocably correct and effective in terms of communication, as long as the
baby’s interlocutor and the baby share the same context –which allows the
former to properly decode the message conveyed by the speaker. In other
words, these constructions are heavily dependent on the knowledge of the
situation at hand –the communicative context2. However, they also support the
idea that children start to communicate by using words meaningfully in spite of
their incorrect grammar.
Similarly, whoever finds themself in a situation where the only language
spoken is one other than the one(s) they speak fluently resembles a baby in their
initial stages of speech development –a fact that is at peace with anyone’s
intuition and coherence. When in a foreign-language environment, one would

1 This linguistic phenomenon usually happens when children reach a lexicon of 50 words.

2 On a side note, it is interesting to note how these two-word phrases are ruled by what has been called a
basic, primitive grammar and logic. In fact, there is only a number of possible combinations, as pediatric
speech-language therapist, Becca Jarzynski explains in her blog Child talk (available online at
http://www.talkingkids.org/2011/06/two-word-phrases-what-to-expect-and-how.html): description word +
object –big bubble–; possessor + object –my bubble–; more + object –more bubble–; all done/gone + object
–all done bubble–; negative + object –no bubble–; object + location –bubble up–; person doing action +
action –mama blow–; action + object –blow bubble–; person doing action + object –mama bubble–.

2 On a side note, it is interesting to note how these two-word phrases are ruled by what has been called a
basic, primitive grammar and logic. In fact, there is only a number of possible combinations, as pediatric
speech-language therapist, Becca Jarzynski explains in her blog Child talk (available online at
http://www.talkingkids.org/2011/06/two-word-phrases-what-to-expect-and-how.html): description word +
object –big bubble–; possessor + object –my bubble–; more + object –more bubble–; all done/gone + object
–all done bubble–; negative + object –no bubble–; object + location –bubble up–; person doing action +
action –mama blow–; action + object –blow bubble–; person doing action + object –mama bubble–.

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rather have words than proper structures, which is a reality that, not only every
tourist willing to order a meal or get a cab, but even the most meticulous
grammar enthusiast who has ever been abroad can bear witness to. Regarding
this issue, Laufer (1998) argues that the most striking difference between foreign
and native speakers of a language is in the quantity of words each group
possesses3. In the same line of thought, Lewis (2000) states that the single most
important task that language learners face is acquiring a sufficiently large
vocabulary to communicate with the natives of a place. In fact, it is symptomatic
how, lately, there has been an explosion of the so-called universal dictionaries in
correspondence to the boom of tourism and the democratization of traveling
–now affordable to the average citizen, who lacks many words to use in the
course of their trips. These universal dictionaries are no more than picture-based
inventories organized in usage areas or topics, but they meet the requirement for
their job –to help the user communicate effectively and fill in their vocabulary
gap(s).
Moving on to the pedagogical sphere, and more specifically, to that of
Second Language Acquisition (SLA), one would think that all this evidence ought
to lead to the realization that, should one’s wish be to either communicate –as
learners–, or help students communicate –as teachers–, it is convenient to
acquiesce to the relevance of lexis. Subsequently, the teaching and learning of
vocabulary in SLA methods should be prioritized. Such is the case made by

3 Research shows that most adult native test-takers range from 17,000 to over 40,000 words; average native
test-takers of age 8 already know 10,000 words; whereas 4-year-old native children already know 5,000
words. On the other hand, the most common vocabulary size for foreign test-takers is 4,500 words, although
they tend to reach over 10,000 words by living abroad (Goulden, Nation and Read, 1990; Nagy and Herman,
1987).
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Sinclair and Renouf (1988), who claim that a focus on vocabulary allows
teachers to emphasize meaning(s), use(s) and patterns for frequent words; while
it also fosters outcome regardless of the students’ communicative level.
Furthermore, the understanding and acquisition of concrete contents such as
vocabulary requires a smaller cognitive effort than that of grammatical rules and
meanings, whose abstractness hinders both their teaching and their learning,
especially during the initial stages. This fact notwithstanding, a method whose
focus is on the lexis does not necessarily disregard grammar, nor prohibits it.
Quite on the contrary, both dimensions are understood as inseparable and
interdependent, hence their teaching is simultaneous (Sinclair, 1991; Willis,
1993; Hunston and Francis, 1998).
Nevertheless, lexicon –the vocabulary of a language– has been,
throughout the history and evolution of the teaching of second languages, the
so-to-speak ugly duckling for many teachers who confided its learning and
acquisition to individual, autonomous study carried out by the students at home.
This, undoubtedly, was partly due to grammar being considered more important
for instruction as compared to vocabulary –regarded as easier. From the 1850s
on, and approximately for a century, it was via the Grammar-Translation Method
that language was taught in most schools (Lowe, 2003), and direct instruction on
vocabulary was presented only when a word exemplified a grammatical rule
(Kelly, 1969). Then, both the popularity of structuralism and behavioral
psychology gave rise to the Audio Lingual Method –from the 1940s until the
1970s–, which gave preference to the acquisition of oral skills –not inherently
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communicative or based on communication– as well as an accurate form and
structure, thus considerably relegating the significance of vocabulary to that of
merely an accessory of other language skills (Twaddell, 1973; Fries, 1945).
This was the scenario until the 1970s, when the Communicative Method
and the Natural Approach changed the language learning paradigm and stressed
the importance of vocabulary and its teaching in the academic sphere (Carter
and McCarthy, 1988; Laufer, 1986). In the view of Maiguashca (1993), the lexical
dimension underwent a remarkable shift from poor relation to guest of honor in
SLA research and studies –as the great increase of publications on the topic over
the following decades illustrated.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The teaching of vocabulary today is a controversial issue at best since in
spite of the general consensus that the lexical dimension is indispensable in
order to acquire a language, there are still a lot of issues to be resolved: what
kind of vocabulary must be taught, how to teach it, how the human brain acquires
(new) vocabulary and increases its lexicon, and whether explicit attention to
lexical items is absolutely necessary (Hunt and Beglar, 2005; Laufer, 2005;
Hulstijn, 2001; Huckin and Coady, 1999).
Unfortunately, so far this language learning controversy has not fostered
as big a revolution as to leap from the academic field and drastically stir up
classrooms and textbooks’ structure. Quite on the contrary, textbooks look very
similar to how they used to, and the lexicon of languages has not acquired a
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