Incidental Learning of Chinese Vocabulary Via English Context Reading

Authors

Kay-Ann Linton, Florida International University

Document Type

finalproject

Degree

Master of Arts

Department

Department of English

First Advisor's Name

Melissa Baralt

First Advisor's Committee Title

Major professor

Second Advisor's Name

Ellen Thompson

Second Advisor's Committee Title

committee member

Third Advisor's Name

Virginia C. Mueller Gathercole

Third Advisor's Committee Title

committee member

Date of Defense

4-12-2017

Abstract

Two research questions were posed to assess the potential of a new pedagogical tool, L1-context reading, for learning Chinese as a second language: 1) Can an alphabetic text context be used to facilitate incidental learning of logographic vocabulary? 2) Is there a difference between L1-context reading and rote memorization in acquisition of form and meaning? Twenty four Florida International University students with no knowledge of a logographic language were assigned to the L1-context Reading Group or the Rote Memorisation Group. For five minutes, the Reading Group read a list of English sentences, each containing a Chinese word, while the Rote Memorization Group read a list of target words paired with English translations. Reading Group post-test scores for meaning and form were significantly higer than chance, but not higher than the Rote Memorization Group. The findings show the potential of L1-context reading as a tool for Chinese vocabulary learning.

Identifier

FIDC006309

Recommended Citation

Linton, Kay-Ann, "Incidental Learning of Chinese Vocabulary Via English Context Reading" (2017). MA in Linguistics Final Projects. 2.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/linguistics_ma/2