Standard definitions versus revised definitions: Their effectiveness in understanding word meaning with Chinese adult learners of English as a foreign language

This experimental study investigates the effectiveness of definition quality and definition language format in understanding word meanings with Chinese college students of English as a foreign language.; The study adopted a 2 x 2 mixed factorial design with standard versus revised definitions as a within-subjects factor and monolingual versus bilingual definitions as a between-subjects factor. The dependent variables were subjects' responses to questions about the meanings of the twelve tested words, each presented with either a standard definition or a revised definition in English or English/Chinese format.; Ninety-eight college students from a provincial public university in China were randomly assigned to the task of writing responses to questions about the meanings of the tested words in four treatment conditions. In Format 1, six words were presented with standard definitions and the other six were presented with revised definitions; Format 2 was the opposite of Format 1. Both were monolingual (English). Format 3 and 4 were bilingual (English/Chinese) copies of Format 1 and 2.; The main effects of the two factors and interaction were examined in the measures of distinct and acceptable responses. ANOVA results showed a significant interaction between definition type and definition language format in the measure of distinct responses and no significant interaction in the measure of acceptable responses. The presence of significant interaction led to testing the simple effects of the two types of definitions by utilizing a single-factor repeated measures analysis of variance with definition type as the repeated measures. The ANOVA results showed a significant difference in favor of revised definitions for the monolingual condition in the measure of distinct responses. The absence of significant interaction in the measure of acceptable responses led to comparing the main effects of monolingual and bilingual formats on the levels of standard versus revised definitions. ANOVA results showed that, in the measure of acceptable responses, there was a significant advantage of revised definitions over standard definitions across the two types of language format: monolingual versus bilingual definitions, and a significant difference in favor of bilingual standard definitions which showed the positive effect of the use of the first language.; These results were consistent with those found in McKeown's study (1993), providing further evidence from the perspective of English as a foreign language for the conclusion suggested in previous studies that definition quality can promote word learning. An important finding in this research is that bilingual definitions appear to play an effective role in understanding the meaning of an unknown word for college students with a limited vocabulary of English as a foreign language.