The instructional effect of selective attention on second language vocabulary learning

The purpose of this study was to determine how the phenomenon which enables humans to selectively attend to some information and neglect others affect second language vocabulary instruction and learning when the second language is taught alongside the first language. Specific emphasis was placed on which combinations of second language vocabulary instruction would enhance learning of the second language. Additionally, the study investigated how the second language learner processes different combinations of first and second language and pictorial information when presented in instruction.;A sample of 120 military personnel composed of 62 Caucasians, 25 Hispanics, 29 Blacks and 4 Polynesians were used in the study. Of this sample, 42 subjects were females and 78 were males. The criteria for the participation in the study were proficiency in the English language and lack of familiarity with the Swahili language. To determine these, subjects were administered a demographic questionnaire which was analyzed before a second language instruction was delivered. The study was an experimental post-test only design.;The sample was taught thirty Swahili words in four groups of thirty in each group with four different instructional approaches. The first group was taught from English to Swahili, the second from Swahili to English. The third group was taught from a pictorial symbol of the words to Swahili verbal symbols and the fourth group was taught from Swahili verbal symbols to the pictorial symbols. The design of the instruction was based on the top-down, bottom-up modes of language processing. At the end of the instruction, subjects were tested and their responses were collected for analysis.;Analysis of Variance and Tukey post hoc comparisons performed on the data showed that subjects in who learned the second language from Swahili to English performed better than subjects who learned it from English to Swahili. Subjects in who learned the second language from Swahili to Pictorial Symbol also performed better than subjects who learned it from Pictorial symbol to Swahili. It was found that subjects who performed better processed the linguistic information from bottom-up, that is from sensory to semantic levels while subjects who performed poorly processed the information from semantic to sensory levels. It was found that the sequence of presentation of instruction in second language vocabulary learning differentially affected the effectiveness of learning of the second language.