An Experimental Study On The Effects Of Different Types Of Computer-Assisted Glosses On Senior High School Students' Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

The relationship between reading and incidental vocabulary learning has long been a hot topic of discussion among researchers.Due to the development of computer and multimedia technology,considerable interest has been shown in studies to the effect of computer-assisted annotations on incidental vocabulary learning over these years(e.g.Chun & Plass,1996;Lomical,1998;Al-Seghater,2001;Taylor,2006;Yoshii,2006;Zhaleh & Mohammad & Firooz & Mostafa,2014).However,the researches on incidental vocabulary acquisition under the multimedia environment are relatively few in China and the results of which kind of annotation format is more effective still remains inconclusive abroad.Besides,most of the researches chose adults learners(college or university students)as participants while the vocabulary is also extremely important for learners in high school.Based on Mayer's Generative Theory of Multimedia Learning and Dual Coding Theory,this study aims to investigate the effects of computer-assisted glosses on high school students' vocabulary learning.Eighty-five second year senior high school students participated in the experiment and they were divided into four groups,namely,Chinese+picture,English+ picture,Chinese definition,English definition.Results from both the immediate and delayed post-test revealed three key findings.First,pictures coupled with word definitions(L1 or L2)are more effective in learning unknown vocabulary than the sole word definition.Second,there is no significant difference between these two combination groups in learning the target words,nor is L1 and L2.Third,by comparing the results between immediate vocabulary test and delayed test,it implies that L2 annotation can retain the unknown words better.This research enriches the researches on the effects of the presentation-mode issue of computer-assisted glosses on the incidental acquisition in China.What's more,it can be an effective reference for English teachers and multimedia designers on how to boost the low incidence of vocabulary retention through reading by all possible means,such as additional features of online materials designed as well as pedagogical strategies.