Effects Of Different Types Of Glosses On English Reading And Vocabulary Learning Through Reading

Glossing,as an effective way to facilitate vocabulary acquisition through reading,has drawn more and more attention.When research on glossing began in 1990s,a large body of it focused on the role of glosses in reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition.Research and studies have reinforced the notion that glosses play a positive role in reading and vocabulary acquisition.In recent years,researchers began to shift their interest to which types of glosses are more beneficial to language learners,including the languages of glosses,the positions of glosses,the modalities of glosses,and the formats of glosses.As for the research on gloss languages and positions,the results varied greatly.Such inconclusive results call for further exploration of the effects of different gloss languages and positions to find out which types of glosses are more effective.The present study is an attempt to explore the effects of different types of glosses(Chinese interlinear glosses,English interlinear glosses,Chinese endnote glosses,and English endnote glosses)on reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition under the theoretical framework of Noticing Theory,Bilingual Lexicon Theory,and Depth of Processing Theory.The participants in the present study were students from two parallel classes of grade two in Shandong Experimental High School.They were randomly divided into five groups,namely,the Chinese interlinear gloss group,the English interlinear gloss group,the Chinese endnote gloss group,the English endnote gloss group,and non-glossed group.Then,the participants were asked to finish reading the assigned texts with follow-up questions within the required time.After that,an immediate vocabulary test and a delayed vocabulary test were administered immediately and two weeks after reading respectively.At last,a questionnaire was assigned to explore the students' attitudes toward different types of glosses.The results of the present study are as follows:Firstly,in immediate vocabulary test,the four glossed groups performed significantly better than the non-glossed group,indicating that glosses could facilitate immediate vocabulary uptake through reading.Secondly,in delayed vocabulary test,all the scores of five groups dropped for different degrees compared with those of immediate vocabulary test.Although the glossed groups got better scores than the non-glossed group,no significant difference was found among the five groups,suggesting that providing glosses was not significantly effective in the retention of target words.Thirdly,in reading comprehension test,all the glossed groups outperformed the non-glossed group,with three glossed groups performing significantly better than the non-glossed group,indicating that glosses could facilitate reading.What is more,participants reading Chinese interlinear glosses got best scores in all three tests,revealing the superiority of Chinese interlinear glosses.In conclusion,the present study provides more support to the effectiveness of glosses on reading and vocabulary acquisition.Based on the findings of the study,pedagogical implications are provided from the perspectives of students learning English as a foreign language,teachers,and textbook editors.In the end,limitations of the study and suggestions for further research are proposed.