A Research On The Effects Of Adding Pictures To L2 Textual Glosses On Vocabulary Learning And Retention Through Reading By Junior High School Students

Glosses have been provided with texts to explain the meaning of unknown or unfamiliar words for a long history,and a fair amount of studies have shown that glosses can be helpful aids to incidental vocabulary learning.Recent studies have provoked a controversial debate on whether the addition of pictures to glosses enhances intentional vocabulary learning through reading.Many researchers have conducted experiments,however,due to the differences of the subjects,reading materials and other conditions,there is still no agreement on the debate,which supplies spaces and chances for further studies.In view of this,based on theories of input and input enhancement,the noticing hypothesis and dual-coding theory,the present study carried out an empirical study to examine the effects of adding pictures to second language(L2)textual glosses on junior high school students’ learning and retention of word meaning and form through reading.Through the exploration,the author hopes to get a better understanding of the effects of pictures on glosses and vocabulary learning.Sixty-five students of Grade Eight of Longgang Foreign Language School in Shenzhen participated in the experiment.They were divided into two groups:group of L2 textual glosses with pictures(T+P)and group of L2 textual glosses without pictures(T-P).Then both groups were asked to take the vocabulary meaning-recognition and form-recall tests in both immediate and delayed tests after a reading comprehension task.Independent Sample T-Test and Paired T-Test were used to analyze the data of test scores.The results showed that(1)participants who had access to T+P performed better than those provided with T-P in both immediate and delayed meaning-recognition tests.(2)there is no significant difference between T+P group and T-P group in both immediate and delayed form-recall tests.Therefore,conclusions could be drawn that the addition of pictures to L2 textual glosses has positive effect on junior high school students’ vocabulary meaning recognition and retention through reading but it is ineffective on junior high school students’ learning and retention of vocabulary form through reading.