Effects of Visible and Invisible Hyperlinks on Voc

EffectsofVisibleandInvisibleHyperlinksonVocabularyAcquisitionandReadingComprehensionforHigh-andAverage-ForeignLanguageAchievers[*]OfeliaR.NIKOLOVASouthernIllinoisUniversityatCarbondale,UnitedStatesAbstract:ThisstudyinvestigatedtheeffectsofvisibleandinvisiblelinksforannotatedwordsinacomputermoduleforlearningFrenchonthevocabularyacquisitionandreadingcomprehensionoftwotypesofstudents-high-andaverage-achievers.Twohundredandsixtyfoursecond-semesterstudentsofFrenchwereidentifiedashigh-oraverage-achievers.Eachtypeofstudentswasthenrandomlyassignedtotwogroups-withvisibleorinvisiblehyperlinks.AllstudentswereinstructedtoreadashortpassageinFrench(181words)forgeneralcomprehensionandallowedtoconsulttheannotatedwords(madevisiblebyboldfaceforthevisiblelinksgroup)asmuchastheyneeded.Thestudentstookavocabularypretestandanimmediateanddelayed(twoweeks)vocabularyandreadingcomprehensionposttest.Theresultsofthestudyshowedthataverage-achieversbenefitedmorefromthevisiblelinksforvocabularyacquisitionandreadingcomprehensionthanhigh-achievers.Theresultsarediscussedinlightofsecondlanguageacquisitionandgifted-studenttheoriesandsuggestionsforfutureresearcharemade.z1.Introductionz2.Reviewofrelatedliteraturez3.Hypothesesz4.Methodologyz5.Discussionz6.Conclusions,limitationsandrecommendationszReferenceszAppendices1.IntroductionhepresentstudyreportsdatafromaninvestigationoftheeffectsofvisibleandinvisiblehyperlinksinaFrenchtextonthevocabularyrecallandreadingcomprehensionofaverage-andhigh-achievingstudents,learningFrenchasaforeignlanguage.Thisinvestigationsoughtalsic.orgoualsic.u-strasbg.frVolume7,2004articlemisenligneennovembre2004pp29-53RechercheNovembre2004ALSICvol07-page29deO.R.Nikolova(average-achieverswithvisibleandinvisiblelinksandhigh-achieverswithvisibleandinvisiblelinks)ontheirimmediateandtwo-weekdelayedvocabularyrecallandreadingcomprehensiontests.2.Reviewofrelatedliterature2.1.VocabularyacquisitionRecently,vocabularyacquisitionhasbeenoneofthemostactivelyresearchedtopicsinsecondlanguageacquisition(SLA)duemainlytotheimpactvocabularyhasonsuccessfulcommunication([Levelt89];[Meara95]).Thetopicishoweverriddenwithcontroversy.Someresearchers[Bogaards01]accusethefieldoflackingrigorinitsverydefinitionofthetermword.Theyalsochallengethenotionofvocabularylearningclaimingthatlearningofessentiallypolysemiclexicalunitsisamulti-stepprocessandrequiresmorethanoneexposuretotheunit,leavingthelearnermostofthetimeinastatebetweenfullignoranceandcompleteknowledge.Atthesametime,thebulkoftheresearchdoneinthefieldinvolvesexperiments,whichexposethelearnerstofewoccurrencesofthetargetlexicalitemsandusethewidely-acceptedlayman'stermofword([ChunPlass96a];[DeRidder02];[HulstijnHollander96]).Realizingthecomplexityoftheissue,inthepresentpaperwehavefollowedthetraditionalpatternofexperimentalsetuptoallowforcomparabilitybetweenthecurrentstudyandprevioussimilarstudiesaswellasinordertofacilitateoperationalizationoftheterms.Weareawarethoughthatvocabularylearningorrecallinthecontextofthisarticleappliesonlytothemeaningofthetargetwordsencounteredinthetextanddoesnotnecessarilyinvolvecompleteknowledgeofthelexicalitemwithallitspossiblemeanings.2.2.VocabularyacquisitionandreadingcomprehensionForeignlanguagevocabularyalsoplaysanimportantroleinachievinghigh-levelreadingabilityandenhancingcomprehension([AndersonFreebody81];[Markham89];[SegalowitzWatson95]).Itisnecessarytopointoutthattherelationshipbetweenvocabularyacquisitionandreadingcomprehensionisnotacompletelystraightforwardone.Readingcomprehensionrequiresahostofinteractivevariables,whichoperateinacomplicatedunison[ChunPlass97].Readingisthusdependentnotonlyonvocabularyknowledge,butalsoonworld/backgroundknowledge,synthesisandevaluationskillsandstrategies,andmetacognitiveknowledgeandskillmonitoring.Therelationshipbetweenvocabularyknowledgeandreadingalbeitnotexclusiveremainsanimportantone.Eventhoughsomerecentstudieshavebeenpublishedwhichchallengethisrole([Chodkiewicz01];[LauferNation01]),itiswidelybelievedthatreadingisanimportantsourceofvocabularyacquisitionbothinL1andL2(seediscussionsin[Bogaards01];[Krashen89];[Watanabe97]).2.3.ModalitiesofvocabularyacquisitionAvarietyofmodalitiesofvocabularyacquisitionhavebeentheobjectofresearchinthefieldofSLA:negotiationofmeaning,incidentallearning,guessingfromcontext,useofcognates,Novembre2004ALSICvol07-page30deO.R.Nikolova