The role of translation in vocabulary acquisition : a replication study
Date
2015Citation:
Alroe, M., and Reinders, H. (2015). The role of translation in vocabulary acquisition: a replication study. The Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(1), pp.38-59. http://www.ejal.eu/index.php/ejal/article/view/15Permanent link to Research Bank record:
https://hdl.handle.net/10652/3203Abstract
This study aimed to test the findings of earlier research indicating that EFL students could better learn new vocabulary via translation from L1 rather than by encountering it in the context of L2 sentences.
Over one thousand Thai freshmen students were allocated to one of three groups to learn 30 unfamiliar English words. One group studied translation pairs, a second studied the words in the context of English sentences with graphic illustrations and the third had English sentences, illustrations and Thai translation. After a brief delay participants were given a post test involving gapped sentences and translations. Results showed the students who learned via translation did not do better than the two groups who learned contextually. The findings do not support the contention that switching to L1 in EFL classes to introduce new vocabulary is justified
Keywords:
contextual learning, decontextualized learning, translation pairs, vocabulary knowledge, ESL, ESOLANZSRC Field of Research:
130207 LOTE, ESL and TESOL Curriculum and Pedagogy (excl. Māori)Copyright Holder:
Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the Journal.Copyright Notice:
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY-NC-ND) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Available Online at:
http://www.ejal.eu/index.php/ejal/article/view/15Rights:
This digital work is protected by copyright. It may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use: Any use you make of these documents or images must be for research or private study purposes only, and you may not make them available to any other person. You will recognise the author's and publishers rights and give due acknowledgement where appropriate.Metadata
Show detailed recordThis item appears in
The following license files are associated with this item:
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 New Zealand