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INCIDENTAL VOCABULARY LEARNING THROUGH VIEWING VIDEO
THE ROLE OF VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE AND WORKING MEMORY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2020
Abstract
There is growing evidence that L2 learners pick up new words while viewing video but little is known about the role of individual differences. This study explores incidental learning after viewing a French documentary containing 15 pseudowords and investigates whether learning is moderated by participants’ prior vocabulary knowledge and working memory. Sixty-three higher-intermediate learners of French participated in this study. Prior vocabulary knowledge was measured by means of a French meaning recognition test. Participants also took a forward digit-span (phonological short-term memory), a backward digit-span, and an operation-span task (complex working memory). After viewing the video, four surprise vocabulary tests on form and meaning were administered. Results revealed that learning gains occurred at the level of form and meaning recognition. Vocabulary knowledge was positively related to picking up new words from video. Complex working memory correlated with the recognition tests showing more incidental learning gains for learners with higher complex working memory.
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- Research Article
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- Open Practices
Open materials
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- © Cambridge University Press 2020
Footnotes
The experiment in this article earned an Open Materials badge for transparent practices. The materials are available at https://www.iris-database.org/iris/app/home/detail?id=york:937077.
I would like to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and Elke Peters for her suggestions on an earlier draft of this article. I am also grateful to Bert Vandenberghe and Isabeau Fievez for helping me organize the data collection and Belén Fernández-Castilla for her help with the statistical analyses.
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