Title: Investigating the effectiveness of vocabulary learning tasks from the perspective of the technique feature analysis: the effects of pictorial annotations

Authors: Yan Huang; Di Zou; Fu Lee Wang; Reggie Kwan; Haoran Xie

Addresses: The Education University of Hong Kong, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong ' The Education University of Hong Kong, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong ' The Open University of Hong Kong, 30 Good Shepherd Street, Ho Man Tin, Kowloon, Hong Kong ' The Open University of Hong Kong, 30 Good Shepherd Street, Ho Man Tin, Kowloon, Hong Kong ' The Education University of Hong Kong, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong

Abstract: This study investigates the effectiveness of three kinds of word learning exercises in terms of Nation and Webb's (2011) technique feature analysis. Three commonly used vocabulary learning tasks: reading comprehension, sentence writing, and cloze-exercise were combined with two types of annotations: pictorial annotations and textual annotations in four tasks. Tasks 1 and 3 were provided with pictorial annotation, while tasks 2 and 4 were textual annotations. 130 college students were recruited and allocated randomly to the four tasks groups to test their learning effectiveness respectively. The results demonstrated that cloze-exercises with textual glosses were as effective as reading comprehension with pictorial glosses, and cloze-exercises with pictorial glosses were as effective as sentence-writing with textual glosses, which is in accord with the checklist of technique feature analysis and confirms the effectiveness of pictorial annotations to word learning.

Keywords: technique feature analysis; pictorial annotations; vocabulary acquisition; textual annotations; imaging.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2020.106810

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2020 Vol.27 No.3, pp.254 - 273

Received: 18 Oct 2018
Accepted: 05 Mar 2019

Published online: 21 Apr 2020 *

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