Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018. A reading experiment combining online and offline data evaluates the effect on second language learners' reading behaviors and lexical uptake of three gloss types designed to clarify word meaning. These are (a) textual definition, (b) textual definition accompanied by picture, and (c) picture only. We recorded eye movements while intermediate learners of English read a story presented on-screen and containing six glossed pseudowords repeated three times each. Cumulative fixation counts and time spent on the pseudowords predicted posttest performance for form recall and meaning recognition, confirming findings of previous eye-tracking studies of vocabulary acquisition from reading. However, the total visual attention given to pseudowords and glosses was smallest in the condition with picture-only glosses, and yet this condition promoted best retention of word meaning. This suggests that gloss types differentially influence learners' processing of novel words in ways that may elude the quantitative measures of attention captured by eye-tracking.

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Several research articles published in the realm of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) have reported evidence of the benefits of multimodal annotations, i.e. the provision of pictorial as well as verbal clarifications, for vocabulary uptake from reading. Almost invariably, these publications account for the observed benefits with reference to Paivio's Dual Coding Theory, suggesting it is the visual illustration of word meaning that enhances the quality of processing and hence makes new words more memorable. In this discussion article, we explore the possibility that it is not necessarily the multimodality per se that accounts for the reported benefits. Instead, we argue that the provision of multimodal annotations is one of several possible means of inviting more and/or longer attention to the annotations–with amounts of attention given to words being a significant predictor of their retention in memory. After reviewing the available research on the subject and questioning whether invoking Paivio's Dual Coding Theory is an optimal account for reported findings, we report an eye-tracking study the results of which are consistent with the alternative thesis that the advantage of multimodal glosses for word learning lies with the greater quantity of attention these glosses attract in comparison with single-mode glosses. We conclude with a call for further research on combinations and sequences of annotation types, regardless of multimodality, as ways of promoting vocabulary uptake from reading.

Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018. A reading experiment combining online and offline data evaluates the effect on second language learners' reading behaviors and lexical uptake of three gloss types designed to clarify word meaning. These are (a) textual definition, (b) textual definition accompanied by picture, and (c) picture only. We recorded eye movements while intermediate learners of English read a story presented on-screen and containing six glossed pseudowords repeated three times each. Cumulative fixation counts and time spent on the pseudowords predicted posttest performance for form recall and meaning recognition, confirming findings of previous eye-tracking studies of vocabulary acquisition from reading. However, the total visual attention given to pseudowords and glosses was smallest in the condition with picture-only glosses, and yet this condition promoted best retention of word meaning. This suggests that gloss types differentially influence learners' processing of novel words in ways that may elude the quantitative measures of attention captured by eye-tracking.

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Several research articles published in the realm of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) have reported evidence of the benefits of multimodal annotations, i.e. the provision of pictorial as well as verbal clarifications, for vocabulary uptake from reading. Almost invariably, these publications account for the observed benefits with reference to Paivio's Dual Coding Theory, suggesting it is the visual illustration of word meaning that enhances the quality of processing and hence makes new words more memorable. In this discussion article, we explore the possibility that it is not necessarily the multimodality per se that accounts for the reported benefits. Instead, we argue that the provision of multimodal annotations is one of several possible means of inviting more and/or longer attention to the annotations–with amounts of attention given to words being a significant predictor of their retention in memory. After reviewing the available research on the subject and questioning whether invoking Paivio's Dual Coding Theory is an optimal account for reported findings, we report an eye-tracking study the results of which are consistent with the alternative thesis that the advantage of multimodal glosses for word learning lies with the greater quantity of attention these glosses attract in comparison with single-mode glosses. We conclude with a call for further research on combinations and sequences of annotation types, regardless of multimodality, as ways of promoting vocabulary uptake from reading.