Implementation of assisted repeated reading techniques for the incidental acquisition of novel foreign vocabulary

Abstract

Although repeated reading – a pedagogical practice often involving phonological support in which learners revisit novel forms in context – has been extensively studied in terms of reading fluency and comprehension, little research has explored whether it promotes language acquisition. The current study, an attempt to fill this gap, found that without explicit instruction 80 Mandarin-speaking intermediate learners of Japanese as a foreign language were capable of recognizing nearly one novel foreign orthographic form in every three seeded in passages after one hour of repeated-reading-based practice. The study also shows that the efficacy of repeated reading was modulated by how the phonological practice was implemented (e.g. shadowing, time-lapse imitation, subvocalization) and whether the target vocabulary was encountered in the same or different contexts. Additionally, repeated reading was found to be more effective with target vocabulary that shares etymological roots with the learners’ L1. Pedagogical implications based on these findings are discussed in terms of how repeated-reading-based techniques should be best implemented for the most positive outcomes in terms of incidental foreign vocabulary acquisition.

Learning Vocabulary Through Assisted Repeated Reading: How Much Time Should There Be Between Repetitions of the Same Text?

“…Even when the focus of assisted repeated reading was on comprehension, students in both groups were able to learn vocabulary. This result is consistent with previous studies showing incidental vocabulary acquisition through assisted repeated reading (Liu & Todd, ; Webb & Chang, ). However, one limitation of this study was that there was no control group, and there could have been a test–retest effect.…”

“…We cannot claim, however, that vocabulary gains were exclusively due to assisted repeated reading. It also has to be noted that the comprehension activities used in the study may also have contributed to a certain level of learning, but it is hard to avoid the use of such activities if we want to ensure comprehension (Liu & Todd, ; Webb & Chang, ) or to promote exposure to the target words in a nonexplicit form. Another potential factor that could have affected learning is how often students read the words or checked the glossary (which had to be provided because of the high rate of unknown words in the text).…”

“…Liu and Todd () further examined the effects of assisted repeated reading on incidental vocabulary learning. Eighty high‐intermediate Taiwanese learners of Japanese were recruited in a university to participate in one assisted repeated reading session.…”

“… Repeated reading, which involves the reading of short passages several times, has been demonstrated to be beneficial for second language fluency (Chang & Millett, ) and vocabulary acquisition (Liu & Todd, ). Despite the increasing interest in repeated reading, no study has addressed the effects of time distribution—how different encounters with the same text should be spaced for repeated reading to have the strongest impact on second language learning, specifically on vocabulary acquisition, the focus of the present study.…”

The impact of peer corrective feedback on vocabulary development

“…The results of this study, along with several other studies (e.g., Tian & Macaro, 2012), suggest that intentional FFI is superior to incidental vocabulary exposure in classroom contexts. However, note that a number of studies have shown that a limited amount of vocabulary can also be learned incidentally (e.g., Bisson, van Heuven, Conklin, & Tunney, 2014;Gablasova, 2014;Liu & Todd, 2016;Newton, 2013;Pellicer-Sánchez, 2016).…”