Learning new word meanings from story reading: the benefit of immediate testing

Abstract

This study investigated how word meanings can be learned from natural story reading. Three experiments with adult participants compared naturalistic incidental learning with intentional learning of new meanings for familiar words, and examined the role of immediate tests in maintaining memory of new word meanings. In Experiment 1, participants learned new meanings for familiar words through incidental (story reading) and intentional (definition training task) conditions. Memory was tested with cued recall of meanings and multiple-choice meaning-to-word matching immediately and 24 h later. Results for both measures showed higher accuracy for intentional learning, which was also more time efficient than incidental learning. However, there was reasonably good learning from both methods, and items learned incidentally through stories appeared less susceptible to forgetting over 24 h. It was possible that retrieval practice at the immediate test may have aided learning and improved memory of new word meanings 24 h later, especially for the incidental story reading condition. Two preregistered experiments then examined the role of immediate testing in long-term retention of new meanings for familiar words. There was a strong testing effect for word meanings learned through intentional and incidental conditions (Experiment 2), which was non-significantly larger for items learned incidentally through stories. Both cued recall and multiple-choice tests were each individually sufficient to enhance retention compared to having no immediate test (Experiment 3), with a larger learning boost from multiple-choice. This research emphasises (i) the resilience of word meanings learned incidentally through stories and (ii) the key role that testing can play in boosting vocabulary learning from story reading.

Diversity of narrative context disrupts the early stage of learning the meanings of novel words

“…An alternative approach is to use learning studies in which these correlated variables are more tightly under experimental control. It is possible to expose participants to novel words in relatively naturalistic narratives and assess learning (e.g., Godfroid et al, 2017;Henderson et al, 2015;Hulme et al, 2019;Hulme & Rodd, 2021). Existing learning studies of contextual diversity have generated mixed findings, finding either a diversity benefit for acquiring word forms and/or meanings (Bolger et al, 2008;Frances et al, 2020;Johns et al, 2016;Kachergis et al, 2009), or a diversity cost (Mak et al, 2021;Norman et al, 2022).…”

The role of sleep in learning new meanings for familiar words through stories

“…Experiment 1 examined whether overnight consolidation is beneficial for learning new meanings for familiar words. The experiment used a between-groups design in which participants were trained on new meanings for familiar words incidentally through reading stories (as in Hulme et al, 2019;Hulme & Rodd, 2021) either in the evening or the morning (see Figure 1). This was then followed by a delay of 12 hours of either sleep or wake, and then by a test session.…”

Vocabulary Learning During Reading: Benefits of Contextual Inferences Versus Retrieval Opportunities

“…1 Whereas intentional retrieval exercises have been shown to have a positive effect on word retention, it is unclear whether positive effects of retrieval also occur during more incidental, contextualized learning activities, like story reading. There are two studies that have shown that adding (intentional) retrieval exercises may enhance contextualized word learning (Barcroft, 2015 ; Hulme & Rodd, 2021 ). Barcroft ( 2015 ) found that learners who read a text in their L2 under incidental learning conditions (i.e., without explicit instruction to learn new words from reading) benefited from retrieval opportunities created by replacing target words in the text with their L1 translation and a blank space as a prompt to fill in the missing (foreign) word.…”

“…Barcroft ( 2015 ) found that learners who read a text in their L2 under incidental learning conditions (i.e., without explicit instruction to learn new words from reading) benefited from retrieval opportunities created by replacing target words in the text with their L1 translation and a blank space as a prompt to fill in the missing (foreign) word. Moreover, Hulme and Rodd ( 2021 ) showed in a multi‐experiment study that an immediate test (i.e., retrieval practice) after reading narrative stories markedly improved the retention of new word meanings that were introduced in the story (Hulme & Rodd, 2021 ).…”

“…Retrieval exercises can thus enhance contextualized word learning. However, in the studies by Barcroft ( 2015 ) and Hulme and Rodd ( 2021 ), retrieval practice was still intentional in the sense that participants were explicitly asked to recall the target words and to complete a cloze task, type in a translation or select a translation in multiple‐choice questions. The question addressed in the present study is whether less intentional retrieval, without an overt response or instruction to retrieve words from memory, would also increase retention.…”