The effects of glossing on incidental vocabulary learning during second language reading: based on an eye‐tracking study

Abstract

Providing glosses that explain the meanings of unknown words is a common method of promoting learners' learning of new words. Numerous studies have shown that compared with no-gloss condition, glosses benefit the learning of the meaning of new words. This study combines both online (i.e., eye-tracking) and offline (i.e., immediate vocabulary tests) measures to investigate the influences of glosses on incidental vocabulary learning and evaluating the degree to which glossing influences reading behaviour during second language (L2) reading. The eye movements of 45 high-intermediate adult learners of English were recorded when they read a text presented on-screen. Two different text versions (both with 17 new words) were presented to two different groups of participants: first language (L1) textual glossed and no-glossed. After reading, unannounced vocabulary tests were administered to gauge learners' recall and recognition of vocabulary meaning. Learners performed better in meaning recall and meaning recognition tests under L1-glossed condition. Eye-tracking measures of the target words were significantly different in two conditions. Eye-tracking measures of new words and their glosses in L1-glossed condition were significantly correlated with learners' scores of vocabulary tests. L1 glosses promote the learning of the meaning of new words in an incidental condition. The attention allocated to the new words is different in L1-glossed and no-glossed conditions. More importantly, there is a relationship between the online reading behaviour and the vocabulary test performance in gloss condition.

Multimedia Gloss Presentation: Learners' Preference and the Effects on EFL Vocabulary Learning and Reading Comprehension

“…In relation to research question 1, the results first showed that all the four groups got higher scores on the posttest than those on pretests on both vocabulary production and recognition tasks, suggesting the effectiveness of multimedia glosses on vocabulary acquisition. In previous research (e.g., Abuseileek, 2011 ; Rouhi and Mohebbi, 2012 ; Ramezanali and Faez, 2019 ; Ouyang et al, 2020 ), the positive effects of multimedia glosses on vocabulary tests have also been found. In addition, students in all four groups achieved better gains on vocabulary recognition tests (overall gains: 14.01, from 14.78 to 28.79) than on vocabulary production tests (overall gains: 6.35, from 3.56 to 9.91), showing that multimedia glosses facilitate learning knowledge of recognition more than learning of recall knowledge.…”

“…Several studies have confirmed that the adoption of multimedia glosses promote leaners' vocabulary knowledge (e.g., Abuseileek, 2011 ; Rouhi and Mohebbi, 2012 ; Ramezanali and Faez, 2019 ; Ouyang et al, 2020 ). However, the results are inconsistent regarding the effectiveness of different glossing modes on vocabulary learning.…”

“…Extensive research has been carried out on the effects of multimedia glossing on learners' vocabulary acquisition, and most of the studies suggest that the addition of multimedia glossing facilitates learners' vocabulary learning. In a recent study, Ouyang et al ( 2020 ) conducted an eye-tracking study to investigate the effectiveness of multimedia glosses on incidental word learning. Forty-five high-intermediate EFL learners were assigned to two conditions: textual gloss and no glosses.…”

Glossing and vocabulary learning

“…When some of the participants were asked to infer the meaning of the target words with the text at their disposal, they often failed to do so, which suggests they simply did not recognize the purpose of the appositives. In other studies, where in-text glosses were more clearly signalled as word clarifications, these did yield comparatively good results (Ouyang et al, 2020;Zhang & Webb, 2019, for recent examples). A re-assessment of the effectiveness of in-text glosses may become feasible when more studies comparing in-text and marginal glosses become available.…”

“…In comparison, eye-tracking (e.g., Ouyang et al, 2020) can provide not only data regarding attention to the glossed items but also regarding additional instances (if any) of the target words in the text. Moreover, it can capture what part of a gloss attracts attention the most (which may be useful, for example, to evaluate the respective contributions of pictorial and textual information in a multimodal gloss) and it can capture how a reader's eyes move back and forth between a gloss and the instance of the word in the text (which may be indicative of the effort the reader puts into establishing a correspondence between the information in the gloss and the contextual use of the word).…”