Negotiation of meaning in l2 vocabulary acquisition in synchronous computer-mediated and face-to-face contexts / Cheah Kah Mun
Learning the vocabulary of a language is one of the essential components of learning of a second language (L2). In a language classroom, time factor prompts most of the teachers to conduct explicit vocabulary teaching which requires the learners to memorise a large amount of vocabulary (Alemi, Sa...
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Format: | Thesis |
Published: |
2016
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Online Access: | http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/6657/7/kah_mun.pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/6657/ |
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Summary: | Learning the vocabulary of a language is one of the essential components of learning of
a second language (L2). In a language classroom, time factor prompts most of the
teachers to conduct explicit vocabulary teaching which requires the learners to
memorise a large amount of vocabulary (Alemi, Sarab & Lari, 2012). But, according to
Cervatiuc (2008), although the students try to recite the new vocabulary repeatedly, it is
impossible to memorise a large amount of vocabulary. Thus, the negotiation of meaning
is recognised as a good alternative method in learning vocabulary (Smith, 2003; Varonis
and Gass, 1985). The mixed-method design (Creswell, 2014) in this study utilises the
quantitative method to investigate the effectiveness of synchronous computer-mediated
and face-to-face interactions in English vocabulary acquisition, whilst the qualitative
method is used to explore the nature of negotiation of meaning in this study. The pretest,
immediate and delayed post-tests were administered to 8 synchronous computermediated
dyads and 8 face-to-face dyads of participants. The dyads negotiated in
Facebook or face-to-face to complete information gap tasks. The results of the post-tests
indicated that although both synchronous computer-mediated and face-to-face
interactions facilitate vocabulary acquisition, the 3 weeks delayed post-test shows a
downward trend in the face-to-face group. In terms of negotiation of meaning, the
synchronous computer-mediated environment produces slightly higher production
compared to the face-to-face environment. The discourse features employed by the
synchronous computer-mediated group were different from the face-to-face group
during the negotiation of meaning. The findings in this study provide helpful insights
for educators in terms of vocabulary teaching when designing the interactive tasks. |
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