Channels, Fall 2017

Page 40 Nanda • The L1 Context Embedding Method Testing procedure Each of the tests, the pre-test, immediate post-tests 1 and 2, and the delayed post-tests, assessed receptive, rather than productive, vocabulary knowledge. This is because receptive knowledge is the first step in vocabulary acquisition. Formal instruction seeks to introduce novel vocabulary to students and familiarize them with the words enough so that when they hear or read the words in an authentic text, they will understand the meaning and be able to benefit from the input. A deeper and fuller understanding to be able to control the word in multiple contexts will only result from much authentic input, but recognition of the vocabulary (receptive knowledge) is the first step. Each of the tests consisted of the target Spanish words plus 10 distractor words which were similar in appearance to the words the participants were taught. This resulted in 20 words for both immediate post-tests and 30 words for the delayed post-test, which were then ordered randomly. The 10 distractor words ensured that the participants were able to recognize the entire word, and not just the first few letters, which is more realistic, since students learning a language will hear and read many words that sound or appear similar. The participants were reminded before each test of how many words they were looking for, and told that they could leave the rest that were not taught blank, and that they simply had to write an English translation for each target word that they remembered. The pre- test, immediate post-tests, and delayed post-test are included in Appendices D through G. Scoring procedure For each test, participants were scored based on how many of the 10 words taught with each method were correct. No partial points were awarded; every answer received either full credit or was marked incorrect based on whether the answers were judged to exhibit understanding of the word connotation. First, any answers of nouns without the article the or verbs without the preposition to were considered correct, as well as obvious misspellings such as “to chose” instead of to choose , “boquet” for bouquet , “bling” for blind , “flat” for flag , and “causeous” for cautious . Second, answers that conveyed the same or similar meaning but were the wrong part of speech were also given credit: “caution” for cautious , “to bet” instead of bet , “to make fun of” instead of mockery , and “decision” instead of to choose . Finally, in the case of answers that indicated that the participant understood the meaning of the target word but could not retrieve the exact English word, points were also awarded. This includes “eyeglass” and “looking glass” for spyglass , “boat (group of boats/ships)” for fleet , “age or century” for century , and “can’t walk” for crippled . On the other hand, answers that were close, but not quite the same as the proper translation were not given credit: “flower” for carnation , “flower” for bouquet , “boat” for fleet , “surrender” for retreat , and “gambling” for bet . Answers for any of the distractor words were simply ignored. The pre-tests, two immediate post-tests, and the delayed post-tests were graded according to these criteria and organized into the tables in the following section.