Channels, Fall 2017

Page 44 Nanda • The L1 Context Embedding Method Limitations Because of time constraints and the size of my university, this study was most severely limited in the number of participants. Groups of 8 are more easily skewed by the natural variation of intelligence and memory capacity among individuals. A larger number of participants, such as the 60 in Zi-Gang’s original study (2015), would produce more reliable data. Another limitation was the L2 usedSpanish. If I had a knowledge of Chinese I would have been able to recreate Zi-Gang’s study (2015) more faithfully. Future Study This study could be replicated and improved with a more equal set of words and larger groups to determine more accurately which vocabulary instruction method is more effective. A larger group of participants would ensure more reliable results that are due to the factors being researched – the instruction methods, and provide a buffer against results that are the outcome of learner variation. A more equal set of target vocabulary could be created by spending more time balancing the sets of words and having them reviewed and confirmed by multiple linguists or educators. Studies could also be performed to determine whether either method is more effective when used by particular types of learners. Participants could be placed into groups according to their learner styles or even personality and the results compared. Research into this area would have great implications for foreign language educators and their ability to create differentiated explicit vocabulary instruction. Conclusion In conclusion, this paper has reviewed the importance of explicit vocabulary instruction in the foreign language classroom and the significance of deep level processing in aiding long- term retention. Two of these methods, the L1 Context Embedding Method and the Keyword Method, were tested in this study and shown to be comparable. The results show that the Keyword Method, however, appears to be moderately more effective when it comes to longer term retention. More research would be beneficial to confirm these findings and to increase the scientific knowledge of the L1 Context Embedding Method.