“Exploring the Role of
Multimedia Glosses and Strategy Use in Second Language Listening Comprehension
and Incidental Vocabulary Learning in a Mobile Environment”
The study seeks
to investigate the effects of multimedia glosses on second language listening
comprehension and incidental vocabulary learning in a mobile environment. The study
also explored the strategies used by second language learners as they
interacted with listening and multimedia glosses. Based on the multimedia
principle of Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (Mayer, 2001), three types
of gloss conditions were tested (textual-only, pictorial-only, textual-plus-pictorial).
Two other conditions with no glosses included; one of these conditions allowed
the learners to regulate their listening through an audio control tool as in
the gloss conditions, the other did not allow any kind of control to the
learner, except starting the audio file and restarting it. A listening
application for mobile devices was developed and optimized for mobile phones.
116 participants with a low-level proficiency level in English were randomly
assigned to one of these conditions. To assess their L2 listening comprehension
and incidental vocabulary learning, immediate free recall and unannounced
vocabulary tests were administered. The participants’ interaction with the
listening text and glosses was tracked in order to examine the strategies they
employed. The findings indicated that access to glosses facilitates recognition
and production of vocabulary with the type of gloss having a nonsignificant
effect. On the other hand, glosses had no effect on L2 listening comprehension.
The results also indicate that when glosses were available, analytical
listening strategies were employed more often than global listening strategies.
When no glosses were available, students showed an equal tendency for either
analytical or global listening. In addition, the participants preferred to use
the available glosses simultaneously, i.e. as they interacted with the text.
The study concluded that while access to glosses promoted vocabulary
recognition irrespective of gloss types, gloss use did not have a significant
effect on overall L2 listening comprehension.
Reference:
Çakmak, F. (2014). Exploring the role of multimedia glosses and
strategy use in second language listening comprehension and incidental
vocabulary learning in a mobile environment (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation),
Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey.
