| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄第一科技大學 === 應用英語所 === 93 === For most non-English majors, reading in English can be an ordeal when they encounter a great number of unknown words and are not able to get the main idea of the text. The use of vocabulary glosses can not only facilitate students getting instant access to word meaning, and improve their reading flow, but also integrate vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. There are many different kinds of glosses in terms of the language used (L1 or L2) or the locations, e.g. prior to the text, after the text, beside the text, or below the text. In past empirical studies, researchers investigated glosses in a variety of combinations; however, none of them studied these three kinds of glosses together: L1 glosses plus L2 example sentences, L1 in-text glosses, and L1 marginal glosses. The present study examines the effects of these glosses used by non-English majors in the technological university.
The subjects are engineering or business majors at Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology, Levels One to Four in terms of their general English courses. The experimenter divided 135 subjects into four conditions: L1 glosses plus L2 example sentences, L1 in-text glosses, L1 marginal glosses, and No-gloss.
The subjects received a vocabulary pretest, a reading comprehension test, and three vocabulary recall tests (immediate, one-week delayed, and two-week delayed). The major findings of the study are summarized as follows:
1.Combining all levels, all three experimental conditions promoted subjects’ vocabulary learning, but no significant effects were found on reading comprehension.
2.The effects of the four types of glosses for each proficiency level are: For Levels Two and Three subjects, two kinds of glosses (L1 glosses plus L2 example sentences and L1 in-text glosses) significantly facilitated their vocabulary learning, but not reading comprehension. For Levels One and Four subjects, no significant effects were found on any of the tests.
3.The business majors outperformed their engineering counterparts on the control and experimental conditions.
4.The effects of language forgetting pattern analyzed from the subjects’ vocabulary recall tests revealed higher scores on the immediate vocabulary recall test, a precipitous decrease on the first delayed vocabulary recall test one week later, and then one week after that a slight increase occurred on the second delayed vocabulary recall test.
5.Last, 75% of subjects held positive attitudes toward the use of vocabulary glosses for the purpose of aiding reading comprehension and vocabulary learning. Regarding subjects’ experiences of seeing vocabulary glosses in the past and in the present, the overall average frequency rates fell in the interval of “seldom” and “sometimes".
The present study discovered that L1 glosses plus L2 example sentences and L1 in-text glosses are particularly effective for vocabulary learning for intermediate English learning (Levels Two and Three). From the results of the vocabulary recall tests, we learn that L1 vocabulary glosses not only helped non-English majors to learn new words but also to review learned words. Hence, it is suggested that L1 glosses can also be provided in L2 reading materials for quick familiarization with word forms and meanings. Furthermore, L1 glosses can be applied for classroom use. General English instructors at technological universities could prepare a list of L1 glosses for students to preview beforehand or to review at home periodically.
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