The focus of this dissertation is the development and testing of a CALL tool which assists learners of German with the extensive reading of German texts of their choice. The application provides functionality that enables learners to acquire new vocabulary, analyse the meaning of complex word forms and to study a word’s semantic and syntactic features with the help of corpora and online resources. It is also designed to enable instructors to create meaningful exercises to be used in classroom activities focusing on vocabulary acquisition and word formation rules. The detailed description of the software development and implementation is preceded by a review of the relevant literature in the areas of German morphology and word formation, second language acquisition and vocabulary acquisition in particular, studies on the benefits of extensive reading, the role of motivation in second language learning, CALL, and natural language processing technologies. The user study presented at the end of this dissertation shows how a first test group of learners was able to use the application for individual reading projects and presents the results of an evaluation of the software conducted by three German instructors assessing the affordances of the applications for students and potential applications for language instructors.

The focus of this dissertation is the development and testing of a CALL tool which assists learners of German with the extensive reading of German texts of their choice. The application provides functionality that enables learners to acquire new vocabulary, analyse the meaning of complex word forms and to study a word’s semantic and syntactic features with the help of corpora and online resources. It is also designed to enable instructors to create meaningful exercises to be used in classroom activities focusing on vocabulary acquisition and word formation rules. The detailed description of the software development and implementation is preceded by a review of the relevant literature in the areas of German morphology and word formation, second language acquisition and vocabulary acquisition in particular, studies on the benefits of extensive reading, the role of motivation in second language learning, CALL, and natural language processing technologies. The user study presented at the end of this dissertation shows how a first test group of learners was able to use the application for individual reading projects and presents the results of an evaluation of the software conducted by three German instructors assessing the affordances of the applications for students and potential applications for language instructors.

Students in high school have a need to be able to remember a lot of information during their years of schooling. The purpose of this study was to investigate if mnemonic techniques could help the participating students to become more efficient in recalling new English vocabulary. If the results were to indicate an increase in efficiency with either of the two techniques selected, it would make a case for using this technique in foreign- and second language learning contexts. The students who participated were taught the reminiscent technique and the loci method because these techniques focus on connecting vocabulary to existing memories, thus enabling encodement to long-term memory. Research within second language studies recommends using mnemonic techniques as a help to retrieve words. The students’ recall of vocabulary was tested after an introduction to each technique. They were given three initial tests containing 15 new English words each, a total of 45 words. The first such set tested the efficiency of the students’ own techniques, while the second and third set tested the reminiscent technique and loci method, respectively. After a period of three weeks there was a final test on all the 45 new words at once, testing the possible encodement to long-term memory. The most interesting results were found regarding the percentages of lowest difference in "decrease of retrieval rate" of each vocabulary item between the first initial tests and the final test. The smaller the decrease could indicate a stronger encodement to long-term memory. The top two recalled words were linked to the reminiscent technique and the one in third place to the loci method. Thus, there was some indication that these helped to achieve a stronger encodement to long-term memory. However, when comparing the total number of recalled words, the students’ own technique came out as the winner.

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The present project aimed to characterize the role of serial order within the working memory and language domains by first addressing a) whether serial order processing is domain-general and then b) whether serial order processing underlies vocabulary acquisition. Experiment 1 revealed that order memory in the visuo-spatial domain is qualitatively similar to order memory for verbal memoranda by reporting visuo-spatial equivalents of two well-known effects in verbal STM for serial order, repetition inhibition (e.g., Crowder, 1968) and repetition facilitation (Crowder, 1968). The effects were, however, accompanied by critical differences that may be due to modality-specific processes. Experiment 2 directly investigated whether verbal and visuo-spatial STM rely on common ordering mechanisms using a delayed recall dual-task design that contrasted two types of visuo-spatial interference tasks during a concurrent verbal serial order memory task (digit sequence memory). The visuo-spatial tasks probed either serial order STM or non-serial order (item) STM. Serial-order specific interference effects with the concurrent verbal serial order STM task were found. In experiment 3, we replicated the investigations of Experiment 2 using a word-learning paradigm as a concurrent task in place of the verbal serial order STM task that was previously used. Again interference by a visuo-spatial STM task was found only when it required memory for serial order. In sum, the results suggest that verbal and visuo-spatial STM subsystems rely on common mechanisms for serial order processing. These in turn appear to communicate with domain-specific processing substrates involved in item-level memory representations. Furthermore, the results indicate that such domain-general serial ordering mechanisms are also involved in novel word-learning. Taken together, the present findings provide crucial constraints for modeling of order representations. They also offer insight into mechanisms shared by vocabulary acquisition and STM tasks. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>Based on the survey of Chinese students in a Sweden university,the present study finds out that Chinese EFL learners at a low level can benefit from incidental English vocabulary acquisition through reading aided by glosses, that they prefer glosses in reading materials, and whether Chinese gloss and English gloss differ in effectiveness on incidental vocabulary learning.</p>

Based on the survey of Chinese students in a Sweden university,the present study finds out that Chinese EFL learners at a low level can benefit from incidental English vocabulary acquisition through reading aided by glosses, that they prefer glosses in reading materials, and whether Chinese gloss and English gloss differ in effectiveness on incidental vocabulary learning.

Video recordings can be subtitled in three ways: with first language (L1) subtitles, with second language (L2) subtitles, or with first language plus second language (bilingual or L1+L2) subtitles. The first two types of subtitles are widely discussed in previous research with regard to how they affect language learning. However, the effects of bilingual subtitles have not been widely studied. This study aims to examine the pedagogical effects of bilingual subtitles on vocabulary acquisition in the L2 classroom. A seven-week quasi-experimental study was conducted with four English-major classes in year-3 in a Chinese university: three experimental groups and one control group. Students in the three experimental classes were exposed to three documentary films on very similar topics with the three different types of subtitles in turn. They then took a vocabulary test relating to the lexical items encountered in the films. At the end of the experiment, they were given a questionnaire to explore their opinions towards differential subtitles in relation to their language learning. The results demonstrated a significant advantage of bilingual subtitling in videos for students’ receptive vocabulary knowledge and recall at post-test and this advantage was maintained at delayed post-test. The bilingual subtitles probably are more effective than monolingual subtitles with regard to students’ vocabulary acquisition in short-term and long-term. Also, bilingual subtitles were preferred by a majority of students in respect of video understanding and vocabulary learning. L2 subtitles were favoured by more students for improving their listening comprehension. Pedagogical implications for the use of differential subtitles in the L2 classroom are discussed.

This study aims to investigate to what extent Swedish upper secondary school learners of L2 English understand the meanings of polysemous words and whether puns can be used to teach such words. A test and two questionnaires were constructed to retrieve data from both students and teachers. The results of the study show that Swedish upper secondary school learners of L2 English generally have an acceptable knowledge of polysemous words, but depending on the type of program the students are attending, their understanding differs. Based on these results, it was also concluded that puns can be used in education to teach students about the meanings of polysemous words. The results from the questionnaires display that students in general have a positive attitude towards using puns in the classroom and that they found them entertaining and humorous. In addition, the students also saw this approach as beneficial to their retention and motivation. Lastly, the teachers expressed that using humor can strengthen the learning process, and if the students find the teaching situation enjoyable, they learn faster and it can increase their retention.

This study is a multi-method exploratory quantitative and qualitative examination of the degree to which students produce, share, and learn vocabulary and cooperative skills as they carry out three types of individually and cooperatively structured art-based tasks regarding carefully selected and sequenced artworks. The artwork was selected from, and the tasks were adapted from Visual Thinking Strategies, an approach for teaching art appreciated and critical thinking skills. There has been little research that reports the degree of vocabulary through the use of images in general, very little research on cooperative learning and language learning, and an extremely limited amount of research on cooperative learning carried out in the field of foreign language learning through the use of artwork in the Japanese context. This study aims to fill these gaps. There were five main purposes of this study. The first purpose was to explore the range of vocabulary elicited through the cooperatively structured art-based tasks regarding the artworks. The second purpose was to measure students’ learning and use of two cooperative skills as they carried out the art-based tasks. The third purpose was to examine the implementation of the art-based tasks adapted for language learning in the Japanese college context investigated in this study. The fourth purpose was to explore the degree to which vocabulary is produced, shared, and learned in the adapted art-based tasks. The fifth and final purpose was a qualitative and quantitative examination of students’ attitudes towards the art tasks and towards working cooperatively in groups. To answer questions based on the purposes listed above, AntWordProfiler was used to analyze students’ production of vocabulary as they wrote their individual comments about the artworks and the RANGE feature of AntWordProfiler was used to analyze the frequency of particular vocabulary within and across groups in the group activities. The degree of learning was measured through pretests and posttests adapted from the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale. Finally an ANOVA was used to compare the vocabulary learned in the individual and cooperative drawing tasks following a Latin Square design. The qualitative study involved examination of many sources of data, including the worksheets students filled out as they carried out the art-based tasks, the artwork they drew, and audio recordings. Finally, a combined qualitative and qualitative survey at the end of the semester allowed an exploration of students’ opinions regarding art-based tasks, working and learning in groups, and the class as a whole. The results to the 12 research questions showed very little predictability in the specific vocabulary elicited, but did find patterns in the frequency of vocabulary elicited through the artworks, especially in terms of the percentage of vocabulary elicited. Students showed a significant increase in vocabulary knowledge between the pretests and posttests on all tasks, although there was a significant difference in vocabulary learned by students who did the drawing task individually for one artwork over those who drew that artwork in cooperative groups. A frequency analysis of student self-reports of their use of the cooperative skills they were taught and an examination of audio recordings showed they used and processed their use of the skills in ways that cooperative research suggests are beneficial for learning. Finally, the results of the quantitative and qualitative course-final survey showed that students had generally positive attitudes towards both the learning vocabulary using artwork and working in groups and that students enjoyed interacting and learning from fellow group members. There were some negative views of the cooperative tasks that need to be addressed in future use of these tasks, primarily making students aware of the reasoning behind the way they were being asked to carry out the tasks. The findings showed teachers can use artwork with confidence that students will learn vocabulary and that students are generally positive to the cooperatively structured art-based tasks. Future research needs to be carried out with other artwork, in different contexts, with students at different levels of language ability, and with additional art-based tasks. / Teaching & Learning