Teaching methods emphasizing phonological forms enhance L2 vocabulary learning
BLE-BLL
- Chapuis, Nathalie Dherbey ORCID University of Fribourg; Institute of Multilingualism, Switzerland; INALCO-PLIDAM, France
- Berthele, Raphaël ORCID University of Fribourg; Institute of Multilingualism, Switzerland
- 2024
Published in:
- Language Teaching Research. - 2024
explicit / implicit teaching
French as a foreign language
L2 vocabulary teaching
L2 phonological forms
school context
English
The present study aims to measure the effects of the teaching of second language (L2)
phonological forms on L2 receptive vocabulary learning. Two teaching methods were compared
in a pre- and delayed post-test to evaluate their impact on L2 word learning. Participants
(n = 127; mean age = 12;6, i.e. 12 years and 6 months) were randomly divided in two groups
that followed either an explicit teaching method focused on L2 phonological forms, or a
communicative teaching method focused on meaning, in which L2 phonological forms were
taught implicitly. The teaching methods in the two groups aimed to foster the skills and the
learning of phonological forms involved in the development of receptive vocabulary. The
two teaching methods trained the same skills and relied on the same vocabulary. They both
targeted the phonological forms of two difficult phonemic contrasts in French as a foreign
language. The two teaching sequences took place during mandatory lessons in French as a
foreign language for six weeks (12 lessons), in a Swiss state school. Generalized mixed models
were fitted to the data to test for differences across teaching methods in their impact on L2
word learning. Overall, the results indicate that participants made significant progress in word
learning, with no significant differences between the two teaching methods. Pronunciation,
discrimination, retention in verbal working memory, and the mastery of phoneme–grapheme
correspondences are significant factors of vocabulary learning in French as foreign language.
The teaching of L2 phonological representations and the training of their processing facilitated
the learning of words in L2 French. However, the teaching of vocabulary in French as a foreign
language rarely involves a focus on phonological representations.
phonological forms on L2 receptive vocabulary learning. Two teaching methods were compared
in a pre- and delayed post-test to evaluate their impact on L2 word learning. Participants
(n = 127; mean age = 12;6, i.e. 12 years and 6 months) were randomly divided in two groups
that followed either an explicit teaching method focused on L2 phonological forms, or a
communicative teaching method focused on meaning, in which L2 phonological forms were
taught implicitly. The teaching methods in the two groups aimed to foster the skills and the
learning of phonological forms involved in the development of receptive vocabulary. The
two teaching methods trained the same skills and relied on the same vocabulary. They both
targeted the phonological forms of two difficult phonemic contrasts in French as a foreign
language. The two teaching sequences took place during mandatory lessons in French as a
foreign language for six weeks (12 lessons), in a Swiss state school. Generalized mixed models
were fitted to the data to test for differences across teaching methods in their impact on L2
word learning. Overall, the results indicate that participants made significant progress in word
learning, with no significant differences between the two teaching methods. Pronunciation,
discrimination, retention in verbal working memory, and the mastery of phoneme–grapheme
correspondences are significant factors of vocabulary learning in French as foreign language.
The teaching of L2 phonological representations and the training of their processing facilitated
the learning of words in L2 French. However, the teaching of vocabulary in French as a foreign
language rarely involves a focus on phonological representations.
- Faculty
- Faculté des lettres et des sciences humaines
- Department
- Département de plurilinguisme et didactique des langues étrangères
- Language
-
- English
- Classification
- Language, linguistics
- License
- CC BY
- Open access status
- green
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1177/13621688241270803
- ISSN 1362-1688
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/329353
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