Vocabulary acquisition from audio-visual input: from narrow to extensive viewing

Recently, we have noticed an increasing number of studies on the value of viewing audio-visual material for stimulating second language(L2) vocabulary acquisition. Findings have shown that viewing may stimulate word learning, as does reading (Webb, 2015), but that gains remain small. That is why studies have investigated whether the addition of captioning (i.e. subtitling in the L2) may boost learning. Yet, even though it stimulates noticing, no substantial learning follows. This project will investigate three approaches to stimulate vocabulary learning from viewing. Participants in each study will be French-speaking learners of Dutch. In a first study, we will investigate the impact of narrow viewing, whose main goal is to make participants encounter the same words repeatedly in several videos, over a period of eight weeks in a pretest-posttest design. Participants(N=120) will view several videos per week in one of two conditions (with or without captioning). In a second study(N=90), a computer-assisted learning environment will be developed in which word-focused activities will be added to the video. Learners’ responses to these activities will serve as input to provide them with personalised captions (i.e. unknown words in the activities will be highlighted in the captions). In both studies, we will administer tests at different levels of sensitivity, including form recognition and recall as well as meaning recognition and recall, to measure the impact of the treatment. In a last study(N=30), we will research how we can stimulate learners’ effective use of audiovisual material outside the classroom as part of an extensive viewing program. We will investigate learners’ use and perceived usefulness for vocabulary learning during interviews after using the environment 2 weeks, 1 month and 2 months. This poster presentation will present the general outline of this PhD project, as well as the rationale, the design and instruments of each study.status: publishe