The Effect of Video-based Materials on English Majors’ Vocabulary Acquisition

[[abstract]]近幾十年來隨著科技的發展，人們對語言學習教材的選擇也有了重大的改變。現今，影片已經成為一種廣泛應用在語言教學的教材，尤其在學習詞彙上。許多學者意識到影片在教學上的價值，並認為影片能提供學習者視聽上的資訊，進而幫助他們以有意義的學習方式習得辭彙。雖然影片廣為運用在教育上，且對教學和學習有正面影響，然而在台灣卻很少有針對學生使用影片學習詞彙的研究。其中，有關於英語系學生在自主學習環境中使用影片教材來增進詞彙能力的研究相當缺乏，還需要進一步的探討。 因此，本研究的目的在探討英語系學生在自學課堂上使用影片學習詞彙的成效以及他們對使用影片學習所抱持的態度。二十七位來自國立高雄第一科技大學英語系的學生參與此研究。在實驗過程中，所有的學生都使用影片來學習詞彙，並完成詞彙之前測與後測。實驗結束後，研究者使用訪談的方式收集學生對於使用影片學習的觀點及看法。 本研究結果顯示影片能有效提升英語系學生的詞彙能力。總體而言，學生在後測的表現有顯著的進步。另外，學生在詞彙測驗的三大考題上也都有顯著的進步，包括填空題、填充題，及定義詞彙題。 最後，訪談的結果顯示大多數學生對於使用影片學習詞彙抱持極為正面的態度，並且認為將影片融入語言學習課程中是很好的方法。此外，大多數學生表示研究中所提供的輔助教材，像是辭彙表、學習單、相關網站和線上辭典都能幫助他們在看影片時學習辭彙。根據研究的結果，本研究提出有關在課堂上使用影片教材的具體教學建議。[[abstract]]As the technology develops our choice of language learning materials has dramatically changed in the recent decades Today video has become one of the most widely adopted materials in language instruction especially in the area of vocabulary learning Many researchers also recognize the value of videos in education and assert that videos can provide both audio and visual information to enhance learners’ vocabulary acquisition in a meaningful way Despite of videos’ popularity and positive impacts on teaching and learning few studies have been conducted to examine the effect of videos on Taiwanese students’ vocabulary learning Particularly it is unclear if video-based materials could improve English majors’ vocabulary skills in a self-directed learning (SDL) environment Thus the purpose of the present study is to investigate if videos can improve English-majored students’ vocabulary skills and explore their attitudes toward video-based learning in an SDL class A total of 27 English majors were recruited to participate in the study from National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology During the experiment all the participants were instructed to watch the selected videos and took a three-part vocabulary pretest and posttest After the experiment face-to-face interviews were conducted to gather the participants’ views and opinions toward video-based learning activities The results of the study indicated that videos can effectively improve English-majored students’ vocabulary skills Overall the participants performed significantly better on the posttest In addition the students made significant progress in all three parts of the vocabulary test including the fill-in-the-blank part the gap-filling part and the define-the-word part Finally the interview analysis suggested that the majority of the participants held a positive attitude toward the video-based vocabulary learning activities and thought it was a good idea to integrate videos into language class Besides most students reported that the supplementary materials provided in the experiment were essential to support their vocabulary learning with videos such as the vocabulary list worksheets the recommended learning websites and online dictionaries Important pedagogical implications are proposed on the basis of the stud