vocabulary gain

The use of podcasts in learning has been supported by distance education theories that deal with the role of interaction as well as communication in improving teaching and learning. New technologies such as podcasts can have influential learner support in distance education and address learner cognitive requirements by incorporating communication within study resources. The present study investigated the effects of learners’ autonomy on their vocabulary podcasting tasks, gain and retention in an E-learning context. Two separate one-way multivariate analysis of variance (one-way MANOVA) were run in order to answer the questions. The results revealed that autonomy levels significantly affected Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary gain and retention. The participants who had higher autonomy levels had higher levels of vocabulary gain as well as retention applying audio podcasts plus still pictures and audio podcasts plus animated pictures. As the effects of attitude and autonomy on language learning are unquestionable, the present study can help teachers and learners have better considerations of attitude and autonomy in an E-learning context.

Research to date has commonly suggested that meaning inferencing through concordance lines can facilitate vocabulary learning. This facilitative role, however, may be subject to mediation by the expanded contexts of the target vocabulary item in concordance and accurate meaning inferencing. Of these plausible factors, the length of the co-text of vocabulary items in concordance context remains under researched. The present study investigated how inferencing in the context of three varying concordance lengths (i.e., two complete sentences, one complete sentence, and a truncated sentence) affect EFL learners' accurate inferencing and vocabulary gain. To this end, 66 upper intermediate learners were assigned randomly into three groups and were asked to infer the meaning of 63 unknown words over seven sessions (nine words each session). For each unknown word, three examples in three different lengths were selected. Results indicated that two complete sentence co-text led to more accurate inferencing and vocabulary gain. The pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed

With the rapid development of technology, multimedia comes into English classes and positively improves learners’ language proficiency. The present study attempted to consider the use of animated infographics on the vocabulary gain and retention of Iranian intermediate EFL students. The classes were held online through the Jitsi meet website in the autumn of 2021. To this end, 60 EFL students were selected among 90 students through a homogeneity test. At the beginning of the treatment period, a pretest was administered to both groups, and then, the participants attended 13 sessions. In these sessions, the animated group (AG) was taught through animated infographics, while the control group (CG) was instructed conventionally. The posttest and delayed posttests were administered to test the student’s vocabulary gain and retention. The findings indicated that the AG outperformed the CG significantly in the posttest and delayed posttest. Therefore, the animated infographics proved to be more effective in learning English vocabulary for these students. The results could have implications for teachers because it heightens their understanding of using technologies in general and animated infographics in particular and leads to more effective teaching methodologies.