Date of Graduation

Spring 2014

Degree

Master of Science in Education in Educational Technology

Department

Reading, Foundations, and Technology

Committee Chair

Ching-Wen Chang

Abstract

Previous studies on multimedia glosses have investigated the efficacy of different modalities of glosses (text, picture, audio, or video) on incidental vocabulary learning when learners read a passage or listen to an audio in the second language. However, no study has yet investigated the effects of multimedia glosses on incidental vocabulary learning when learners exclusively play an online hidden-object game. In this experimental study, an online hidden-object game was purposely designed to examine the effect of three modalities of multimedia glosses (picture + L1 text gloss, picture + L2 text gloss, and picture-only gloss) on fostering incidental L2 vocabulary learning and retention. English as foreign language college students (n= 162) assigned randomly to one of the three gloss conditions. They took a pretest, two immediate posttests, and two delayed posttests two weeks after. The analyses revealed that all groups benefited from playing the game with the picture + L1 text gloss group did significantly better than the other two groups in acquiring new vocabularies, as measured by the Picture Recognition Test (PRT). As for gauging the word retention, the picture + L1 text gloss group had the highest retention rate in PRTs while in Word Recognition Test (WRT) the picture + L2 text gloss slightly outperformed the other two groups. A significant correlation was found between participants' scores and their computer skills and frequency of use, while a modest negative correlation was found with their frequency of playing video games.

Keywords

incidental vocabulary learning, online video games, vocabulary retention, multimedia glosses, second language learning, CALL

Subject Categories

Instructional Media Design

Copyright

© Emad Ahmad Alghamdi

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