This is a case study of vocabulary learning in Japanese for five students under two different instructional conditions. Instruction under both conditions was accomplished orally and interactively. Under one condition (the “output” condition), students initiated talking about video scenes using target words in groups of two to three students. Under the other condition (the “input‐dominant” condition), vocabulary activities were conducted primarily through the instructor, questions about video scenes. The author examines whether output activities facilitated the retention of words more efficiently than input‐dominant activities, which require students to comprehend questions involving target words but do not encourage them to use the words in communication. Data were collected at three points during one semester: one month, two months, and two and one‐half months after the initial exposure to the target words. A comprehension measure shows that the students retained more words from the output condition than they did from the input‐dominant condition two months after the initial exposures. Furthermore, the results show that two and one‐half months after the initial exposures, although there was no difference between the two conditions with respect to contextual appropriateness of word usage, students used more words studied under the output condition than under the input‐dominant condition. These results suggest that output‐focused activities help students encode surface‐level forms into memory better than input‐dominant learning activities.
Coreferential ties play an important role in extended discourse by connecting different sentences in the text mediated by common referents. Yet monitoring referential ties is a problematic area, causing miscomprehension in L2 (second language) reading. One factor involved in this problem is the variation of cohesive devices of coreferentiality among different languages. This study examines whether or not strategy training that orients students' attention toward referential processes will help them comprehend a Japanese narrative. Two groups of students enrolled in a fourth‐semester Japanese course participated in this study. The experimental group received in‐class strategy training that focused on solving referential problems and using syntactic and discourse cues. For a posttest, the students were asked to read a Japanese narrative and to rewrite the contents in English. The results show that the experimental group of students comprehended the story at the macro level significantly better than the control group of students. These results suggest that strategy training that directs students to focus on monitoring referential ties is beneficial to L2 readers' reading comprehension.
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