The effects of emotional context and exposure frequency on L2 contextual word learning

Abstract

Objectives: An experiment was conducted to explore how emotional valence of contexts and exposure frequency of novel words affect second language (L2) contextual word learning. Methodology: Chinese native speakers who learned English in a formal classroom setting were asked to read English paragraphs with different emotional valence (positive, negative or neutral) across five different days. These paragraphs were embedded with pseudowords. During this learning process, form recognition test and meaning recall test were carried out for these pseudowords. Data and analysis: Data were analyzed using mixed-model ANOVA. Accuracy for each task was compared among the three kinds of emotional contexts. Findings/Conclusions: In the form recognition test, the accuracy in the negative context was higher than in the positive and neutral contexts, and the pseudowords were acquired much earlier. In the meaning recall test, the accuracy in the positive and negative contexts was higher than that in the neutral context. Accuracy increased gradually with the increase of exposure frequency of the pseudowords. More importantly, we found that less exposure times were needed for emotional context relative to neutral context in contextual word learning. Originality: This may be the first study to explore the influence of emotional valence and exposure frequency on L2 contextual word learning. Significance/Implications: This study underlined the importance of emotional information in L2 contextual word learning and contributed to the understanding of how emotional information and exposure frequency functions in this learning process.

Recall of Vocabulary from a Second Language: Picture Naming vs. Word Definition

“…However, learners might not be able to recall a suitable word when needed (Borodkin et al, 2016;Ellis & Lambon Ralph, 2000;Lu et al, 2017;Morett, 2019); hence, the level of language does not necessarily improve with the increase in vocabulary (Bates et al, 2001). Individuals recall words using various methods (Xue et al, 2015;Hao et al, 2021), such as by naming pictures or objectstasks that require low-level semantic processing. Other tasks require deep processing of semantic information, such as concept or word definition, wherein the individual is given a description and is asked to provide the corresponding word (Fargier & Laganaro, 2017).…”