The effects of language and emotionality of stimuli on vocabulary learning

Abstract

Learning new content and vocabulary in a foreign language can be particularly difficult. Yet, there are educational programs that require people to study in a language they are not native speakers of. For this reason, it is important to understand how these learning processes work and possibly differ from native language learning, as well as to develop strategies to ease this process. The current study takes advantage of emotionality-operationally defined as positive valence and high arousal-to improve memory. In two experiments, the present paper addresses whether participants have more difficulty learning the names of objects they have never seen before in their foreign language and whether embedding them in a positive semantic context can help make learning easier. With this in mind, we had participants (with a minimum of a B2 level of English) in two experiments (43 participants in Experiment 1 and 54 in Experiment 2) read descriptions of made-up objects-either positive or neutral and either in their native or a foreign language. The effects of language varied with the difficulty of the task and measure used. In both cases, learning the words in a positive context improved learning. Importantly, the effect of emotionality was not modulated by language, suggesting that the effects of emotionality are independent of language and could potentially be a useful tool for improving foreign language vocabulary learning.

Emotion-Laden Texts and Words

“…This support comes from the influence of valence and arousal demonstrated in the mixed-effects modeling analyses and qualitative findings regarding reading topics and target vocabulary items. In response to the first research question, the results of the vocabulary tests across the three emotionladen reading contexts in the current study generally support the findings that both emotional valence (Frances et al, 2020b;Kensinger, 2009;Mizrak & Öztekin, 2016) and emotional arousal (Frances et al, 2020a;Kensinger, 2009) influence learning and retention outcomes. Specifically, a mixed-effects analysis did return significant results, predicting the neutral and negative readings as the best contexts for vocabulary learning for both FLLs and HLLs.…”

“…Given the present findings that the topics perceived as qualitatively negative, at least in part, predict better vocabulary learning outcomes, it is important to note that the literature on positive psychology and positive emotion within SLA (e.g., Frances et al, 2020aFrances et al, , 2020bFredrickson, 2003;Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005;MacIntyre & Gregersen, 2012b;MacIntyre et al, 2016) emphasizes the advantages of positive emotions and contexts over negative emotions for language achievement. However, studies also exist within psychology noting in some cases the detriment of negative emotional content on memory (e.g., Bisby et al, 2018) and in others the benefits of negative stimuli on recall (Hinojosa et al, 2020;Mizrek and Öztekin, 2016).…”

“…In addition to emotional words, emotional content also has the potential to influence vocabulary learning, though few studies in SLA are known to have yet addressed the question. In one study exploring the effects of positive semantic contexts on FL vocabulary learning, Frances et al (2020a) tasked L1 Spanish-L2 intermediate English speakers with learning pseudowords embedded in vocabulary descriptions that were either (a) positive valence and high arousal (i.e., stimulating) or (b) neutral in emotionality. Their findings revealed that the positive contexts did promote better word recognition, suggesting the benefit of positive valence texts on memory and vocabulary learning.…”

“…Though numerous scholars have taken to exploring emotion in SLA (e.g., Dewaele, 2010; MacIntyre et al, 2016; Pavlenko, 2013), research concerning the potential relationship between emotion and language achievement is still limited and is particularly scarce with respect to emotion and vocabulary learning (e.g., Frances et al, 2020a; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994). Perhaps the most commonly addressed question within this realm pertains to the connection between emotional words and recall, where scholars have largely found that emotional stimuli, both positive and negative in connotation, result in processing advantages over neutral stimuli (e.g., Altarriba & Bauer, 2004; Ayçiçegi-Dinn & Caldwell-Harris, 2009; Ferré et al, 2010; Frances et al, 2020a). In one canonical study on emotional words and recall, Ayçiçegi-Dinn and Caldwell-Harris (2009) explored differences in memory attributes of five categories of emotional words (reprimands, taboos, and negative, positive, and neutral words) for late, advanced Turkish–English bilinguals.…”

The Influence of Emotional and Foreign Language Context in Content Learning

“…Using longer texts than those used in prior research, we aimed to create a more realistic replication of information processing and acquisition. Thus, participants were required to learn interrelated facts that made a coherent whole, rather than independent pieces of information disconnected from each other (see Frances, de Bruin, & Duñabeitia, 2019, for a similar study using vocabulary learning and nonrelated information). This would allow them to create more complex networks of meaning, which in turn would allow us to understand how semantic context can affect memory for individual facts within these larger conceptual networks.…”