Learning word class in a second language through vocabulary learning activities: definition-choosing, gap-filling, and sentence-writing

This article presents the results of a research project investigating how a student’s ability to successfully learn vocabulary of four word classes (nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs) is affected by the activity through which it is practised. Two-hundred and ninety-two B1 SL students of Spanish w...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: San Mateo Valdehíta, Alicia, Chacón García, Carmen
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
Repositorio:e-spacio. Repositorio Institucional de la UNED
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:e-spacio.uned.es:20.500.14468/30808
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14468/30808
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:5701 Lingüística aplicada
word class
vocabulary
learning activity
Spanish
Spanish as a Second Language
categoría gramatical
vocabulario
actividad de aprendizaje
español
español como segunda lengua
Descripción
Sumario:This article presents the results of a research project investigating how a student’s ability to successfully learn vocabulary of four word classes (nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs) is affected by the activity through which it is practised. Two-hundred and ninety-two B1 SL students of Spanish were presented with one of three different activities requiring different involvement loads: (1) choosing the appropriate definition; (2) filling in gaps in sentences; and (3) writing sentences that include target words. The analysis shows that participants recalled and recognised more nouns and fewer adverbs―the only non-inflected word class. Additionally, sentence-writing is the activity through which learning new words is the easiest; and the least effective is the definition-choosing activity.