The Role of Topic Familiarity in Incidental Vocabulary Learning and Reading Comprehension

김혜숙 중앙대학교 외국학연구소 2010 외국학연구 Vol.14 No.2

This study aims to investigate the role of topic familiarity in reading comprehension and vocabulary learning when learners read L2 texts. While numerous studies have shown that topic familiarity affect comprehension, few studies account for the relations between topic familiarity and vocabulary learning. In order to better understand the role of topic familiarity on reading comprehension and vocabulary learning, the study utilizes a pedagogical reading approach grounded by the interactive-compensatory model. A questionnaire was conducted at the end of the study to determine the level of topic familiarity on each text. A test to measure reading comprehension was used to investigate the relations of topic familiarity on understanding texts. Moreover, the data from pre- and post-vocabulary tests were analyzed to find the difference of vocabulary learning by the degree of topic familiarity. The findings indicated that topic familiarity had significant effects on the students' comprehension performance and vocabulary learning. Overall, results can be concluded that not only did topic familiarity on reading comprehension help to better understand texts, but it was also able to enhance incidental vocabulary learning.

영어듣기 주제 친숙도와 발화 속도 인지에 관한 연구

이은진(Lee Eun-Jin),차경환(Cha Kyung-Whan) 학습자중심교과교육학회 2020 학습자중심교과교육연구 Vol.20 No.21

In this study, we investigated whether the students’ perception of the speech rate was closely related to their topic familiarity or not. Fifty-two first-year university students participated in this experiment. The subjects, who listened to 10 one-minute files to mark the speech rate and the topic familiarity, were surveyed by Moaform using a Likert scale. SPSS 23 program was used for data processing and analyzed through descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, and regression analysis. The results of the study indicate that the topic familiarity shows a significant correlation with the perception of the speech rate. A simple linear regression analysis shows that topic familiarity has a significant effect on the cognition of the speech rate(p<.001). We found that it was statistically significant that the subjects felt relatively slow when their topic familiarity was high. When the subjects’ topic familiarity was low, the speech rate was recognized relatively fast. This research suggests that the perception of the speech rate is different according to the listeners’ topic familiarity. In conclusion, this study implies that EFL learners are expected to achieve a better listening outcome by activating background knowledge and topic familiarity before listening to unfamiliar materials. 본 연구는 주제 친숙도가 발화 속도 인지에 영향을 미치는지를 알아보는데 목적을 두고 있다. 연구대상은 대학교 신입생 52명의 학생들로 온라인 설문지를 통하여 1분에 해당하는 10개의 TED강좌 음성 자료를 듣고 주제친숙도와 발화속도를 5점 척도표에 표시하였다. 자료 처리는 SPSS 23 프로그램을 활용하였으며 기술통계량, 독립표본 t-검정, 회귀분석을 통해 분석하였다. 본 연구에 대한 결과로는 주제 친숙도는 발화 속도와 양의 상관관계를 보였다. 단순 선형 회귀분석을 통한 결과는 발화 속도 인식에 주제친숙도가 의미 있는 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다(p<.001). 연구 분석에 활용된 10개의 듣기 자료 중 친숙한 6개의 문항에서 학생들은 발화 속도가 느리다고 인지하였으며 유의미한 차이를 보였다. 게다가 친숙하지 않은 4개의 문항에서 발화 속도는 빠르다고 인지하였으며 이 또한 유의미한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 즉, 듣기 자료 발화 속도 인식은 학습자의 주제 친숙도에 따라 다르다는 것을 시사한다. 그러므로 학습자들은 덜 친숙한 자료를 듣기 전에 배경지식과 주제 친숙도를 활성화시킴으로써 효과적인 듣기 능력을 성취할 것으로 사료된다.

The Influence of Raters’ Topic Familiarity on Rater Severity in a Teaching Simulation Test for International Teaching Assistants

원용국 한국영어평가학회 2020 영어평가 Vol.15 No.2

Test score variability associated with characteristics of raters is considered as a construct-irrelevant variance in test scores. Several studies have tried to identify the effect of rater characteristics on test score variances in performance-based oral communication tests. However, little attention has been paid to the effect of raters’ familiarity with speech topics in an oral communication test. This study investigates how raters’ prior knowledge of test takers’ presentation topics affects rater severity in a teaching simulation test for international teaching assistants. Rating data of 162 test takers by 15 raters at a U.S. university were analysed by using a many-facet Rasch measurement (MFRM) analysis. A three-facet (i.e., examinee, rater, and topic familiarity) rating scale model with MFRM framework was fitted to estimate the magnitude of topic familiarity on rating severity. It was found that raters were harsher when they were less familiar with test takers’ speech topic. The difficulty difference between high (or mid) and low topic familiarity was 0.56 (or 0.53) in logits. There was found to be no interaction between raters’ topic familiarity and their background (NS vs NNS). The results of this study suggest that solid rater training is needed to reduce construct-irrelevant variances in test scores.

The effects of topic familiarity, vocabulary knowledge, and reading ability on L2 lexical inferencing

김윤정 한국응용언어학회 2010 응용 언어학 Vol.26 No.2

The present study investigated how topic familiarity, L2 passage-specific vocabulary knowledge and L2 reading ability measured by standardized reading test play a role in L2 lexical inferencing during reading. It employed quantitative methods of analysis to explore what factors have the most significant impact on L2 lexical inferencing. 68 Korean EFL college students participated in the study. The participants read an authentic text containing 8 unknown words and attempted to infer the meanings of the words from context. The findings show that topic familiarity had a significant impact on lexical inferencing. Those who were more familiar with the topic of the passage made substantially more correct lexical inferences compared to those who were less familiar with the topic. However, L2 reading ability and passage-specific vocabulary knowledge did not play significant roles in the process of lexical inferencing. Some pedagogical implications are suggested.

화제 친숙도가 영어 작문과 인식에 미치는 영향: 중국인 영어 학습자를 중심으로

장흔 ( Heun Jang ),조수경 ( Sookyung Cho ),박찬호 ( Chanho Park ) 한국외국어대학교 외국어교육연구소 2024 외국어교육연구 Vol.38 No.2

본 연구에서는 화제 친숙도가 중국 대학생의 작문과 인식에 미치는 영향을 살펴보고자 한다. 그간 화제 친숙도가 제2언어 학습자들의 작문과 인식에 미치는 영향을 살펴본 연구는 많았으나 이들은 학습자들의 영어 실력에 따른 차이를 면밀하게 분석하지는 않았다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 중국 대학생들을 세 개의 그룹으로 나눈 후 그룹별로 친숙한 화제와 친숙하지 않은 화제에 대해서 온라인으로 작문을 하게 한 후, 이들 중 그룹별로 3명을 선발하여 실험 진행에 관한 인터뷰를 실시하였다. 우선 이들의 작문을 어휘 및 통사적 복잡성과 문법적 정확성, 유창성 지표로 분석하였고, 그 결과 실력이 높을수록 친숙한 주제에 있어서는 좀 더 많은 단어와 서로 다른 종류의 단어를 사용하는 것으로 나타났으나, 친숙하지 않은 주제에 관한 작문을 할 경우에는 이러한 현상이 발견되지 않았다. 더불어 인터뷰 분석 결과, 모든 그룹은 친숙하지 않은 주제에 대해 작문을 할 때에는 어려운 언어나 구조를 사용하지 않는 것으로 나타났지만, 특히 영어 실력이 낮은 그룹은 더 큰 어려움을 겪는 것으로 드러났다. 이러한 결과와 관련된 교수법적 함축의미를 논의하였다. This study aims to examine the effects of topic familiarity in association with the factor of proficiency level on the writing and perceptions of second language writers. To date, several studies have attempted to examine the effects of topic familiarity both on student writing and perceptions; however, they have not rigorously compared and contrasted students of different proficiency levels. In order to bridge this gap, this study recruited 13 Chinese learners of English from three different proficiency groups respectively and asked them to write about both a familiar and an unfamiliar topic online. In addition, this study conducted interviews on three from each group after the writing tasks were completed. A multivariate analysis of variance was performed on various measures of lexical and syntactic complexity as well as accuracy and fluency. This revealed that the greater their proficiency was, they produced words in increasing variety and quantity when dealing with a familiar topic, but not when dealing with an unfamiliar one. The analysis of the interviews confirmed these findings in some sense: all groups were not likely to attempt challenging structures and languages in writing on an unfamiliar topic, with the lower group facing more difficulties in dealing with an unfamiliar topic. In accordance with these findings, pedagogical implications were discussed.

입력강화, 주제 친숙도, 학습자의 사전지식 수준이 목표문법학습 및 지문 이해도에 미치는 영향

조윤경 ( Yun Kyoung Cho ),제선미 ( Sun Mi Jae ) 글로벌영어교육학회(구 호남영어교육학회) 2013 Studies in English education Vol.18 No.1

This study sought to examine the effects of textual enhancement and topic familiarity on Korean college students` recognition of passive form and reading comprehension. It also investigated whether their effects would differ depending on learners` prior knowledge of the target form. To this end, a total of 108 Korean EFL college learners were asked to take the pretest designed to measure learners` prior knowledge of the target form and general reading ability and the posttest consisting of form recognition test and free recall task. After the topic of economic depression was selected as an unfamiliar topic based on the analysis of the two pre-questionnaires, half of the participants received two sessions of topic familiarity training using reading tasks. The major findings from MANOVAs and Duncan post-hoc analyses are summarized as follows. First, input enhancement was found to have positive effects on the learning of the passive form, and at the same time did not hinder the learners` understanding of the passages. Second, topic familiarity helped learners better understand the passages, while it did not lead to learners` recognition of the passage form. Lastly, learners` prior knowledge of the passive form was observed to intervene the effects of input enhancement and topic familiarity. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed.

주제 친숙도에 따른 문법 지식과 어휘 지식이 L2 독해에 미치는 영향

이현정 현대영미어문학회 2015 현대영미어문학 Vol.33 No.3

The present study sought to explore the relative contribution of vocabulary knowledge, grammar knowledge and topic familiarity to L2 reading comprehension. It also explored the roles of vocabulary knowledge and grammar knowledge in L2 reading comprehension depending on topic familiarity. To this end, 92 college students were asked to take vocabulary test, grammar test and reading comprehension test. Their vocabulary knowledge was measured by Vocabulary Levels Test, while a 20-item multiple-choice test was designed to measure their grammar knowledge. The reading comprehension test consisted of two expository texts, followed by ten multiple-choice questions for each text. They were also asked to fill out a questionnaire aimed to examine topic familiarity for the texts. The results of a multiple regression analysis indicated that grammar knowledge showed relative superiority over topic familiarity and vocabulary knowledge in its predictive power for L2 reading comprehension ability. Furthermore, the results of this study revealed that the relative importance of vocabulary knowledge and grammar knowledge in L2 reading comprehension varied depending on topic familiarity. Implications and limitations of the study would be discussed.

The Effects of Topic Familiarity, Vocabulary Knowledge, and Reading Ability on L2 Lexical Inferencing

Yoon-Jung Kim 한국응용언어학회 2010 응용 언어학 Vol.26 No.2

The present study investigated how topic familiarity, L2 passage-specific vocabulary knowledge and L2 reading ability measured by standardized reading test play a role in L2 lexical inferencing during reacting. It employed quantitative methods of analysis to explore what factors have the most significant impact on L2 lexical inferencing. 68 Korean EFL college students participated in the study. The participants read an authentic text containing 8 unknown words and attempted to infer the meanings of the words from context. The findings show that topic familiarity had a significant impact on lexical inferencing. Those who were more familiar with the topic of the passage made substantially more correct lexical inferences compared to those who were less familiar with the topic. However, L2 reacting ability and passage-specific vocabulary knowledge did not play significant roles in the process of lexical inferencing. Some pedagogical implications are suggested.

Letting Students Choose: How Culture Influences Text Selection in EFL Reading Courses

Robert Sheridan,Barry Condon 아시아영어교육학회 2020 The Journal of Asia TEFL Vol.17 No.2

Past research has suggested the use of culturally familiar reading texts increases language acquisition and student interest in the EFL classroom. The present study was conducted to investigate whether L2 learners prefer reading culturally familiar texts over culturally unfamiliar ones. A second prong of this study clarified which topics students are most interested in studying. As part of an elective EFL course, 43 Japanese university students were asked to select and read one simplified English newspaper article each week over a 12-week period from six topic categories: environmental issues, pop culture, tourism, sports, crime, and food. Each topic category consisted of 13 culturally familiar and 13 culturally unfamiliar simplified newspaper articles. Results revealed participants preferred culturally familiar texts to a statistically significant degree, and selected “lighter” topics more frequently than “heavier” topics. Further analyses revealed L2 proficiency had a significant effect on the cultural context that learners selected, and gender had a significant effect on the topics they chose. These findings provide important insights to EFL educators and material designers as they show learners strongly prefer culturally familiar materials, and the results further indicate broadly the kinds of cultural topics students find most interesting.

The Effect of Creating a Prior Event in Story Telling

Youngsu Kwon,Jungok Bae 언어과학회 2018 언어과학연구 Vol.0 No.86

This study investigated what effect the creation of a prior event has on content quality in story writing and if the effect varies depending on easy versus difficult topics. Two topics (overslept, digging) were selected; for each topic, two tasks (prior-required, prior-unrequired) were developed. Middle-school students performed one of the four tasks. For the easy topic, the prior-required group had a greater proportion of prior events in the writing but a significantly lower mean for content. For the difficult topic, no significant difference was found in both domains. In conclusion, the task asking students to create a prior event is more difficult and has greater discriminatory power when used with an easy topic and is recommended as a test for selection purposes.