• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1-22
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• 2007

The study examined the effects of explicit derivational morphology instruction (henceforth DMI) on the incidental vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension of 132 Korean 1st-year high school students who responded to a battery of tests (two vocabulary tests and a reading comprehension test). Multiple statistical tools were used to analyze the data: Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Simple Regression Analysis, Tests of Simple Main Effects, and effect size computation using Cohen's d. The results indicated that (a) DMI enhanced students' ability to infer word meanings in context, (b) DMI promoted high proficiency students' reading comprehension, whereas it impeded intermediate proficiency students' reading comprehension, (c) vocabulary knowledge has a strong positive predictive value for reading comprehension, and (d) the gaps of vocabulary knowledge across proficiency levels were still substantial, despite the observation that DMI promoted students' vocabulary acquisition. These results have a bearing on English as Foreign Language (EFL) reading pedagogy.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.201-209
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of narrative and expository texts on incidental vocabulary learning of Korean university EFL learners while reading. The experimental groups were divided into 3 groups. The first experimental group were exposed to narrative texts and second group received expository texts. And the third group were administered narrative and expository texts alternately. The vocabulary tests were conducted after the last session to assess the incidental vocabulary gains of the learners. The results indicated the superiority of the expository texts over narratives in terms of enhancing learners' incidental acquisition of unknown words. Moreover, the results showed that the blended reading group of expository and narrative texts did better on the vocabulary gains than those of narrative reading group and expository reading group. However, in the essay writing assessment, the expository group committed the most vocabulary errors in writing.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.487-497
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of interaction using Wiki in communication-oriented classes taught by native teachers on the incidental improvement of productive vocabulary knowledge. Eighty two university freshmen participated in the study and they were divided into two groups. Thirty eight students(Process Group) received process feedback from the teacher while forty four students(Result Group) received result feedback. They were given a short movie project working in a group of four or five people to practice interaction between peers and between students and the teacher. Data were collected from one receptive and three productive vocabulary knowledge test scores. The results showed that interaction using Wiki was conducive to the growth of productive vocabulary knowledge incidentally due to continuous opportunities to use vocabulary. The students of process feedback group made greater gains of productive vocabulary than those of result feedback group. Based on these results, pedagogical implications are discussed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.332-344
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• 2016

This study aimed at investigating the effects of grouping participants in pairs according to their relative vocabulary proficiency on the incidental improvement of vocabulary knowledge. Forty six university students were divided into three groups (high-high(n=14), high-low(n=18), or low-low(n=14)) and took part in the study. They performed three vocabulary activities in pairs as extra-class works. Data were collected from one receptive vocabulary knowledge test scores before treatment and two posttest scores after treatment. The results showed that, unlike former study results, HL dyads acquired more vocabulary receptively and productively than HH or LL dyads did, which demonstrated that collaborative pair activity was conducive to the growth of vocabulary knowledge. Furthermore, not only higher proficiency participants in HL pairs made greater vocabulary gains than participants in HH pairs did but also lower proficiency participants gained more vocabulary than participants in LL pairs did. Based on these results, we discussed pedagogical implications.