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Testing the redundancy principle and effect of mother tongue in an advance organiser for children learning a second language

Grootenhuis, E.A.J. (2022) Testing the redundancy principle and effect of mother tongue in an advance organiser for children learning a second language.

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Abstract:Learning vocabulary in a second language (L2) is essential but can be challenging, especially for newcomer children. Children need to practise with vocabulary in a way that contributes to good word retention. Digital learning environments with so-called drill exercises appear to be a good method. However, those exercises often lack a meaningful context. To offer more context to the learners an advance organiser is helpful. How information is presented (i.e., with or without on-screen text, besides images and narration) in an advance organiser has not been investigated before and previous research is divided whether on-screen text impedes or fosters learning. For L2-learning it seems that it has the potential to foster vocabulary learning. Therefore, the present study investigated the effect of redundant on-screen text on word retention. Besides, newcomers are a diverse population in terms of mother tongue and previous research showed an interdependency between mother tongue and L2-learning. That is why the present study also investigated the effect of mother tongue on the results. A digital learning environment with so-called drill exercises and an advance organiser was created and tested in a pretest-posttest-posttest design by newcomer children learning Dutch in a language class (N = 40). One group (N = 20) was provided an advance organiser with on-screen text, narration, and visual support. The other group (N = 20) was provided an advance organiser with narration and visual support. Results showed that implementing an advance organiser had a positive effect on vocabulary results on short- and long term. Besides, the advance organiser with redundant information was found to be the most effective on the long term. Indicating that not removing redundant information can be beneficial for L2-vocabulary learning. However, no effect was found for mother tongue, but future research is needed to investigate whether this finding can be supported or not.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:81 education, teaching
Programme:Educational Science and Technology MSc (60023)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/90511
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