Open language lessons with a brief incidental multimodal activity pairing foreign word forms with pictures for concrete, depictable vocabulary¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 4 claims (2 for, 2 mixed) · 1 study (1 causal), q3 · 1 of 1 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article recommends that teachers include an incidental learning activity at the start of a lesson to introduce new concrete, depictable vocabulary: any activity focusing attention on word forms or grammatical features while a picture is provided with each word, even though the picture is not necessary for the task. The authors note the activity "is not limited to the language classroom and could be carried out as an extracurricular activity", citing a word game as an example format.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Words must be concrete and depictable so a picture can convey meaning
• Word forms and pictures must be presented simultaneously so meaning is available early

Constraints¶

• The article warns two exposures "may not be enough in more complex contexts or when the meaning of the novel words is less clear" and that more exposure may be required for abstract nouns, verbs, or adjectives

Target Learners¶

• Adult beginner foreign language learners

Target Learning Goals¶

• Incidental acquisition of word form and meaning for concrete vocabulary

Claims¶

• The incidental learning advantage occurs from as little as two exposures to multimodal stimuli in complete beginners [+M]
• Incidental multimodal exposure produces better explicit translation-recognition performance on previously exposed words than on new words in beginner FL learners [+M]
• No significant overall linear trend of exposure number on the incidental learning effect, though two exposures yield a significantly smaller effect than eight in block 1 [~M]
• Per-exposure learning gains decrease as the number of exposures increases: a small but significant negative linear trend in the normalized incidental learning effect [~M]

Related Strategies¶

• Picture Dictionaries
• Keyword Mnemonic

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Marie-Josée Bisson, Walter J. B. van Heuven, Kathy Conklin, and Richard J. Tunney. (2014). The Role of Repeated Exposure to Multimodal Input in Incidental Acquisition of Foreign Language Vocabulary. Language Learning 64:4. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12085