| Title of paper: | Teaching vocabulary to Turkish young learners in semantically related and semantically unrelated sets by using digital storytelling.
Reference: Aitkuzhinova-Arslan, A., Gün, S.,& Üstünel, E. (2016). Teaching vocabulary to Turkish young learners in semantically related and semantically unrelated sets by using digital storytelling. Journal of Language and Linguistics Studies, 12(1), 42-54. |
| Author(s): | Ainur Aitkuzhinova-Arslan, Süleyman Gün and Eda Üstünel |
| Journal: | Journal of Language and Linguistics Studies |
| Year of publication: | 2016 |
| Target age group: | 25 sixth graders |
| Context: | 25 sixth graders from a private primary school in Mugla province in Turkey were presented 6 stories during six weeks: three of the stories were taught in semantically related and three of them were taught in semantically unrelated sets. |
| Focus and aims of study:
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This paper conducted to examine the effects of teaching vocabulary to Turkish young learners in semantically related (SR) and semantically unrelated (SUR) sets through digital storytelling. |
| Research methodology/methodologies: | – During the six weeks, students were presented with one story each week.
– Three of the stories were used to teach SR vocabulary, the other three were used to teach SUR vocabulary. – Pre-tests and post-tests were used to collect data. Both of the tests consist of matching and spelling tests. – Pre-tests contained 20 words to choose the least unknown 10 words. All words were scored. The least unknown words would form the post-tests then. |
| Findings:
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1.Overall, participants performed better in their post-tests than pre-tests..
-> Though with different scales, participants have developed their learning in both the SUR (semantically unrelated) set and the SR (semantically related) set. 2. In both the matching and spelling tests, participants taught in the SUR set scored better than those in the SR set. In conclusion, for young learners, learning vocabulary in the SUR set is more efficient than it is in the SR set. |
| Strengths of study:
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+ The study offered a thorough, balanced critical analysis of the literature by reviewing some previous studies with the opposite results.
+ The authors gave sound reasons to choose the participants (the formal operational group) based on Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. + When it comes to evaluate the effect on students’ vocabulary learning, 2 kinds of tests which are matching tests and spelling tests acting as 2 different assessment techniques seem to be appropriate -> increase the reliability of the research. + The authors used an appropriate method (pre-tests and post-tests) to measure the efficiency of presenting new vocabulary in SR and SUR sets. + All of the research questions were answered by providing the statistical data analysis in a well-presented manner. |
| Critiques of study:
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+ The authors may consider having 2 separate groups with 2 different treatments (1 studying vocabulary in SR sets and 1 studying in SUR sets). In this case, a proficiency/level test prior to the experiment might be needed to ensure that the participants are of the same proficiency level.
+ In the discussion part, the authors should give more explanation on how the study’s result may contradict or relate with “constructivist methodology”, “schemata theory” and “Gestalt psychology”. + The target sample (25 sixth graders) is quite small, which makes the result hardly generalized. |
How can this inform my teaching and/or understanding of young people’s learning?
- Young learners might get confused when learn new vocabularies using semantically related sets as they share the same syntactic characteristics and are grouped under the same common concept. Thus, teachers need to raise their awareness to this method as making sure that students understand what they are learning is crucial.
- It is still on debate whether young learners learn better in SUR set or SR set. However, the findings of the research may support the idea that learners are prone to ‘reconstructing the vocabulary’ presented in SUR sets rather than ‘internalizing the vocabulary’ presented in SR sets when learning new vocabulary (Aitkuzhinova-Arslan, Gün, Üstünelnel, 2016).
- In terms of testing and assessment, students earned points by giving correct answers and did not lose marks if they got false answers. For young learners, this could be more motivating.
TESOL for Young Learners (ALC8029) 