SATOSHI IDE (UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA)
AKIFUMI YANAGISAWA (University o Tsukuba)

WHAT TYPES OF ILLUSTRATIONS ARE EFFECTIVE IN INTENTIONAL VOCABULARY LEARNING? : SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND LITERACY DEVELOPMENT

Vocabulary acquisition is the foundation of language learning, and visual aids have been widely used to facilitate language learning including deliberate vocabulary learning (Wright, 1990). While many studies have found a positive effect of illustrations on vocabulary learning (Chai et al., 2021), some found null effects (Boers et al., 2009). Based on the levels of processing theory, these inconsistencies may suggest that the effect of visual aids varies due to the complexity of illustrations (e.g., pictogram vs realistic image) because it changes the amount of information a learner processes. To investigate the effect of illustration complexity on vocabulary learning, this study examined whether the complexity of illustrations makes a difference in learning gains. Sixty-four Japanese EFL university students were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions to learn target words (TWs): control (TWs + L1 translations), simple illustration (TWs + L1 translations + simple illustrations), and complex illustration (TWs + L1 translations + complex illustrations). Learning gains were measured with a pretest, posttest, and delayed test. Generalized linear mixed-effects modeling was used to examine the relationships between learning conditions and learning gains as well as the effects of learner- and word-related variables (e.g., L2 proficiency and concreteness). The results revealed that the use of illustrations, regardless of simple or complex, did not enhance learning. We report the details of the results and discuss pedagogical suggestions for vocabulary learning as well as the potential reasons for the null effect of illustrations.

Satoshi Ide is a first-year master's student at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, conducting research on vocabulary learning.

Akifumi Yanagisawa is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. His research focuses on second language vocabulary acquisition, and he is particularly interested in cognitive factors that influence vocabulary learning.