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Using Extensive Reading and Digital Flashcards for Vocabulary Acquisition The University of San Francisco USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center Master's Projects and Capstones Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects Spring 5-17-2020 Using Extensive Reading and Digital Flashcards for Vocabulary Acquisition Zijin Feng [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.usfca.edu/capstone Part of the Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons Recommended Citation Feng, Zijin, "Using Extensive Reading and Digital Flashcards for Vocabulary Acquisition" (2020). Master's Projects and Capstones. 1012. https://repository.usfca.edu/capstone/1012 This Project/Capstone is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects at USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Projects and Capstones by an authorized administrator of USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. For more information, please contact [email protected]. University of San Francisco Using Extensive Reading and Digital Flashcards for Vocabulary Acquisition A Field Project Presented to The Faculty of the School of Education International and Multicultural Education Department In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages by Zijin Feng May 2017 Using Extensive Reading and Digital Flashcards for Vocabulary Acquisition In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS in TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES by Zijin Feng May 2020 UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO Under the guidance and approval of the committee, and approval by all the members, this field project (or thesis) has been accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree. Approved: 05/17/2020 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Abstract ............................................................................................................................... v ChapterⅠ— Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 State of The Problem ...................................................................................................... 1 Purpose of The Project .................................................................................................... 3 Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................... 4 Significance of the Project .............................................................................................. 7 Definition of Terms......................................................................................................... 8 Chapter Ⅱ— Review of the Literature ............................................................................... 9 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 9 Extensive Reading is Effective in Vocabulary Acquisition ............................................ 9 After-Reading Vocabulary-Focused Exercises Contribute to Vocabulary Acquisition 11 Spaced Retrieval Practice Is Effective in Securing Retention ...................................... 13 The Use of Anki to Implement Spaced Retrieval Practice ........................................... 17 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 19 Chapter Ⅲ — The Project And Its Development ............................................................. 20 Description of The Project ............................................................................................ 20 Development of The Project ......................................................................................... 21 The Project .................................................................................................................... 23 Chapter Ⅳ— Conclusions And Recommendations ......................................................... 24 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 24 Recommendations ......................................................................................................... 25 References ......................................................................................................................... 28 Appendixes ....................................................................................................................... 34 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank everyone who lent me academic and emotional support when I was powering through this project. Throughout the process, numerous people have contributed to the successful completion of this project. I would like to acknowledge and thank my instructors at the University of San Francisco, who are passionate, compassionate teachers. I appreciate how Jessie Blandell scaffolded me through the initial writing process in a step-by-step manner, which was a great boost to my academic writing skills. I am grateful to Dr. Yi’s patience and guidance when I was working on this project. Also, I would like to thank Dr. Popal for his wisdom, encouragement and humor, which has made the USF TESOL department a welcoming community for international students. Last but not least, I would like to thank my fellow classmates for holding virtual learning groups when I was in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which lessened my loneliness and strengthened my immune system. iv ABSTRACT Non-native English learners often find it difficult to acquire adequate vocabulary knowledge. This can prevent them from making progress in other aspects of English learning, because learners have to understand most of the words that they hear or read to obtain comprehensible input. Fortunately, second language acquisition literature has long identified pleasure reading and spaced retrieval practice as effective in learning vocabulary. This field project examines the effectiveness of these two methods on vocabulary acquisition in adult English learners, and presents a handbook on how teachers can implement pleasure reading and spaced retrieval practice in the classroom. The handbook lays out how teachers can ease students into reading English books and introduces how to use digital flashcards to supplement vocabulary learning. By combining extensive reading and spaced retrieval practice, ESL teachers will be able to increase the vocabulary size and general English proficiency of intermediate adult English learners. v 1 CHAPTERⅠ INTRODUCTION Statement of the Problem Second language acquisition scholars argue that vocabulary knowledge is the foundation of successful reading, communication and learning of a second language (Mohsen & Hamed, 2017). Mohsen and Hamed (2017) noticed that students often find it difficult to understand English and express themselves in conversations due to the lack of vocabulary knowledge. Meanwhile, limited vocabulary also leads to ineffective English learning, as the input theory (Krashen, 1982) claims that successful language learning can only occur when the learner understands the meaning of what they read or hear. That is to say, if learners do not know most of the words that they hear or read, they may fail to acquire more English knowledge through reading, listening and conversations. Therefore, a solid command of vocabulary knowledge is essential to all aspects of English learning. However, it is an intimidating task for non-native English speakers to obtain sufficient vocabulary knowledge to achieve successful reading and listening. In order to understand an English text, a reader needs to recognize 98% of the words (Nation & Wang, 1999). Testyourvocab.com, a scientific program, collected data of English vocabulary size from over two million people across the world. The website estimated that most adult native English speakers recognize 20,000 to 35,000 words while non-native English speakers often have a vocabulary size of 4500 (Summary of Results, 2013). The gap is so huge that English learners often struggle with English reading and they identify the lack of vocabulary knowledge as the primary obstacle to their development of English proficiency (Cennet, 2019). 2 On the other hand, English learners recognize the importance of vocabulary knowledge (Ayesha, 2016; Ming, 2007; Moir & Nation, 2002). In Ayesha’s study (2016), over 100 16- to 17-year-olds in Bangladesh reported that they believed vocabulary knowledge was important to the development their English skills and played an important role in their learning results of English. Likewise, Ming’s (2007) examined of 60 Chinese university students’ attitudes towards English learning and found that they urgently wanted to improve their vocabulary. Moir and Nation’s (2002) study reported similar results. English learners report that they find it difficult to improve their vocabulary knowledge (Afzal, 2019; Gao & Ma, 2011; Ming, 2007; Moir & Nation, 2002). For example, university students in mainland China and Hong Kong often work hard to memorize English words but they are not confident that they are tackling this problem properly (Gao & Ma, 2011). Another study found that students in one
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