Aural Chinese Words Learning for Native English Speakers: A Test of the Spacing Effect and the Picture Superiority Effect
Wei Chu and Philip I. Pavlik Jr.
Language as a tool of communication, for native speakers, most
of their total communication time is spent on listening. Listening
is the foundation of language acquisition. While, for second
language (L2) learners, especially for most of adult learners,
since they have fewer opportunities to be exposed to an immense
quantity of contextualized target L2 aural input environment
than native speakers, consequently, they typically have suboptimal aural vocabulary knowledge which means they have
difficulty recognizing meanings of words when these words are
presented in their aural form. Research has shown that aural
vocabulary knowledge is an important predictor of L2 learners’
listening comprehension success. However, compared to
literature that investigate strategies to increase L2 learners’
written vocabulary knowledge, far less research has focused on
helping L2 learners remember aural vocabulary knowledge
effectively. Therefore, the current study aims to explore the
appropriate practice context and practice time schedule for
native English speakers to learn aural Chinese vocabulary
effectively. Participants are assigned to one of the three practice
contexts: context only includes illustration of an aural Chinese
word, context only includes English translation of an aural
Chinese word, or context includes both illustration and English
translation of an aural Chinese word. Besides, aural Chinese
words are presented in three different spaced fashions: narrow,
medium, and wide. The results of this experiment will produce
evidence on which practice context and which practice schedule
are more effective for native English speakers to memorize aural
Chinese vocabulary.