The Influence of bilingual (English-Turkish) and monolingual (English-English) glosses on incidental vocabulary learning throught reading

IV ABSTRACT Research on both first language and foreign language verified that, except for the first few thousand words in common use, competence in spelling and vocabulary is most efficiently attained incidentally through extensive reading. However there are several factors that interact to promote and discourage word learning from written texts. Text modification is one possible way of promoting incidental vocabulary learning and glossing unknown words is a specific way of text modification. The present study was undertaken to extend the effect of text modification on incidental vocabulary learning. The focus of this study was on what type of vocabulary gloss is more beneficial for incidental vocabulary learning; monolingual (English - English) or bilingual (English- Turkish) glosses. It was also intended to provide evidence on whether students can learn vocabulary incidentally through reading unmodified authentic text. 90 intermediate learners of English as a foreign language participated in the study. They read a text about tourist promotion under one of the three conditions: with LI (English- Turkish) glossary, with L2 (English - English) glossary and without glossary. After reading the text, all the students in three groups were tested on recall and recognition of sixteen target vocabulary items both immediately and after three weeks. Based on the results of this study, it was suggested that glossing has an extremely positive effect on incidental vocabulary learning through reading. Moreover it was found that bilingual (English- Turkish) glossary was superior to monolingual (English - English) glossary condition in promoting vocabulary learning. However it was proposed that students forget the words over time to a great extend if this learning is not reinforced.