Language Centres at a Crossroads

The Multimedia Learning (ML) Approach proposed that materials providing visual and aural input may be conducive to incidental vocabulary learning." [1]. The present study uses ML approach to investigate the extent to which watching movies and TED talks on aging with subtitles of second language may facilitate incidental learning of aging-related vocabulary. Two classes of 20 freshmen/sophomores respectively from departments of Nursing/Senior Citizen Service (SCS) in a Nursing Junior College participated in the study. The researcher applied two different approaches to instruct aging-related vocabularies to the participants. Receiving the traditional direct teaching instruction, the Nursing freshmen class is the control group, while 20 sophomores from SCS department is the experimental group, taking the ML learning program. The participants in the control group were required to watch the film and TED talks together at the beginning of the course, and answered some non-task-based comprehension questions. Then, the content learning with the traditional instruction was adopted. For the experimental group, the same film and TED talks, with first language (Chinese) and second language (English) subtitles were uploaded respectively on the online platform (Moodle). Students were required to watch the film outside the classroom before the course and to answer some non-task-based comprehension questions to assure their completing the pre-tasked watching. Later in the course the participants participated the vocabulary learning task cycle conducted by the researcher, and completed the task-based vocabulary exercises before the end of the course. The aging-related film and TED talks were selected via the keyword searching containing "Alzheimer", resulting in one film: Still Alice, and four TED talks. Among them, Still Alice, segmented into four parts, and the four TED talks were presented respectively each week. The courses (i.e., Control & Experimental) were held one session a week for one hour and a half respectively. A modified version of Vocabulary Size Test [2], conducted at the beginning of the course, showed that the vocabulary size level between the control and experimental group revealed no significant difference before the program started. However, after nine weeks of instruction and learning, the results of post-instruction assessment indicated that learners in ML group achieved significantly higher scores of aging-related vocabularies than those in Direct teaching group. The results suggest that the potential for incidental vocabulary learning through movies and TED talks with a meaningful content can be used for intentional teaching and incidental learning in an ESP classroom with relevant focus.

簡介 過去數十年，多媒體被證實對於第二外語教學具有實證效益。本研究採用多媒體學習理論，探討如何應用(字幕)影片提升學習者(第二外語)字彙能力。研究者選取與高齡老化有關之電影及TED演說，設計為每週教材，施予不同班級進行目標任務學習。結果顯示:以媒體(字幕法)學習的班級相較於以傳統講授教學法的班級更能在目標詞彙達成顯著學習成效。

References:

• Webb, S., & Rodgers, M. P. H. (2009) Vocabulary demands of television programs. Language Learning, 59(2), 335–366.
• Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Tuyuan Cheng is an Associate Professor in the General Education Center, National Tainan Junior College of Nursing (NTJCN), Taiwan, R.O.C. She received her MA degree with honors from Graduate Institute of Linguistics (GIL) of National Chung Cheng University, and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from GIL of National Taiwan University (NTU), Taiwan. During Dr. Cheng's academic training, she developed a keen focus on research that encompasses language acquisition, discourse analyses, and language processing in the domain of psycholinguistics. After her doctoral program in NTU, she worked as a director of faculty teaching and research developmental center (FDC) in NTJCN (2012 to 2019). Over this period, she has made an extensive and in-depth research on the processing asymmetry of Chinese relative clauses (RC), and proposed a feasible solution to the long-debated issue on Chinese RC processing by using an innovative Cross-Modal Interference (DMI) paradigm. This research has established her academic foundation in the field of language processing.