Article Review

MULTIMEDIA GLOSSES AND THEIR EFFECT ON L2 TEXT COMPREHENSION AND VOCABULARY LEARNING
June 2009, Volume 13, Number 2, pp. 48-67
http://llt.msu.edu/vol13num2/yanguas.pdf

Inigo Yanguas (San Diego State University)
An assistant professor of Spanish and director of the Spanish Language Program at San Diego State University. His research interests include different aspects of SLA, CALL and Spanish as a heritage language in the US. Currently, he is investigating the place of motivation in the language acquisition process and vocabulary learning in Oral CMC.

SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLE
This study investigates the effect of different types of multimedia glosses such as textual, pictorial and textual + pictorial have on text comprehension and vocabulary learning when the goal is solely comprehension of a computerized text. It also emphasizes on whether the conditions promoted noticing and whether the noticing led to better comprehension of the text and learning of the target vocabulary words. The study is based on a theoretical framework by Robinson and Schmidt, 1995; Tomlin and Villa, 1994, regarding attention are critical in the acquisition process of an L2. The research questions for the study are; i) Do the readers in any of the group’s report noticing targeted vocabulary words significantly more than readers in any of the other groups? ii) Does exposure to any type of gloss have a significant effect on L2 readers’ learning of target vocabulary words as measured through a) recognition or b) production tasks? If so, will this effect be maintained over a period of three weeks? iii) Does exposure to any type of gloss have a significant effect on L2 readers’ comprehension of a computerized reading passage, as measured by a comprehension task? This study used both quantitative and qualitative analyses in gathering and analyzing the data. There were several sets and types of tests endow with the needs of getting the results. Participants were assembled according to four different groups which were the target groups and the control groups. The researcher of this research used several materials to conduct the test for the respective groups. The materials were; a) Computerized reading text b) Assessment tasks c) Pretest/posttest production tasks d) Pretest/posttest recognition tasks and e) Comprehension tasks. There are a total of 133 participants selected for the study purposes. The participants consist of fourth semester college-level Spanish from nine different sections. The samples were selected based from the study done by Bowles (2004) in which the participants for the study were students fulfilling their last semester of foreign language requirement from a small private university located on the Northeastern Seaboard. The findings presented in response to the question research shown that participants whom being exposed to multimedia glosses noticing that the target vocabulary words significantly more than the participants in the control group. Nonetheless, there was no major difference among any of the gloss group. The next research question, which investigated the effect of type of gloss on production and recognition tasks, there were no significant effect was found in the production tasks. The analyzed results shown that the low internal consistency of this task has to be borne in mind respectively. In relation of the last research question, the effect of different type of glosses is investigated in relation to text comprehension and all groups were exposed to glosses outperformed the control groups. This showed that comprehension of text was better aided with visual and textual information. Thus, it indicated that multimedia glosses have a different effect on vocabulary acquisition and text comprehension correspondingly. These final results are consistent with findings in several studies that have found combination glosses more beneficial for incidental vocabulary learning and text comprehension (Al-Seghayer, 2001; Kost et al. , 1999; Plass et al. , 1998).

MY REACTION
In my opinion, this research does interest me as it involved multimedia elements in learning and teaching. When it involves reading, students easily tend to get bored when it comes to traditional text reading. Therefore, instead of having such plain texts or materials, these multimedia glosses can enhance their reading interest thus capture the objectives of reading comprehensively. From my point of view, this research is well conducted as it provides a sufficient amount of data and information regarding the process of gathering and analyzing the data. This research emphasized on how to improve students’ understanding towards text comprehension and vocabulary learning. In general, based on the findings of the research, it would derive the fact that glosses have a different impact on text comprehension and vocabulary learning respectively. The results indicated that it is more beneficial for the text comprehension learning rather than vocabulary learning. The study also strengthens this strand of research and from both previous and present studies has indicated that operationalized and measured “noticing” is an internal process argued to be of great importance in foreign language learning (Schmidt, 1990). In our Malaysian context, the multimedia glosses are one of the appropriate ways to be introduced to the education system. This is because it will work as an enhancement to text comprehension and vocabulary learning in second language acquisition class mainly in English subject classroom. It is an interactive approach to get students’ interest in learning and understanding the second language. Thus, it will improve our Malaysian learners to read text comprehension and learn new vocabulary through the interactive way.

HYPERTEXT EXERCISE

NELSON MANDELA


Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe. Mandela himself was educated at University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand and qualified in law in 1942. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party's apartheid policies after 1948. He went on trial for treason in 1956-1961 and was acquitted in 1961.

After the banning of the ANC in 1960, Nelson Mandela argued for the setting up of a military wing within the ANC. In June 1961, the ANC executive considered his proposal on the use of violent tactics and agreed that those members who wished to involve themselves in Mandela's campaign would not be stopped from doing so by the ANC. This led to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mandela was arrested in 1962 and sentenced to five years' imprisonment with hard labour. In 1963, when many fellow leaders of the ANC and the Umkhonto we Sizwe were arrested, Mandela was brought to stand trial with them for plotting to overthrow the government by violence. His statement from the dock received considerable international publicity. On June 12, 1964, eight of the accused, including Mandela, were sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1964 to 1982, he was incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, off Cape Town; thereafter, he was at Pollsmoor Prison, nearby on the mainland.

During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela's reputation grew steadily. He was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom.


Nelson Mandela was released on February 11, 1990. After his release, he plunged himself wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after the organization had been banned in 1960, Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's National Chairperson.