Page 23 - ELG2404 April Issue 489

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see a positive effect, but it is nowhere near as measured the N400 responses. N400 is an learning is based on making the student
effective at improving comprehensions skills electrophysiological signal which is involved recall the word, and paper-based vocabulary
as reading print on paper. in language processing and semantic learning is often word lists which students
From what we can see, there is no research memory. study time and again, it is not clear whether
on whether this applies to reading in a target Semantic encoding – storing a word for it’s the medium that is important or the
language rather than L1, though we might meaning and not just sound or spelling – methodology.
surmise that if anything the effect is likely to plays a vital role in reading comprehension, The team enrolled 79 young adults from
be stronger; reading comprehension is likely and the researchers hypothesised that Israel, all native speakers of Hebrew, and
to be more difficult in a language you don’t students who were ‘deep reading’ would set them the task of learning vocabulary in
fully understand. show a stronger N400 reaction when Swahili, a language that none of them spoke.
So that’s a thumbs up for sending learners presented with an unrelated word during a The learners were divided into two groups:
home with paperback graded readers and a post-reading test. Following the reading of one group studied the vocabulary on screen,
thumbs down for getting them to download each text, the individual student was shown using the recall method, and the other were
it on a tablet. Why graded readers? Nothing a series of words, presented one by one on a given paper flashcards and trained to use
improves reading comprehension better screen, and asked to decide if the meaning them for recall learning.
than reading for pleasure, but there’s not was related or unrelated to the text. Sure Then they sat two vocabulary tests: half
much pleasure in reading something that enough, students showed a stronger N400 to the tests were done on paper, the other half
you struggle to understand. Think of reading the unrelated word when they had read the on screen. When the test was presented
comprehension as a sub-skill, just like text on paper. on paper, the students who had learned
scanning and skimming, and like all sub-skills So, should we ban digital language leaning? the words on paper outperformed those
it improves with practice. Surprisingly perhaps, when it comes to who had learned them on screen, but their
Scanning and skimming, the Spanish vocabulary, the answer is: maybe not. advantage disappeared when they took the
researchers believe, is how we tend to read In a 1992 paper from Israel, Vered tests on screen.
on screen. Another, not yet published, paper Halamish and Dorit Elias decided to see if, in So, should you cancel the books for your
from the US suggests that our brain actually a vocabulary test, the score obtained would exam classes?
processes in a different way when we read on depend on the medium used for vocabulary The answer is definitely not. When a
paper. learning (print or screen) and whether it was similar experiment was conducted on a test
A team from Teachers College, University correlated to the medium of the test (paper- of reading skills, those who had studied from
of Columbia in New York placed electrodes based or digital). paper books did better even when the test was
on the heads of 59 eleven to twelve year Digital vocabulary learning has been on screen.
olds and gave them texts to read – some shown to be more effective than paper- When it comes to reading, it seems,
in digital format and others in print – and based, but since successful digital vocabulary nothing beats a good book. 2023

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