Investigating the Impact of Vocabulary Strategy Training and E-Portfolios on Vocabulary Strategy Use and the Acquisition of Academic Vocabulary by Saudi EFL Undergraduates

Mohammed Aldawsari

mhd1403@gmail.com

Outline:Research Rationale and Gap Proposed Learning ModelWhat is a Portfolio?Why e-portfolio?How it is different from any other tool?How the portfolio can assist the management of strategies learning?Methodology of the studyQuantitative findingsQualitative data analysis model References

Rationale & Research Gap “While without grammar little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.”

The British linguist David Wilkins (1972, p.111)

Rationale & Research Gap • Personal experience as a teacher. • The non-native English learners who

are studying in programmes that use English as a medium of instruction usually suffer from deficit in the use of academic vocabulary and lack of meaning clarity (Roberts and Cimasko 2008)

Rationale & Research Gap • research has been done on how we

learn vocabulary,• quiet a lot of work has been done on

language learning strategies,

Rationale & Research Gap • not very many studies have been

carried out in vocabulary learning strategies as specified subset of language learning strategies at the training level

• Little about the process, much about the product.

Proposed Learning Model

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• Empowering learners with the strategies of learning a language and

• Empowering learners with the required skills of managing their learning.

• Then, I thought the portfolio would offer learners with chances to manage their learning of the strategies.

What is a portfolio? • The general concept of portfolios is that they are

comprehensive records of specified items collected by specified people. However, the educational portfolios are more constructed and defined. According to Barret and Carney (2005, p.1) the educational portfolio “contains work that a learner has collected, reflected, selected, and presented to show growth and change over time, representing an individual or organisation’s human capital.” From this definition the educational portfolios are constructed by learners to evidence their learning through meaningful collections. This definition is true to both the traditional paper-based portfolios and the electronic version of portfolios.

What is an E-portfolio? • Although the electronic portfolio has similar characteristics of

the traditional portfolio, it has some unique constructs. The National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII, 2003 as cited in Barret and Carney 2005, p.1) defined the electronic portfolio as “a collection of authentic and diverse evidence, drawn from a larger archive representing what a person or organization has learned over time on which the person or organization has reflected, and designed for presentation to one or more audiences for a particular rhetorical purpose.”

Why E-portfolio?

• The affordances the technology can provide us with such as being able to document their learning by any means and at any chances in any format, picture, video, links text graphics or any sort of format at any time.

• The second reason is that learners might be more encouraged to document and reflect about their learning taking into the account that they are more likely to carry connected mobile devices and electronic devices through which they can access their e-portfolio more than carrying a notebook and pen most of the time.

Why portfolio is different from any other tool?

• Portfolio is a comprehensive record derived from a larger archive. So what included in it is believed to be more meaningful and purposeful because it is selected and reflected by the learners. However, any tool that can afford the same functionalities of the portfolio would be considered as a portfolio such as blogging if it is applied in the way that the portfolio is structured.

How the portfolio can assist the management of learning?

• Providing a platform that can encourage learners to select certain evidences (certain strategies) presenting them, reflecting about them or even practicing them all considered steps of managing the learning. Or showing the steps they took to learn and use a strategy. So these evidences might be looked at again by the learner to reinforce the learning or to consolidate in future learning.

Methodology:

• Participants: 1- undergraduates students2- English language Majors3- Six years of English learning (Basic Saudi general education system)

• Instruments:1-Vocabulary Proficiency Assessment (Schmitt improved

version of Nation version)2- VLS questionnaire (based on Marin’s 2005)3- Interview4- Electronic Portfolio

• Research Time Framework:1- pilot study: First Academic Semester2- main study: Second Academic Semester

The Study• Pre VLS and E-portfolio instruction assessments

1. Academic Vocabulary Assessment2. VLS assessments by implementing multiple

instruments including VLS questionnaire, semi- structured interview

• VLS and e-portfolio instruction for 10 weeks. The e- portfolio will be incorporated in learning

the VLS.• Post VLS instruction assessments.

Major Quantitative Findings

Qualitative Data Analysis Model

• Special software for qualitative data analysis (MAX QDA similar to Nvivo but support Arabic)

• Here is a sample

 Dealing With the Qualitative Data:

• This research will propose a model of investigating the strategic development (based on literature) that will be used in analysing the data of the strategic use. This model will trace the strategic development as follow:

 

Transferring cluster of strategies

Using Cluster of strategies against

one learning situation

Using 2-3 strategies together against one

learning situation

Adding new Strategies to their existing ones

• Level 1(Lowest Level): New strategies used (added to their existing strategic repertoire)

• Level 2: two- three strategies used against one learning situation.

• Level 3: three plus strategies or clusters of strategies used against one learning situation

• (Clustering or sequencing, had a discussion about them with Cohen yesterday)

• Level 4 (Highest Level): Transferring sets and clusters of strategies from one learning situation to another.

References • Barrett, H. (2005). White Paper: Researching

Electronic Portfolios and Learner Engagement. [Retrieved March 21, 2013 from: http://www.taskstream.com/reflect/whitepaper.pdf]

• Wilkins, D. A. (1972). Linguistics in language teaching. London: Edward Arnold, p. 111.

• Roberts, F., and Cimasko, T. 2008. Evaluating ESL: Making sense of university professors’ responses to second language writing. Journal of Second Language Writing. 17(3), p. 125-143.

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