The effects of English- vs first-language glosses to aid reading comprehension and vocabulary learning for EAL pupils

Thesis

Approximately twenty percent of pupils in the United Kingdom are exposed to a language other than English at home and are therefore classified as having English as an Additional Language, or EAL. There is unfortunately no national curriculum to support EAL pupils, and research on resources to support them is scant. Glosses have proven to be an effective resource for foreign language learners. A gloss is a note or concise definition provided with target words in a text to assist learners’ reading comprehension (Lomicka, 1998). Substantial research in the field of second language acquisition has investigated the effects of first vs. second language glosses on reading comprehension and vocabulary learning. This research has mostly been done with adult foreign language learners, however, and only a handful of studies have used secondary school pupils as participants. There are important differences between foreign language learners and EAL learners which make this research only somewhat transferrable to EAL educational settings.

The current study sought to attend to this research gap by investigating different-language glosses and their effectiveness with EAL pupils in the UK. A parallel groups randomized trial intervention study (n=32 participants) was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of English- vs. first-language glosses to aid reading comprehension and vocabulary learning. Participants completed forms ahead of the intervention to provide demographic information, such as language background and prior knowledge of target words. They then completed the intervention across two sessions two weeks apart. During the first session, participants completed a reading containing five target words glossed in either their home language or English followed by reading comprehension and vocabulary post-tests. During the second session, participants were given the reading again without glosses and then completed the delayed post-tests.

The findings of the current study indicated no effect of gloss language on reading comprehension or vocabulary learning. Key areas for future research include replications of the current study as well as research on EAL pupils to address the drastic lack thereof. Despite very little research on the topic, these results provide promising evidence that the language to which EAL pupils are exposed does not impact the benefits of using glosses in the classroom. There is no difference between using a pupil’s first language vs. English to develop glosses for class readings, which allows teachers to work with the resources available to them to best aid their pupils.

Authors: Noyes, M

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-kokeojxvo
• Type of award: MSc taught course
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: EAL; ALSLA2024; ALSLA; SLA; reading; intervention study; vocabulary; glosses; quantitative search
• Subjects: Quantitative research; Vocabulary; English; Reading; Second language acquisition; Applied linguistics