Mohammed Mohsen | Najran University (original) (raw)
Papers by Mohammed Mohsen
Interactive Learning Environments
This study investigates the effects of multimedia annotations in CALL environment on the acquisit... more This study investigates the effects of multimedia annotations in CALL environment on the acquisition of English vocabulary for Yemeni EFL learners. Sixty freshmen students were randomly assigned to read stories either on computer screen or in printed text. They were divided into two groups; experimental group received treatments through multimedia software, control group received the same treatment but with traditional printed texts. Vocabulary pre-test and immediate test were administered to both groups. Four weeks later, a vocabulary delayed post-test was administered to both groups to check word retention. Participants of multimedia group were asked to fill in a short questionnaire to see their attitude towards the use of multimedia software. Results showed that experimental group scored higher than control group on the immediate posttest, and a decline in the delayed posttest of control group was greater than that of experimental group. Findings of the test revealed that learnin...
International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 2016
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016
Computer Assisted Language Learning, 2016
ABSTRACT Several types of help options have been incorporated into reading and listening comprehe... more ABSTRACT Several types of help options have been incorporated into reading and listening comprehension activities to aid second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition. Textbook authors, teachers, and sometimes even students may pick and choose which help options they wish to use. In this paper, I investigate the effects of two help options in a multimedia listening environment (annotated captioned animation versus annotated transcript animation) on L2 vocabulary acquisition. Thirty-four Arab learners of English as a foreign language watched and listened to an animated story under any one of the following conditions: (1) annotations + captions + animation (ACA) and (2) annotations + transcripts+ animation (ATA). After viewing the story, the participants received a vocabulary posttest (i.e., L2 spelling) and posttest of translating Arabic words into the target language (L2 form recall). These tests were readministered five weeks after the treatment. The results revealed that the ACA and ATA groups performed significantly better on both L2 vocabulary spelling and L2 vocabulary recall in posttest and delayed test treatments than on L2 vocabulary spelling and recall in the pretest treatments. No significant difference was observed between the ACA and ATA groups in terms of vocabulary posttests. However, the ACA group slightly outscored the ATA group in the long-term L2 form recall tests (i.e., delayed tests). The results suggest that both types (i.e., ACA and ATA) help improve L2 vocabulary acquisition, whereas ACA surpasses ATA in aiding L2 vocabulary acquisition over a long term. In light of these findings, pedagogical implications to teachers, learners, and curricula designers are discussed.
Journal of Educational Computing Research, 2016
One of the main issues in language learning is to find ways to enable learners to interact with t... more One of the main issues in language learning is to find ways to enable learners to interact with the language input in an involved task. Given that computer-based simulation allows learners to interact with visual modes, this article examines how the interaction of students with an online video simulation affects their second language video comprehension and incidental vocabulary learning. Forty-three Arab adult learners were randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a control group. Students in the experimental group (players) participated in a virtual knee surgery simulation by dragging various surgery devices, which were shown in the clip, over the knee of a patient. Those in the control group (viewers) viewed the same video in YouTube and were requested to watch and listen to the video surgery. After the treatments, the students took comprehension and vocabulary recognition tests (image association with words). Results show that the players significantly outperformed t...
British Journal of Educational Technology, 2015
This paper provides a comprehensive review on the use of help options ( HOs) in the multimedia li... more This paper provides a comprehensive review on the use of help options ( HOs) in the multimedia listening context to aid listening comprehension ( LC) and improve incidental vocabulary learning. The paper also aims to synthesize the research findings obtained from the use of HOs in Computer-Assisted Language Learning ( CALL) literature and reveals the theoretical framework that has guided multimedia listening studies. The term HOs refers to any form of assistance, such as visual, auditory (ie, variety of pronunciations) or textual, that is displayed synchronously or asynchronously on the computer screen to facilitate language learning. The paper analyzes the potentials of HO techniques and reveals how these techniques are utilized in CALL literature. The paper then summarizes the overall gain in the use of HOs, highlights their limitations in LC tasks and recommends directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
English Language Teaching, 2014
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
Introduction. Positive emotions are crucial for facilitating the learning process in foreign lang... more Introduction. Positive emotions are crucial for facilitating the learning process in foreign language (FL) classes. It has been well established that the emotion of enjoyment highly influences students and teachers in language learning environments and plays a key role in motivation. Goals. The first objective of this study was to investigate the foreign language enjoyment (FLE) levels of FL teachers in Saudi Arabia. The second objective was to investigate the level of enjoyment felt by these teachers when they were FL students. Third, gender differences with regard to the level of enjoyment were studied. Finally, the sources of enjoyment were explored. Thirty-six teachers from different educational institutions in Saudi Arabia were surveyed. Results. The results demonstrated that the participants experienced high levels of enjoyment when teaching FL classes; however, their enjoyment levels were significantly higher when they were FL students. A positive atmosphere at the workplace,...
Journal of Computing in Higher Education
Video captioning has been investigated extensively in the Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CA... more Video captioning has been investigated extensively in the Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) literature to aid second language vocabulary acquisition. However, a little is known about how video captioning could foster learners’ pronunciation, which is a component of second language vocabulary acquisition proposed by Nation (Nation, Learning vocabulary in another language, Cambridge University Press, 2001), when attending to video captioning. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of two types of video captioning, namely, full versus partial captioning, on mastery of word pronunciation. Furthermore, we tested the magnitude of the cognitive load imposed by video captioning types using NASA TLX. A total of 55 Arab English as a Foreign Language learners watched videos with full, partial or no captioning. Their perceptions about learning with captioning were also surveyed. Results of the pre–post-tests indicated that the captioning groups’ performance in the pronunciation tests outscored the no captioning group. In turn, the partial captioning group’s scores were slightly higher than those of the full captioning group. However, this difference was statistically insignificant. Cognitive load was found higher in full captioning and no captioning than that in the partial captioning mode. The participants showed highly positive attitudes towards learning with captions.
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
Purpose. Several studies have been conducted to analyse students’ pauses during first language an... more Purpose. Several studies have been conducted to analyse students’ pauses during first language and/or second language writing to indicate the magnitude of the underlying cognitive processes learners have. Majority of studies have examined students’ pauses at a threshold 200ms. However, little is known about recording second language learners' pauses at different pauses’ times over different types of genres. The current investigation reports a case study of L2 learners’ cognitive processes by recording their pauses (<500ms, <1000ms, and <2000ms) during L2 writing in response to multiple genres prompts. Design / methodology / approach. Twenty-five postgraduate students were asked to write three essays over three weeks, and their writing processes were recorded using a keystroke logging program (Inputlog, 7, Leijten & van Waes, 2013). Data was triangulated using a log file from the keystroke logging program, a process graph for writing behavior through different stages, an...
The Electronic Library
Purpose This paper aims to analyse the research contributions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in t... more Purpose This paper aims to analyse the research contributions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the field of applied linguistics (AL) indexed in the Web of Science core collection for the period between 2011 and 2020. Design/methodology/approach The author searched key terms in the Social Science Citation Index and Science Citation Index Expanded categories that publish documents in AL. The author compiled the data, classified these documents according to their research focus and investigated different metrics such as keywords analysis, citation analysis, overseas collaboration and productivity over authors, institutions and sources by using VOSviewer and Excel sheet. Findings Results found that publications in Saudi Arabia have tremendously increased around three times in the years 2016–2020 than before. As unexpected, highly cited researchers, sources and institutions for the social science and arts and humanities disciplines were higher than the scientific disciplines that invest...
International Journal of English Linguistics
Vocabulary learning has received considerable attention from reading comprehension input in secon... more Vocabulary learning has received considerable attention from reading comprehension input in second language acquisition research. However, a little is known about vocabulary gains from listening comprehension input. This paper aims to review L2 vocabulary gains from listening comprehension input in comparison to reading comprehension and reading while listening comprehension activities. We search for the terms “vocabulary learning”, “vocabulary acquisition”, and “listening comprehension” in several international databases to elicit target studies. The target studies have been reviewed in terms of focus, methodology employed, L2 environment, type of participants, and findings. Results of the review found that vocabulary acquisition from listening comprehension input was significant—though less than reading input—for long run and could be stored in long term memory. Therefore, it could be retrieved more easily than vocabulary from reading comprehension input. Recommendations and sugge...
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
This article investigates how the use of a deliberate approach of analyzing a given reading may p... more This article investigates how the use of a deliberate approach of analyzing a given reading may predict differences in CVA effectiveness. Sixty Arab EFL learners were randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control group, thirty participants for each. The experimental group received training in the deliberate Clarke and Nation (System 8:211–220, 1980) CVA technique, whereas the control group were not guided through a training method. Then, both groups were asked to answer three vocabulary tests and then participate to finish a series of six readings adjusted using Nation’s K-level reading lexicon to control the difficult words during readings. After treatments, the students took a post-test vocabulary session. Results show that the group that have used the deliberate CVA technique retained about twice as many new words as the other group did. That is the use of a deliberate-CVA methodology significantly improves learning. The experimental manipulation produced a learning effect that was 76.1% greater than that of the control group in terms of word context recognition and 128.0% greater than that of the control group in terms of word definition accuracy. Pedagogical implications, limitations and directions for further research are discussed.
Journal of Educational Computing Research
Written corrective feedback for improving L2 writing skills has been a debatable issue for more t... more Written corrective feedback for improving L2 writing skills has been a debatable issue for more than two decades. The aims of this meta-analysis are to (1) provide a quantitative measure of the effect of computer-generated written feedback for improving L2 writing skills and (2) verify how moderators (i.e., adopted technology, task types, and learners’ language proficiency) mitigate the effectiveness of corrective feedback provided by computer technology for developing the L2 students’ writing fluency and accuracy. A comprehensive search was performed to collect the population of computer-mediated corrective feedback (CMCF) studies. The effect sizes were calculated for 14 primary studies with L2 participants ( N = 1220). The findings indicate a large overall effect of CMCF ( d = 1.21). A medium overall effect was found in using automated writing evaluation (AWE) technology for writing skills, whereas a large effect size was determined in using non-AWE technology. The results further...
Journal of Scientometric Research, Oct 3, 2017
Computers & Education, 2013
This paper aims to study Arab students' use of English relative pronoun 'who' via translating sta... more This paper aims to study Arab students' use of English relative pronoun 'who' via translating statements from their mother tongue (Arabic) into the target language (English). Thirty Saudi adult students, aged 18-20 years old, were asked to translate 20 relative clauses from Arabic into English. The results revealed that the students encountered various problematic areas in the use of relative pronoun 'who', viz. use of personal and possessive relative pronoun, position of relative pronoun, presence of resumptive pronouns in Arabic, absence of duality and plurality of relative pronoun " who " , use of relative pronouns with prepositional verbs. Such problematic areas were manifested in various errors of omission, addition, selection, word order, and avoidance. The results also showed that the average of the students' errors in " avoidance, omission, and selection " were significantly higher than (30 %. 25%. and 24% respectively) the average for 'addition' and 'word order'. These errors could be attributed to language transfer, overgeneralization, and ignorance of rules restriction, which were possibly grounded in the lack of exposure to the TL rules and insufficient practice of grammatical activities. Pedagogical implications of this study suggest that instructors should make a good use of the recommendations of contrastive analysis hypothesis (CAH) and Error Analysis (EA). Namely, the students should be made aware of the areas of similarities and differences between English and Arabic practically rather than theoretically. The study stresses the limitations of the findings and directs outlines for future research.
Several types of help options have been incorporated into reading and listening comprehension act... more Several types of help options have been incorporated into reading and listening comprehension activities to aid second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition. Textbook authors, teachers, and sometimes even students may pick and choose which help options they wish to use. In this paper, I investigate the effects of two help options in a multimedia listening environment (annotated captioned animation versus annotated transcript animation) on L2 vocabulary acquisition. Thirty-four Arab learners of English as a foreign language watched and listened to an animated story under any one of the following conditions: (1) annotations + captions + animation (ACA) and (2) annotations + transcripts+ animation (ATA). After viewing the story, the participants received a vocabulary posttest (i.e., L2 spelling) and posttest of translating Arabic words into the target language (L2 form recall). These tests were readministered five weeks after the treatment. The results revealed that the ACA and ATA groups performed significantly better on both L2 vocabulary spelling and L2 vocabulary recall in posttest and delayed test treatments than on L2 vocabulary spelling and recall in the pretest treatments. No significant difference was observed between the ACA and ATA groups in terms of vocabulary posttests. However, the ACA group slightly outscored the ATA group in the long-term L2 form recall tests (i.e., delayed tests). The results suggest that both types (i.e., ACA and ATA) help improve L2 vocabulary acquisition, whereas ACA surpasses ATA in aiding L2 vocabulary acquisition over a long term. In light of these findings, pedagogical implications to teachers, learners, and curricula designers are discussed.
This study investigates the effects of multimedia annotations in CALL environment on the acquisit... more This study investigates the effects of multimedia annotations in CALL environment on the acquisition of English vocabulary for Yemeni EFL learners. Sixty freshmen students were randomly assigned to read stories either on computer screen or in printed text. They were divided into two groups; experimental group received treatments through multimedia software, control group received the same treatment but with traditional printed texts. Vocabulary pre-test and immediate test were administered to both groups. Four weeks later, a vocabulary delayed post-test was administered to both groups to check word retention. Participants of multimedia group were asked to fill in a short questionnaire to see their attitude towards the use of multimedia software. Results showed that experimental group scored higher than control group on the immediate posttest, and a decline in the delayed posttest of control group was greater than that of experimental group. Findings of the test revealed that learning occurred effectively through multimedia CALL. The study discusses the findings of the study on the light of theories of multimedia learning and suggests for future research.
Interactive Learning Environments
This study investigates the effects of multimedia annotations in CALL environment on the acquisit... more This study investigates the effects of multimedia annotations in CALL environment on the acquisition of English vocabulary for Yemeni EFL learners. Sixty freshmen students were randomly assigned to read stories either on computer screen or in printed text. They were divided into two groups; experimental group received treatments through multimedia software, control group received the same treatment but with traditional printed texts. Vocabulary pre-test and immediate test were administered to both groups. Four weeks later, a vocabulary delayed post-test was administered to both groups to check word retention. Participants of multimedia group were asked to fill in a short questionnaire to see their attitude towards the use of multimedia software. Results showed that experimental group scored higher than control group on the immediate posttest, and a decline in the delayed posttest of control group was greater than that of experimental group. Findings of the test revealed that learnin...
International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 2016
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016
Computer Assisted Language Learning, 2016
ABSTRACT Several types of help options have been incorporated into reading and listening comprehe... more ABSTRACT Several types of help options have been incorporated into reading and listening comprehension activities to aid second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition. Textbook authors, teachers, and sometimes even students may pick and choose which help options they wish to use. In this paper, I investigate the effects of two help options in a multimedia listening environment (annotated captioned animation versus annotated transcript animation) on L2 vocabulary acquisition. Thirty-four Arab learners of English as a foreign language watched and listened to an animated story under any one of the following conditions: (1) annotations + captions + animation (ACA) and (2) annotations + transcripts+ animation (ATA). After viewing the story, the participants received a vocabulary posttest (i.e., L2 spelling) and posttest of translating Arabic words into the target language (L2 form recall). These tests were readministered five weeks after the treatment. The results revealed that the ACA and ATA groups performed significantly better on both L2 vocabulary spelling and L2 vocabulary recall in posttest and delayed test treatments than on L2 vocabulary spelling and recall in the pretest treatments. No significant difference was observed between the ACA and ATA groups in terms of vocabulary posttests. However, the ACA group slightly outscored the ATA group in the long-term L2 form recall tests (i.e., delayed tests). The results suggest that both types (i.e., ACA and ATA) help improve L2 vocabulary acquisition, whereas ACA surpasses ATA in aiding L2 vocabulary acquisition over a long term. In light of these findings, pedagogical implications to teachers, learners, and curricula designers are discussed.
Journal of Educational Computing Research, 2016
One of the main issues in language learning is to find ways to enable learners to interact with t... more One of the main issues in language learning is to find ways to enable learners to interact with the language input in an involved task. Given that computer-based simulation allows learners to interact with visual modes, this article examines how the interaction of students with an online video simulation affects their second language video comprehension and incidental vocabulary learning. Forty-three Arab adult learners were randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a control group. Students in the experimental group (players) participated in a virtual knee surgery simulation by dragging various surgery devices, which were shown in the clip, over the knee of a patient. Those in the control group (viewers) viewed the same video in YouTube and were requested to watch and listen to the video surgery. After the treatments, the students took comprehension and vocabulary recognition tests (image association with words). Results show that the players significantly outperformed t...
British Journal of Educational Technology, 2015
This paper provides a comprehensive review on the use of help options ( HOs) in the multimedia li... more This paper provides a comprehensive review on the use of help options ( HOs) in the multimedia listening context to aid listening comprehension ( LC) and improve incidental vocabulary learning. The paper also aims to synthesize the research findings obtained from the use of HOs in Computer-Assisted Language Learning ( CALL) literature and reveals the theoretical framework that has guided multimedia listening studies. The term HOs refers to any form of assistance, such as visual, auditory (ie, variety of pronunciations) or textual, that is displayed synchronously or asynchronously on the computer screen to facilitate language learning. The paper analyzes the potentials of HO techniques and reveals how these techniques are utilized in CALL literature. The paper then summarizes the overall gain in the use of HOs, highlights their limitations in LC tasks and recommends directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
English Language Teaching, 2014
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
Introduction. Positive emotions are crucial for facilitating the learning process in foreign lang... more Introduction. Positive emotions are crucial for facilitating the learning process in foreign language (FL) classes. It has been well established that the emotion of enjoyment highly influences students and teachers in language learning environments and plays a key role in motivation. Goals. The first objective of this study was to investigate the foreign language enjoyment (FLE) levels of FL teachers in Saudi Arabia. The second objective was to investigate the level of enjoyment felt by these teachers when they were FL students. Third, gender differences with regard to the level of enjoyment were studied. Finally, the sources of enjoyment were explored. Thirty-six teachers from different educational institutions in Saudi Arabia were surveyed. Results. The results demonstrated that the participants experienced high levels of enjoyment when teaching FL classes; however, their enjoyment levels were significantly higher when they were FL students. A positive atmosphere at the workplace,...
Journal of Computing in Higher Education
Video captioning has been investigated extensively in the Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CA... more Video captioning has been investigated extensively in the Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) literature to aid second language vocabulary acquisition. However, a little is known about how video captioning could foster learners’ pronunciation, which is a component of second language vocabulary acquisition proposed by Nation (Nation, Learning vocabulary in another language, Cambridge University Press, 2001), when attending to video captioning. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of two types of video captioning, namely, full versus partial captioning, on mastery of word pronunciation. Furthermore, we tested the magnitude of the cognitive load imposed by video captioning types using NASA TLX. A total of 55 Arab English as a Foreign Language learners watched videos with full, partial or no captioning. Their perceptions about learning with captioning were also surveyed. Results of the pre–post-tests indicated that the captioning groups’ performance in the pronunciation tests outscored the no captioning group. In turn, the partial captioning group’s scores were slightly higher than those of the full captioning group. However, this difference was statistically insignificant. Cognitive load was found higher in full captioning and no captioning than that in the partial captioning mode. The participants showed highly positive attitudes towards learning with captions.
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
Purpose. Several studies have been conducted to analyse students’ pauses during first language an... more Purpose. Several studies have been conducted to analyse students’ pauses during first language and/or second language writing to indicate the magnitude of the underlying cognitive processes learners have. Majority of studies have examined students’ pauses at a threshold 200ms. However, little is known about recording second language learners' pauses at different pauses’ times over different types of genres. The current investigation reports a case study of L2 learners’ cognitive processes by recording their pauses (<500ms, <1000ms, and <2000ms) during L2 writing in response to multiple genres prompts. Design / methodology / approach. Twenty-five postgraduate students were asked to write three essays over three weeks, and their writing processes were recorded using a keystroke logging program (Inputlog, 7, Leijten & van Waes, 2013). Data was triangulated using a log file from the keystroke logging program, a process graph for writing behavior through different stages, an...
The Electronic Library
Purpose This paper aims to analyse the research contributions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in t... more Purpose This paper aims to analyse the research contributions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the field of applied linguistics (AL) indexed in the Web of Science core collection for the period between 2011 and 2020. Design/methodology/approach The author searched key terms in the Social Science Citation Index and Science Citation Index Expanded categories that publish documents in AL. The author compiled the data, classified these documents according to their research focus and investigated different metrics such as keywords analysis, citation analysis, overseas collaboration and productivity over authors, institutions and sources by using VOSviewer and Excel sheet. Findings Results found that publications in Saudi Arabia have tremendously increased around three times in the years 2016–2020 than before. As unexpected, highly cited researchers, sources and institutions for the social science and arts and humanities disciplines were higher than the scientific disciplines that invest...
International Journal of English Linguistics
Vocabulary learning has received considerable attention from reading comprehension input in secon... more Vocabulary learning has received considerable attention from reading comprehension input in second language acquisition research. However, a little is known about vocabulary gains from listening comprehension input. This paper aims to review L2 vocabulary gains from listening comprehension input in comparison to reading comprehension and reading while listening comprehension activities. We search for the terms “vocabulary learning”, “vocabulary acquisition”, and “listening comprehension” in several international databases to elicit target studies. The target studies have been reviewed in terms of focus, methodology employed, L2 environment, type of participants, and findings. Results of the review found that vocabulary acquisition from listening comprehension input was significant—though less than reading input—for long run and could be stored in long term memory. Therefore, it could be retrieved more easily than vocabulary from reading comprehension input. Recommendations and sugge...
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
This article investigates how the use of a deliberate approach of analyzing a given reading may p... more This article investigates how the use of a deliberate approach of analyzing a given reading may predict differences in CVA effectiveness. Sixty Arab EFL learners were randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control group, thirty participants for each. The experimental group received training in the deliberate Clarke and Nation (System 8:211–220, 1980) CVA technique, whereas the control group were not guided through a training method. Then, both groups were asked to answer three vocabulary tests and then participate to finish a series of six readings adjusted using Nation’s K-level reading lexicon to control the difficult words during readings. After treatments, the students took a post-test vocabulary session. Results show that the group that have used the deliberate CVA technique retained about twice as many new words as the other group did. That is the use of a deliberate-CVA methodology significantly improves learning. The experimental manipulation produced a learning effect that was 76.1% greater than that of the control group in terms of word context recognition and 128.0% greater than that of the control group in terms of word definition accuracy. Pedagogical implications, limitations and directions for further research are discussed.
Journal of Educational Computing Research
Written corrective feedback for improving L2 writing skills has been a debatable issue for more t... more Written corrective feedback for improving L2 writing skills has been a debatable issue for more than two decades. The aims of this meta-analysis are to (1) provide a quantitative measure of the effect of computer-generated written feedback for improving L2 writing skills and (2) verify how moderators (i.e., adopted technology, task types, and learners’ language proficiency) mitigate the effectiveness of corrective feedback provided by computer technology for developing the L2 students’ writing fluency and accuracy. A comprehensive search was performed to collect the population of computer-mediated corrective feedback (CMCF) studies. The effect sizes were calculated for 14 primary studies with L2 participants ( N = 1220). The findings indicate a large overall effect of CMCF ( d = 1.21). A medium overall effect was found in using automated writing evaluation (AWE) technology for writing skills, whereas a large effect size was determined in using non-AWE technology. The results further...
Journal of Scientometric Research, Oct 3, 2017
Computers & Education, 2013
This paper aims to study Arab students' use of English relative pronoun 'who' via translating sta... more This paper aims to study Arab students' use of English relative pronoun 'who' via translating statements from their mother tongue (Arabic) into the target language (English). Thirty Saudi adult students, aged 18-20 years old, were asked to translate 20 relative clauses from Arabic into English. The results revealed that the students encountered various problematic areas in the use of relative pronoun 'who', viz. use of personal and possessive relative pronoun, position of relative pronoun, presence of resumptive pronouns in Arabic, absence of duality and plurality of relative pronoun " who " , use of relative pronouns with prepositional verbs. Such problematic areas were manifested in various errors of omission, addition, selection, word order, and avoidance. The results also showed that the average of the students' errors in " avoidance, omission, and selection " were significantly higher than (30 %. 25%. and 24% respectively) the average for 'addition' and 'word order'. These errors could be attributed to language transfer, overgeneralization, and ignorance of rules restriction, which were possibly grounded in the lack of exposure to the TL rules and insufficient practice of grammatical activities. Pedagogical implications of this study suggest that instructors should make a good use of the recommendations of contrastive analysis hypothesis (CAH) and Error Analysis (EA). Namely, the students should be made aware of the areas of similarities and differences between English and Arabic practically rather than theoretically. The study stresses the limitations of the findings and directs outlines for future research.
Several types of help options have been incorporated into reading and listening comprehension act... more Several types of help options have been incorporated into reading and listening comprehension activities to aid second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition. Textbook authors, teachers, and sometimes even students may pick and choose which help options they wish to use. In this paper, I investigate the effects of two help options in a multimedia listening environment (annotated captioned animation versus annotated transcript animation) on L2 vocabulary acquisition. Thirty-four Arab learners of English as a foreign language watched and listened to an animated story under any one of the following conditions: (1) annotations + captions + animation (ACA) and (2) annotations + transcripts+ animation (ATA). After viewing the story, the participants received a vocabulary posttest (i.e., L2 spelling) and posttest of translating Arabic words into the target language (L2 form recall). These tests were readministered five weeks after the treatment. The results revealed that the ACA and ATA groups performed significantly better on both L2 vocabulary spelling and L2 vocabulary recall in posttest and delayed test treatments than on L2 vocabulary spelling and recall in the pretest treatments. No significant difference was observed between the ACA and ATA groups in terms of vocabulary posttests. However, the ACA group slightly outscored the ATA group in the long-term L2 form recall tests (i.e., delayed tests). The results suggest that both types (i.e., ACA and ATA) help improve L2 vocabulary acquisition, whereas ACA surpasses ATA in aiding L2 vocabulary acquisition over a long term. In light of these findings, pedagogical implications to teachers, learners, and curricula designers are discussed.
This study investigates the effects of multimedia annotations in CALL environment on the acquisit... more This study investigates the effects of multimedia annotations in CALL environment on the acquisition of English vocabulary for Yemeni EFL learners. Sixty freshmen students were randomly assigned to read stories either on computer screen or in printed text. They were divided into two groups; experimental group received treatments through multimedia software, control group received the same treatment but with traditional printed texts. Vocabulary pre-test and immediate test were administered to both groups. Four weeks later, a vocabulary delayed post-test was administered to both groups to check word retention. Participants of multimedia group were asked to fill in a short questionnaire to see their attitude towards the use of multimedia software. Results showed that experimental group scored higher than control group on the immediate posttest, and a decline in the delayed posttest of control group was greater than that of experimental group. Findings of the test revealed that learning occurred effectively through multimedia CALL. The study discusses the findings of the study on the light of theories of multimedia learning and suggests for future research.
One of the main issues in language learning is to find ways to enable learners to interact with t... more One of the main issues in language learning is to find ways to enable learners to interact with the language input in an involved task. Given that computer-based simulation allows learners to interact with visual modes, this article examines how the interaction of students with an online video simulation affects their second language video comprehension and incidental vocabulary learning. Forty-three Arab adult learners were randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a control group. Students in the experimental group (players) participated in a virtual knee surgery simulation by dragging various surgery devices, which were shown in the clip, over the knee of a patient. Those in the control group (viewers) viewed the same video in YouTube and were requested to watch and listen to the video surgery. After the treatments, the students took comprehension and vocabulary recognition tests (image association with words). Results show that the players significantly outperformed the viewers in these two tests. The pedagogical implications of this study suggest that interactivity in language input is crucial in facilitating second language acquisition.