Effects of Word and Fragment Writing during L2 Vocabulary Learning

Abstract: This study examined how writing (copying) target words and word fragments affects intentional second language (L2) vocabulary learning. English-speaking first-semester learners of Spanish attempted to learn 24 Spanish nouns via word-picture repetition in three conditions: (1) word writing, (2) fragment writing, and (3) no writing. After the learning phase, the participants completed productive (picture-to-L2) and receptively oriented (L2-to-first language) posttests. Vocabulary learning scores in the no-writing condition were higher than in the other two conditions and higher in the word-writing condition than in the fragment-writing condition. These findings provide new evidence on how forced output without access to meaning can detract from early word learning by exhausting processing resources needed to encode new word forms. The pedagogical implications of the study call for language instructors to rethink the practice of encouraging students to write down a word to remember it. Key words: fragment writing, output, second language vocabulary learning, vocabulary learning, word writing Language: Spanish, relevant to all languages Introduction Second language (L2) researchers and language instructors are interested in the roles of input (samples of the language to which a learner is exposed) and output (language produced by a learner) in L2 acquisition. Some maintain that L2 learners will be successful when they are exposed to large amounts of comprehensible input and are not forced to produce output, particularly during the early stages of L2 development (see, e.g., Krashen, 1985). Others argue that learners will be more successful when they are required to produce output, even during the early stages of L2 development. When assessing these two positions, we can distinguish between two types of output: output with access to meaning and output without access to meaning. As defined by VanPatten (2003), output with access to meaning is output that involves "activating the lexical items and grammatical forms necessary to express particular meanings" (p. 63). Output without access to meaning, on the other hand, refers to producing language without engaging in this type of meaning-oriented mental activity. An example of output with access to meaning is when a learner says, "Where is the dishwashing liquid?" to a store clerk while shopping in a grocery store, or when a learner engages in some type of meaningoriented exchange in a language classroom. An example of output without access to meaning is when a learner copies a target word when he or she sees the word for the first time or repeats some segment of the target language without intending to convey meaning when doing so. The present study assessed how two types of output without access to meaning-copying target words (word writing) and copying word fragments (fragment writing)-affect intentional L2 vocabulary learning. The study was designed to explore how requiring learners to perform different tasks involving output without access to meaning affect processing resource allocation during word-level input processing and, as a consequence, L2 vocabulary learning. Previous studies have demonstrated negative effects for sentence writing (Barcroft, 2000, 2004a) and word writing (Barcroft, 2006) on productive L2 vocabulary learning. This study, a partial replication and expansion of the study by Barcroft (2006), was designed to assess whether negative effects of word writing emerge using both productive and receptively oriented measures of vocabulary learning, and whether fragment writing affects L2 vocabulary learning in a similar manner as word writing does. From an instructional standpoint, the study provided new and direct evidence about the relative effectiveness of word writing and fragment writing as potential activities for L2 vocabulary instruction. Previous Research on Word Writing and Vocabulary Learning Research on word writing and L2 vocabulary learning has been fairly scarce. …