Should Vocabulary Instrucion Be Integrated or Isolated?

Should Vocabulary Instruction Be Integrated or Isolated? KIERAN ANDREW FILE Victoria University of Wellington Wellington, New Zealand REBECCA ADAMS University of Auckland Auckland, New Zealand This study compares integrated and isolated form-focused instruction for vocabulary development in an English as a second language (ESL) reading lesson Two classes of ESL learners (N 20) from a university preparation academic English course were involved in the study Each class did two reading treatments in which they read an article and studied vocabulary from that article In one of the treatments participants were taught the words in isolation prior to reading the article, and in the other the vocabulary instruction was integrated with reading the article Paribakht and Wesche’s (1997) vocabulary knowledge scale was used as the instrument to measure learning and retention gains for words taught in isolated instruction, in integrated instruction, and words acquired incidentally Statistical analysis showed both types of instruction led to more learning and retention of vocabulary knowledge than incidental exposure alone Although retention rates were similar for isolated and integrated instruction, there was a trend for isolated instruction to lead to higher rates of learning doi: 10.5054/tq.2010.219943 everal empirical studies (e.g., Norris & Ortega, 2000) have indicated that form-focused instruction (FFI) is beneficial for language learning However, as Spada and Lightbown (2008) have recently pointed out in a review of FFI research, there is little agreement as to how FFI should be implemented in meaning-focused language-learning courses In their review, Spada and Lightbown make the primary distinction between two types of FFI, isolated and integrated In isolated FFI, attention is given to form in instructional segments that are separate from communicative language practice but are still carried out in courses that are primarily meaning focused, for example, content-based instruction and communicative language teaching Integrated FFI differs in that attention to forms is carried out during a communicative activity in content-based instruction and communicative language teaching S 222 TESOL QUARTERLY Vol 44, No 2, June 2010 programmes (such attention has alternately been called focus on form; cf., Ellis, Basturkmen, & Loewen, 2001a) Spada and Lightbown considered the role of both kinds of FFI based on features of the learners, learning environments, and language items They suggest that these types of FFI may play complementary roles in language learning and call for further research exploring the roles and contributions of these two types of FFI The current study provides a preliminary investigation of isolated and integrated FFI in the context of vocabulary teaching in a meaning-focused reading lesson, comparing isolated and integrated FFI with incidental learning of new vocabulary According to Laufer (2005), vocabulary learning has been ‘‘neglected’’ (p 225) by focus-on-form researchers who have tended to focus on the role of FFI on grammar learning or on the effect of corrective feedback (see, e.g., Ellis et al., 2001a; Ellis, Basturkmen, & Loewen, 2001b; Lightbown & Spada, 1990; Loewen, 2005) However, research has consistently found that vocabulary items make up a large proportion of unplanned focus on form (e.g., Ellis et al., 2001a, p 290; Ellis et al., 2001b, p 407), highlighting the importance of investigating the way that different types of FFI might enhance vocabulary learning VOCABULARY LEARNING IN READING LESSONS: FFI VERSUS NO FOCUS Vocabulary learning from reading has long been a topic of interest for researchers One of the primary questions has been whether to draw attention to forms in a reading lesson Nagy, Herman, and Anderson (1985) demonstrated that vocabulary could be incidentally acquired and retained from reading in a first language environment, and further research (e.g., Horst, Cobb, & Meara, 1998) has indicated that incidental vocabulary learning is possible for second language learners as well Although the possibility of incidental vocabulary acquisition is well established, its efficiency has been called into question (Hill & Laufer, 2003) with studies indicating that incidental learning accounts for only small gains over quite large periods of exposure (Nagy, Anderson, & Herman, 1987; Nagy et al., 1985; Horst et al., 1998) Laufer (2005) also alludes to this trend and suggests that, ‘‘input, particularly reading input, alone is unlikely to be the best source of second language vocabulary acquisition’’ (p 228) She asserts that it may be necessary to draw learner attention to lexical form in order to maximize vocabulary gains from meaning-focused input Although meaningful input is essential to learning, language learning can be facilitated through conscious attention to form, because attending to form in a meaning-focused activity may allow learners to notice the form, acquire it, and retain it over time (Long & Robinson, 1998; Schmidt, 1990) SHOULD VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION BE INTEGRATED OR ISOLATED? 223 INTEGRATED OR ISOLATED FFI As mentioned earlier, FFI can happen in an integrated or isolated approach In an integrated approach, focus on linguistic form (in this case vocabulary items), whether planned or incidental, occurs in the context of communicating meaning (e.g., Ellis et al., 2001b; Long & Robinson, 1998) In a reading lesson, this kind of focus on form would occur while students were engaged in reading a second language text (in other words, while their primary focus was directed at understanding the meaning in the text) On the other hand, an isolated approach would entail shifting the learners’ attention away from the meaning in order to focus on the features of a particular vocabulary item in isolation An example of this is preteaching vocabulary before a reading lesson Therefore, during the isolated FFI, the primary focus is on the language forms, rather than on the meaning of the text (although focus may shift back to meaning in another section of the lesson) The primary difference then, between integrated FFI and isolated FFI, is that isolated FFI requires learners to focus primarily on language forms for an extended lesson segment, whereas integrated FFI requires them to shift their focus between the meaning of the text and language forms for each item taught (Spada & Lightbown, 2008) Studies on the role of integrated FFI in promoting vocabulary learning from reading have overall uncovered positive effects Knight’s (1994) study of English first language Spanish learners found that focus on form (in the form of dictionary use while reading a magazine article) led to substantial learning of previously unknown words, suggesting that even short digressions from a purely meaning-focused activity to concentrate on a form can promote notable gains in the learning of that vocabulary item Similarly, Fraser (1999) found evidence to suggest that participants who inferred the meaning of a word and consulted a dictionary (using a meaning-based and a form-based strategy) while reading a text retained more word knowledge than those who just inferred the meanings Watanabe (1997) also found that attention to vocabulary during reading activities promoted learning In his study, subjects who read a text that included glosses of difficult words outperformed subjects who read the text without glosses Such findings align with views on focus on form from researchers like Lightbown (1998) and DeKeyser (1998), who have claimed superior learning from integrated FFI, because it links both form and meaning in context Although the above studies have shown that an integrated approach to vocabulary FFI during a reading lesson enhances vocabulary learning, studies in which vocabulary instruction has been isolated have also unearthed positive results For example, Paribakht and Wesche (1997) found strong evidence of the effectiveness of teaching vocabulary items in isolation They compared vocabulary learning scores of a reading-only 224 TESOL QUARTERLY group and a reading-plus group In the reading-plus treatment, subjects were required to read eight texts and extra vocabulary-focused activities The reading-only group were required to read the same and other supplementary texts Tests of word knowledge indicated that, although the reading-only group did gain a significant amount of word knowledge of the target words, knowledge was mainly at word recognition level (Paribakht & Wesche, 1997, p 196), whereas the reading-plus group gained more words and higher levels of word knowledge for many of the words There is some evidence that isolated vocabulary focus may promote more learning than an integrated approach Laufer (2005), in a review of focus on form (integrated FFI) and focus on forms (isolated FFI) research that compared gains from several studies, found that the studies where forms were treated separately from meaning processing (focus on forms) showed larger gains than those where attention to form was integrated with attention to meaning (focus on form; Hill & Laufer, 2003; Laufer, 2003) Laufer considers this evidence that criticism of focus on forms is therefore unwarranted, arguing that, whereas both promote learning more than an input-only approach, isolating forms as a teaching technique was especially effective Laufer’s reasoning is that, by isolating forms, teachers can teach and cover the many different aspects of knowing a word in a short amount of time—essentially offering rich instruction (Laufer, 2005, p 244) Hill and Laufer (2003) conducted a study that compared input only (incidental learning), meaning glosses in the margins (integrated focus on form), and decontextualized vocabulary exercises (isolated focus on form) Although they found evidence of vocabulary learning in all three conditions, it was the isolated approach that proved the most effective (Hill & Laufer, 2003, p 103).1 In another study, Laufer (2003) found that low learning scores were obtained from reading alone and that reading plus additional word-focused activities was the most effective approach Although these studies show an advantage for isolated over integrated and incidental vocabulary learning, it should be noted that, in several studies, the isolated treatment was more time extensive than the integrated one, and researchers may have conflated a number of factors when investigating the different approaches to FFI For example, in the Hill and Laufer (2003) study and the Laufer (2003) study, the group that received isolated vocabulary focus was given a richer form of instruction (explanations and translations) than the group receiving integrated vocabulary focus They were allowed to write sentences containing the target words, pushing them to process the target items both receptively and productively The integrated group was only given Scores were taken from tests that elicited passive knowledge of the target words, given both immediately after the treatment and as a delayed test given weeks later SHOULD VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION BE INTEGRATED OR ISOLATED? 225 receptive exposure Additional time and opportunities for productive use, therefore, may have resulted in a greater depth of processing of the target words, which could have led to more sustained word knowledge gains This possibility is supported by the results of Webb’s (2005) study comparing the effects of meeting a word in a reading task and producing a word in a sentence-production task, which suggested that learners who did the sentence-production tasks acquired greater word knowledge than those who did the reading task This supports the possibility that the differences between the groups in prior vocabulary studies may be due to different types of processing tasks, rather than to differences between these integrated and isolated approaches to FFI Theoretical support for this position comes from the output hypothesis (e.g., Swain, 2000), which asserts that producing output requires learners to process language differently than when simply comprehending it and that the process of producing output may promote the type of processing that can lead to greater linguistic accuracy and learning (cf., Loewen, 2005) The present study, therefore, attempts to create a comparison of isolated and integrated approaches to vocabulary teaching in a reading lesson, by providing equal instruction time and promoting similar processing for the target words in both conditions THE CURRENT STUDY From the preceding literature, it seems clear that some sort of FFI (be it isolated or integrated) is more effective for vocabulary learning than input only (Hill & Laufer, 2003; Knight, 1994; Laufer, 2003; Paribakht & Wesche, 1997; Watanabe, 1997) Although vocabulary learning does occur incidentally through reading (see e.g., Horst et al., 1998; Nagy et al., 1985; Paribakht & Wesche, 1997), incidental vocabulary learning is contingent on truly extensive reading in the second language, as well as reading conditions that allow learners to meet the same word multiple times in meaningful contexts Although reading may still be an important means of increasing vocabulary knowledge, it may also be more effective for teachers to include FFI of new vocabulary in meaningful contexts This approach may represent a more efficient means of learning vocabulary, particularly for learning lower frequency vocabulary or vocabulary for specific purposes, like the academic word list (Coxhead, 2000) The question now is which type of FFI (isolated or integrated) is more effective for learning new vocabulary through reading The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of FFI for increasing vocabulary knowledge and in particular to contrast integrated and isolated FFI As Spada and Lightbown (2008) point out, ‘‘to our knowledge, no 226 TESOL QUARTERLY empirical classroom-based research directly compares the effects of isolated and integrated instruction’’ (p 193) The aim of the current study, therefore, is to examine which type of focus on form (isolated, integrated, or no focus) best suits vocabulary learning and retention from classroom-based reading lessons The following research questions guided this study: Does any form-focused vocabulary instruction during a reading lesson lead to more vocabulary learning and retention than no focus on form at all? Does an isolated or integrated approach to vocabulary instruction in a reading lesson promote more learning and retention of previously unknown words? METHODOLOGY Participants Two classes of adult intermediate proficiency students from a university preparation programme (Class A and Class B) were the participants for this study All 27 students in both classes agreed to participate, but only data from 20 participants could be used in the final analysis because of absenteeism during the project Of the 20 participants who completed the study, there were 10 males and 10 females The regular teachers allowed one of the researchers (who was also a teacher in this programme) to teach each of the sessions involved in the study, to ensure that the instructional sessions were equivalent Table summarises some general information about the participants Design This study followed a pretest–posttest–delayed posttest design to determine whether FFI influenced learning and retention of new vocabulary Pretesting of vocabulary items can draw attention to the TABLE Participant Information Class Male Female Age range First language Class A 19–42 Class B 21–29 Korean Chinese Malaysian Indonesian Korean Chinese Thai SHOULD VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION BE INTEGRATED OR ISOLATED? 227 target words; however a 1- to 2-week period between the pretest and treatment (see Horst et al., 1998, p 213) has been used by other studies and is generally considered to be a reliable amount of time to mitigate this effect Additionally, the regular teachers of Class A and Class B were given a list containing all target words and were asked to avoid using or dealing with them in class for the duration of the research project Eighteen days after the pretest (test procedures will be discussed later), reading lessons and experimental treatments were carried out Both classes participated in both treatments; the order of treatment presentation was counterbalanced Therefore, a total of four reading lessons were carried out: two lessons (one for each class) where the words were pretaught (isolated) and two lessons where they were taught during (integrated) the reading of the passage Figure shows how the texts and treatments were counterbalanced Immediately following each reading treatment, participants completed multiple-choice comprehension tests followed by vocabulary tests (see later for more detail) One entire treatment session, which included a reading lesson, vocabulary teaching before or during the reading, and a learning test, took roughly 55 minutes to complete Sixteen days after the final treatment, a further posttest was carried out, to measure retention of vocabulary knowledge Figure outlines the procedures of the study Materials The two articles used in this study were written by a published writer Both articles needed to be written in an academic style and in FIGURE Order of texts and treatments 228 TESOL QUARTERLY FIGURE Research design accordance with the study theme for that week: work, recreation, and leisure This was done to contribute to face validity of the readings for the participants and to avoid disrupting the classes The titles of the completed articles were ‘‘Girls Can Do Anything, but Are They Doing Too Much?’’ ‘‘Achieving a Balanced Life—What New Zealanders Are Saying About the Work–Life Balance’’ Both articles also contained New Zealand content, making them relevant to the context the learners were studying in Both articles were roughly the same length, with text one containing 1,300 words and text two 1,250 A copy of one of the articles used in this study can be seen in Appendix A SHOULD VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION BE INTEGRATED OR ISOLATED? 229 Target Words The two articles were written first, and the vocabulary that appeared in the articles was selected and adapted to fit the needs of the project This was done to avoid producing stilted prose written around specific vocabulary After the articles were written, they were put through Cobb’s vocabulary profiler (Cobb, n.d.) to identify which frequency bands the words in each of the two articles fell in To find target words at a suitable level for the participants, scores from Nation’s Vocabulary Levels Test (see Appendix in Nation, 2001, pp 416–424), carried out by the university to help place students in appropriate classes, were used The scores from this test suggested that words from the 5,000-word level and above were not likely to be known to the students and therefore were suitable to target for these participants Thus, words from the articles at or above the 5,000-word level were selected as the target words for this project No words from the academic word list (Coxhead, 2000) were selected as targets, because participants had already been studying this word list as part of their regular instruction A total of 18 words per article (36 target words for the project) were selected for use as the target words for this study Where possible, remaining low frequency words in the article were simplified with higher frequency equivalents (from within the first four 1,000-frequency bands) This substitution process was done with the writer of the articles, to ensure that the higher frequency substituted words or phrases did not alter the meaning of the text It was also done to help make the two texts comparable in difficulty, by controlling the vocabulary load Each of the 36 target words appeared once in the texts, to ensure that none of the target words received extra attention in the text A list of the 18 target words in alphabetical order for each text can be seen in Appendix B Incidental Exposure One of the purposes of this project was to examine the differences in learning and retention of words that were taught and words that were acquired incidentally in an intensive reading lesson From each word set of 18 target words, 12 words were explicitly taught, and words were not taught but were included in tests to examine incidental learning The incidental words for each reading were randomly selected from each set and can be seen in column in Appendix B All the explicit instruction target words in both texts were put in bold font in the articles The words that were being tested for incidental learning, however, were not put in bold font, to maintain the conditions for truly incidental learning It is possible that additional incidental learning beyond these target 230 TESOL QUARTERLY words may have occurred; however, to avoid test fatigue, only words most likely to be unknown prior to the study were included in the testing Instructional Treatments The purpose of this study was to examine vocabulary instruction and learning in an authentic lesson plan Care was therefore taken to ensure that the reading lesson used in this study followed the reading instruction to which the participants were accustomed Each lesson followed similar steps First, the participants were given minutes to discuss the title of the article in pairs and make predictions about the article These predictions were discussed by the class Following this warm-up, the reading treatments began In each treatment, the researcher read the text aloud while the participants followed along, reading their own copy This procedure was adopted to control the pace of the reading lesson and to ensure that all participants had the same processing time for the text (cf Horst et al., 1998) At the end of each paragraph, the researcher would stop and summarise the main ideas of the paragraph in a short two- or threesentence oral summary The summaries did not include the target words Isolated FFI Treatment In the isolated treatment, all 12 vocabulary items were taught before the participants read the text Each word was presented individually on an overhead transparency and pronounced by the researcher The researcher then orally defined the words (from a scripted definition that was also used in the integrated reading treatment) After the meaning was provided, an example sentence was shown to the participants on an overhead transparency, and the meaning of the word was explained in relation to the context of this example sentence Two synonyms for each target word were also given After all 12 target words were taught, the researcher started to read the text orally The 12 target words were bolded in the text, but the researcher paid no further attention to them when they came up in the reading This process has also been included in diagram form for one of the target words in Figure 1A, Appendix C Integrated FFI Treatment When teaching a word in the integrated treatment, the researcher would teach the word in the context of the reading Instead of preteaching the words, the researcher started the oral reading of the text immediately after the warm-up After reading a sentence that contained one of the 12 SHOULD VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION BE INTEGRATED OR ISOLATED? 231 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS As explained earlier, learning and retention of vocabulary were measured through the use of the VKS For each of the participants, separate VKS scores for the pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest were calculated for each of the treatment conditions (isolated, integrated, and incidental) For each of these scores, the maximum possible was 60 points (5 points per word for 12 words) Descriptive statistics for these are displayed in Table All of the pretest scores were less than 20 points, indicating that learners had little or no knowledge of the words prior to the reading treatments This result is supported when the distribution of item answers is examined Of the 720 target items in the pretest (20 students multiplied by 36 target items), 673, or 93%, were scored as or 2, indicating no productive word knowledge prior to the treatments By the posttest, this fell to 444, or 62%; learners received scores of to 5, signalling knowledge of the words beyond simple recognition for 276, or 38% of the target words The descriptive data in Table shows that, for both learning and retention, the highest scores were found in the isolated instruction treatment, followed by words taught in integrated instruction In each case, there is a large gap between the two instructed conditions and incidental learning Item scores on the VKS at each time of testing for each learning condition are displayed in Figure To simplify the visual data, scores of or (little or no word knowledge) and scores of and higher are grouped At the pretest, the target words were almost uniformly unknown (scores of or 2) By the posttest, more than one half of the items learned in isolation were scored or higher (139 items, 58%), indicating the ability to at least define the target items A similar pattern was found for words learned in integrated instruction However, for words learned incidentally, the distribution of VKS scores remained fairly constant To determine whether learner knowledge of the words differed at the TABLE Descriptive Statistics: Isolated, Integrated, and Incidental Test Treatment Mean SD Pretest (N 20) Isolated Integrated Incidental Isolated Integrated Incidental Isolated Integrated Incidental 17.95 18.30 19.60 37.10 33.55 21.90 25.10 24.60 22.95 2.33 2.83 2.66 7.16 5.65 3.02 5.03 3.68 2.65 Posttest (N 20) Delayed posttest (N 20) SHOULD VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION BE INTEGRATED OR ISOLATED? 235 FIGURE Vocabulary knowledge scale scores: Isolated, integrated, and incidental learning pretest, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted on the pretest scores The results are displayed in Table The ANOVA indicated that there were no significant differences in the pretest scores for any of the treatments This means that, prior to the treatment sessions, learners had similar knowledge of the words they would learn under each condition Next, gain scores were calculated by subtracting pretest scores from posttest scores (learning gain) and by subtracting pretest scores from delayed posttest scores (retention gain) These data were submitted to two one-way repeated measures ANOVAs: one to analyze the effects of the treatments on learning of vocabulary knowledge and the second to analyse the effects of the treatments on retention of vocabulary knowledge The results of these analyses are displayed in Table These results indicate that there were significant differences in the effectiveness of the three treatments for both learning and retention This effect is of medium size for learning and is small for retention In TABLE Analysis of Variance Results: Pretest Treatment Error 236 Type III sum of squares df Mean square 30.23 387.95 57 15.12 6.81 F p gp2 Observed power 2.22 0.12 0.07 0.44 TESOL QUARTERLY order to determine where the differences lie among the three treatments, a post-hoc Tukey analysis was used to examine each mean contrast This analysis showed, for learning of vocabulary knowledge, significantly less learning through incidental exposure than through isolated (16.85, p 0.00) or integrated instruction (12.95, p , 0.00) The contrast of isolated and integrated instruction (3.90, p 0.08) approached, but did not reach significance For retention of vocabulary knowledge, incidental learning again was significantly outperformed by both isolated (0.3.80, p 0.00) and integrated instruction (2.95, p 0.03) In terms of retention, the two types of instruction were clearly equal (0.85, p 0.73) The results of this analysis indicate that instruction (either isolated or integrated) led to more learning and retention of vocabulary knowledge than incidental exposure However, it did not demonstrate statistical differences between isolated and integrated instruction Because of the consistent trend for isolated instruction to lead to more vocabulary learning, it was decided at this stage to desegregate the data by treatment session, to determine whether the effect of the treatment differed between the first and second session of data collection As explained in the methods section, one half of the participants participated in isolated instruction in the first session while the rest participated in integrated instruction (with both groups using the first reading passage or first word set) This was counterbalanced in the second session (with both groups using the second reading passage or second word set) Examination of the mean gain scores for these treatments in each session (in Table 5) points to greater differences in the second session compared with the first As discussed earlier, the maximum score is 60 (a possible points each for 12 words) Because incidental learning was spread over both sessions, these data have been removed Although the retention gains were very similar across the treatments in each session, there were some interesting differences in the learning gains Although the learning gains in the first session were quite similar, there TABLE Repeated Measures ANOVA on Gain Scores: Isolated, Integrated, Incidental Type III sum of squares df Mean square F p gp2 Observed power 50.21 0.00 0.64 1.00 6.27 0.00 0.18 0.88 Learning gains Treatment Error 3,112.23 1,766.50 57 1,556.12 30.99 Retention gains Treatment Error 159.10 723.30 57 79.55 12.69 SHOULD VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION BE INTEGRATED OR ISOLATED? 237 TABLE Learning and Retention Gains: By Treatment Session Learning gains Treatment Treatment Retention gains Treatment Treatment Isolated Integrated Isolated Integrated Isolated Integrated Isolated Integrated N Mean SD 11 11 9 11 11 17.78 15.72 20.27 14.67 7.56 6.63 6.82 5.89 6.02 5.06 7.85 6.89 5.55 3.01 4.26 2.89 TABLE t-Test Learning in Each Treatment Session Treatment Treatment t df p 20.83 21.68 18 18 0.42 0.10 was a much wider gap in the second session, with learners taught in the isolated condition in this session gaining almost more VKS points than learners who were taught in the integrated condition Considering the possibility that there might be a difference in learning within the second treatment session, t-tests were used to determine whether learning scores differed between the two treatments within each treatment session.3 As can be seen in Table 6, no significant differences were found between the treatment groups for the learning of the words from either word set However, there was a nonsignificant trend (p 0.10) for learners to acquire more word knowledge under the isolated instruction than the integrated instruction on the second day of treatment DISCUSSION The results of this study indicate that both types of FFI (integrated and isolated) led to higher learning and retention scores than incidental exposure alone There were no statistically significant differences between integrated and isolated instruction on any of the measures, but there was a nonsignificant trend in the second treatment for isolated instruction to lead to higher levels of learning than integrated instruction It should be noted when interpreting these results that the sample size (n 20) was quite limited, and only two treatments were 238 Because the difference between retention scores was very similar across the two sections, these data were not submitted to t-tests TESOL QUARTERLY carried out A larger sample size and more treatments may identify stronger trends The following discussion will address the two research questions individually Research Question Does Any Form-Focused Vocabulary Instruction During a Reading Lesson Lead to More Vocabulary Learning and Retention Than No Focus on Form at All? As explained earlier, both FFI treatments led to significantly more learning and retention of new vocabulary knowledge than incidental exposure alone This finding supports prior research as cited earlier (e.g., Paribakht & Wesche, 1997; Watanabe, 1997) Reasons for this trend may lie in the conscious noticing of word forms by the readers before or during a reading passage Past research has suggested that learners tend to ignore unknown words in a reading text if they are not absolutely crucial to understanding the text (Paribakht & Wesche, 1997, p 196) The words that were not taught may have been consistently ignored by participants as not being important to the meaning of the text It should be remembered, however, that participants may have not attended to these words because the researcher chose not to focus on them for instruction Nevertheless, some incidental learning in this study did occur, similar to findings in previous studies (e.g., Horst et al., 1998; Nagy et al., 1985; Paribakht & Wesche, 1997) However, the disparity between incidental learning and learning following FFI indicates that FFI may enhance the efficiency of vocabulary learning Research Question Does an Isolated or Integrated Approach to Vocabulary Instruction in a Reading Lesson Promote More Learning and Retention of Previously Unknown Words? Both instructional treatments (isolated and integrated) led to more learning than incidental exposure; however, there was no statistical evidence that isolated or integrated instruction was more effective for promoting vocabulary learning In the second treatment session, there was a nonsignificant trend for isolated instruction to promote more learning of vocabulary knowledge than integrated instruction Although these findings provide strong evidence for the effectiveness of instruction, only relatively tentative evidence is found for differences between the types of treatment This result leaves open the possibly that teachers should implement vocabulary instruction during reading in ways that suit their preferred styles, the teaching schedule, and learners’ individual needs It should also be noted that any difference between isolated and integrated instruction only emerged in the second SHOULD VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION BE INTEGRATED OR ISOLATED? 239 treatment session in a counterbalanced design Although care was taken in crafting reading passages and selecting vocabulary items to prevent a carryover effect between treatment sessions, it is possible that involvement in the integrated instruction session on the previous day promoted awareness of vocabulary and enhanced the effectiveness of the subsequent isolated treatment, pointing to the possibility that isolated and integrated instruction work best in tandem A vocabulary-learning programme might therefore include both isolated instruction prior to reading, through identifying potentially difficult words and preparing example sentences, and integrated instruction to address unforeseen obstacles to comprehension while learners read This approach reflects Ellis’s (1999) suggestions for the use of FFI in a meaning-focused classroom He proposes that time be set aside for explicit language instruction apart from the communication of meaning, but that it is also appropriate to address issues with linguistic form as they arise in a meaning-focused activity The findings of the current study support this model of teaching with respect to vocabulary learning Although there were no significant differences between isolated and integrated instruction, there was, however, a trend throughout the data for isolated instruction to promote more learning than integrated instruction These findings therefore not support work by researchers who claim a learning advantage for integrated FFI, because it links forms and meaning in context (cf., DeKeyser, 1998; Lightbown, 1998) There are several reasons why isolated vocabulary instruction may have tended to lead to more learning One reason may be a lower cognitive load for isolated vocabulary instruction Learners receiving isolated instruction only need to focus on the word that they are being taught at that time In this situation, it may be easier for learners to identify the purpose of the instruction, and they may be more likely to focus their attentional resources primarily on learning vocabulary In contrast, when learners are taught vocabulary integrated with reading instruction, they may be focusing on several aspects of the instruction at once Learners may attend to the word while also trying to attend to the meaning of the text They may need to try to connect the taught word to the text while generating hypotheses about how the word fits in the overall message of the text Because the instruction is integrated with meaning-focused reading practice, learner attention may be divided in several ways, which may affect the amount of knowledge about the targeted vocabulary items learners acquire In essence, learning words in context may promote learning by providing an immediate connection between meaning, form, and use; however, it might also limit the effectiveness of vocabulary learning by weakening attentional focus on vocabulary items It may be easier for learners to attend primarily to vocabulary during isolated instruction, because 240 TESOL QUARTERLY limiting the scope of instruction may help them to focus their attention Related to attention focus is the possibility that isolated instructional treatments may also make the purpose of the instruction clearer to the learners When the vocabulary items are taught in isolation, it may be obvious to the learners that the focus of the instruction is vocabulary learning However, when they are taught in the context of the reading, the participants may interpret the purpose of the instruction as promoting comprehension of the article, rather than knowledge of the vocabulary items themselves In the integrated instruction, participants who are struggling to understand the meaning of the text may interpret instruction as a comprehension aid One participant’s comments in the posttreatment survey allude to this sort of orientation: I think both methods were good But I think [integrated instruction] is more easy to understand article than second one This participant seems to have interpreted the instruction as a comprehension aid, rather than as vocabulary instruction, and it is possible that this orientation may have limited vocabulary learning Finally, it is important to consider that, whereas care was taken to ensure that both treatments were equal in terms of the amount of instruction time and type of instructional focus, they still differed in terms of how many times the participants met each target vocabulary item In the isolated condition, the learners had two chances to see each word: once during the instruction (both by itself and in an example sentence) and again when reading the text In the integrated treatment, participants only had one visual meeting with the word The additional exposure in the isolated treatment may have helped learners to focus on the word form when they saw it in context and may have pushed them to recall the earlier instruction Although this extra exposure may have promoted a trend toward higher vocabulary learning in the isolated condition, it may also have impacted negatively on comprehension In the posttreatment survey, one participant commented: When you told us the word’s meaning during reading, it was easy for me to understand and follow your speed When you gave us the word’s meaning first [isolated instruction], it was difficult for me to remember And when you started to read the article, everytime I saw the new words, I would stop to think about it and then couldn’t follow your speed This extra effort to recall information about a word form may have helped strengthen the learner’s knowledge of that word and may have had a positive effect on the learning of that word As noted earlier, however, the SHOULD VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION BE INTEGRATED OR ISOLATED? 241 negative effect of this extra effort is less understanding of the text, and, by extension, the context in which the vocabulary is used This could limit the depth of knowledge learned about each target item, which might lead to lower levels of retention or less ability to use the word productively Additionally, it should be remembered that, whereas there was a trend for learners to acquire more words in the isolated condition, levels of vocabulary retention were almost equal between the two conditions This suggests that (with no further instruction), any differences in learning vocabulary in integrated and isolated instruction may diminish over time On the other hand, as mentioned earlier, isolated vocabulary instruction allows learners to meet the word at least twice during the reading lesson Research suggests that learning a word requires more than a single meeting (Nation, 2001); perhaps isolated instruction followed by meaningful practice puts learners in a better position to increase their knowledge of a particular word when they meet it a second time, in the context of reading As Hatch and Brown (1995) explain, this approach may put the learner in a position where the word has passed through more stages, or sieves, on its way to becoming readily available for use This process may be helped along with further focus on the word; for example, in postreading instruction With continued instruction, it is possible that advantages of isolated instruction may continue Further, longer term research on isolated and integrated instruction is needed to determine whether immediate learning effects can be sustained It is important to note that any trend for isolated instruction to lead to more learning than integrated instruction only emerged in the second treatment Why should the differences between the treatments be more obvious in the second one? It is possible that the participants found one reading was more difficult than the other, which may have had a negative impact on learning in the integrated reading treatment It is also possible, however, that more learning resulted from a familiarity effect By the second session, the learners were more familiar with the VKS, as well as with the way the words were presented (because the basic order of presentation was held constant across the instructional treatments) A longer study, including a practice treatment, might help further elucidate the differences between these two types of instruction IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION This study sought to determine whether integrating or isolating vocabulary instruction affects the learning and retention of vocabulary Future research could consider whether contextualising the isolated instruction, so it fits the theme and material from the reading more accurately, has any effect on word learning and retention In addition, the differences between prereading and postreading isolated instruction 242 TESOL QUARTERLY (when vocabulary instruction is given after the reading of the text) could be explored This study supports prior research that has indicated that explicit instruction leads to more vocabulary learning than incidental exposure (e.g., Hill & Laufer, 2003; Knight, 1994; Laufer, 2003; Paribakht & Wesche, 1997; Watanabe, 1997) Although both vocabulary treatments were significantly better than incidental vocabulary learning, they did not overall differ significantly from each other, particularly in terms of vocabulary retention For teachers, this result may mean that vocabulary instruction can be adapted to the needs of the class Teaching words integrated with reading may reduce planning time, may not require additional material preparation, and may help participants feel more comfortable asking for clarification of unknown vocabulary, allowing teachers to align instruction more closely to the participants’ learning needs and current attentional needs On the other hand, isolated instruction may be better for focusing learner attention on vocabulary learning and may also allow teachers to teach more of the aspects of knowing a word, without having to worry about detracting too far from the reading passage (a point also raised by Paribakht & Weshe, 1997) THE AUTHORS Kieran Andrew File is an instructor in English for academic purposes and a doctoral student at Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand His research interests include form-focused instruction, vocabulary acquisition, and discourse analysis Rebecca Adams is a lecturer in applied language studies and linguistics at the University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand Her research focuses primarily on the role of focus on form in promoting classroom language learning REFERENCES Cobb, T (n.d.) Compleat lexical tutor Retrieved from http://www.lextutor.ca/ Coxhead, A (2000) A new academic word list TESOL Quarterly, 34, 213–238 doi:10.2307/3587951 DeKeyser, R (1998) Beyond focus on form: Cognitive perspectives on learning and practicing second language grammar In C Doughty & J Williams (Eds.), Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition (pp 42–63) Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press Ellis, R (1999) The place of grammar instruction in the second/foreign language curriculum New Zealand Studies in Applied Linguistics, 5, 1–21 Ellis, R., Basturkmen, H., & Loewen, S (2001a) Learner uptake in communicative ESL lessons Language Learning, 51, 281–318 doi:10.1111/1467-9922.00156 Ellis, R., Basturkmen, H., & Loewen, S (2001b) Preemptive focus on form in the ESL classroom TESOL Quarterly, 35, 407–432 doi:10.2307/3588029 SHOULD VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION BE INTEGRATED OR ISOLATED? 243 Fraser, C A (1999) Lexical processing strategy use and vocabulary learning through reading Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 21, 225–241 doi:10.1017/ S0272263199002041 Hatch, E., & Brown, E (1995) Vocabulary, semantics, and language education New York, NY: Cambridge University Press Hill, M., & Laufer, B (2003) Type of task, time on task and electronic dictionaries in incidental vocabulary acquisition International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 41, 87–106 doi:10.1515/iral.2003.007 Horst, M., Cobb, T., & Meara, P (1998) Beyond a clockwork orange: Acquiring second language vocabulary through reading Reading in a Foreign Language, 11, 207–223 Joe, A (2006) The nature of encounters with vocabulary and long term vocabulary acquisition (Unpublished doctoral dissertation) Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand Knight, S (1994) Dictionary use while reading: The effects on comprehension and vocabulary acquisition for students of different verbal abilities The Modern Language Journal, 78, 285–299 doi:10.2307/330108 Laufer, B (2003) Vocabulary acquisition in a second language: Do learners really acquire most vocabulary by reading? 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TESOL Quarterly, 42, 181–207 244 TESOL QUARTERLY Swain, M (2000) The output hypothesis and beyond: Mediating acquisition through collaborative dialogue In J Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp 97–114) New York, NY: Oxford University Press Waring, R., & Takaki, M (2003) At what rate learners learn and retain new vocabulary from reading a graded reader Reading in a Foreign Language, 15, 130– 163 Watanabe, Y (1997) Input, intake and retention—effects of increased processing on incidental learning of foreign language vocabulary Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19, 287–307 doi:10.1017/S027226319700301X Webb, S (2005) Receptive and productive vocabulary learning: The effects of reading and writing on word knowledge Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 33–52 doi:10.1017/S0272263105050023 Appendix A Article Girls Can Do Anything, but Are They Doing Too Much? Fiona gets up out of bed and walks quietly downstairs to her daughter’s bedroom On the way she looks worriedly at the dining room clock; it’s 1.30 am again It is the same time she got up last night, and the night before that too She knocks quietly on her daughter’s door Kate, 16, smiles tiredly at her mother She is studying again Kate is busy putting the finishing touches to her science research study on protecting the wild life in the local lagoon She has a long way to go to finish and probably won’t make it to bed tonight Fiona, Kate’s mother, reminds her daughter of how disoriented she’ll feel in the morning if she does not get a good night’s sleep This is how Kate lives her life Her school work now seems to take last place in the line Ahead of her studies each day, Kate has other things to The most important of these is her new job at the video store It takes precedence over her drama rehearsals, her dwindling netball participation and now, it seems, even her schoolwork Throughout New Zealand a growing number of teachers, principals, parents and now even some health professionals are becoming more and more concerned about the growing problem of sleep deprivation in the nation’s adolescents These days they seem more industrious and seem to have less time for relaxation Put simply, students are now trying to fit more and more into an already crowded day and the first victim of it all is their sleep time The fact that almost all high school students now find it indispensable to have an after school job is seen as the biggest contributing factor to this problem A recent straw poll by teachers at a local girls’ high school showed that over 600 of the 900 girls on the school roll were in some sort of paid employment Most high schools in the country would be able to cite similar percentages of their students in part-time jobs The problem is, as one local principal has stated, the jobs are no longer an hour after school sweeping out a shop or delivering newspapers They are now at least three to four hours an evening with weekend work mandatory as well Kiwi kids are spending an alarming amount of their teenage years working in service stations, video stores, supermarkets, fast food outlets and multiplexes Ask them why they are working this hard and they’ll tell you: they have to! They need the money They need all the available ‘must haves’ that the world of technology-communications offers them No selfrespecting teenager lives without a mobile phone now and an iPod music player isn’t a luxury item, it’s an important accessory to everyday life These items aren’t one-off purchases either; they constantly update themselves and come out each year with bigger (or in the case of the phone, smaller) features that will make teenagers uncool if they not immediately have them The need to buy new things each year is a relentless drain on teenagers’ budgets and so they get a job, with as many hours as possible Anti-globalisation campaigner, Naomi Klein, wrote about this issue in her revolutionary book No Label Her depiction of the marketing ploys used by multi national retail companies identifies how all advertising is ultimately aimed at the 17 year old girl, wherever in the world she lives The style, tone and subject material of almost every international advertisement speaks surreptitiously to young females, telling them what they must have or what they must try to get in the next few years of their lives; phones, cosmetics, then after that, travel, cars, a whole SHOULD VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION BE INTEGRATED OR ISOLATED? 245 lifestyle Along with phones and music players, ‘label’ clothing features large The actresses and supermodels who bring cool clothing alive on the pages of glossy magazines, are not promoting faraway American dress retail outlets any more, they are talking about clothes that can be bought in a teenagers own town, by teenagers, for a price Kate, working late on her science project is under enormous peer and commercial pressure to buy and own more and more things This is something that her mother, Fiona, never had to worry about Mundane everyday department stores like Farmers did the trick when Fiona was a girl Buying for herself was something Fiona never considered until she was in full time work There’s another factor at work in this conundrum: New Zealand labour laws Since the massive change in labour conditions and pay rates that began in the late 1980s, it has become more practical for teenagers to work and more practical for employers to employ them The abolition of award rates and the introduction of more individualized employment contracts are designed to better suit the worker wanting work and the employer wanting to pay less This has meant that younger and younger workers can get adult style work Employers can pay youth pay rates to people under eighteen and it is much less than what they have to pay adults on a minimum wage Food empires like McDonalds have a culture built on youth work And a visit to any supermarket will indicate just how many teenagers maintain the running of almost every department These youth workers keep prices down, companies say It is just so easy for teenagers to get work today A secondary school student without a job is a rarity today just as a secondary school student without the latest label clothes, mobile phone and iPod is Tied up in this is the issue of sports participation The number of students partaking in organised team sport is shrinking This has caused the government (through the Hilary Commission) to carry out publicity campaigns to get teenagers back into sports participation Teenagers are getting fatter and they are becoming more narrow minded with the reduced opportunities for social interaction Extra-curricular activities in schools, such as out of school music, orchestra, school plays, rugby, soccer and netball are having to be increasingly worked around student’s work and job hours for that particular week It seems society has changed its priorities too much Working to own stuff (iPods etc) is what the youngsters want now, and participation in sports and other social interactions are something they will fit in around that, if they can Kate believes she does well She works her video store hours three nights a week till 8pm, fits in her drama rehearsals and basketball practice on the days off and works one day in the weekend She starts her homework each night at about 10pm, after she’s got home, eaten a meal and watched at least a couple of the TV shows she likes to see each week She admits to feeling tired and short of concentration most days at school, especially in the morning classes, but just can’t without the money she needs to earn just to be a teenager Kate therefore will always be busy Her drama teacher sees an intelligent girl with her eyes drooping from not getting enough sleep The principal is always mentioning the need for students to give necessary time to exam revision in newsletters Ironically even Kate’s boss at the video store worries that he is overburdening her Kate, however, thinks she is on top of it all She is invincible after all She is a teenager One thing does not change though A teenage girl still needs a good eight hours sleep during her growing years That was a fact in Fiona’s youth and it hasn’t changed for Kate’s New research points to a growing number of health problems linked to lesser or unsettled sleep and that is what Fiona thinks about most mornings, at about 1.30am This text was written for this study by Gary File 246 TESOL QUARTERLY Appendix B Target Words in Each Text (Alphabetical Order) TEXT ‘‘Girls Can Do Anything but Are They Doing Too Much?’’ Target words to be taught Target words not being taught Nonsense words assigned to each text abolition partaking relentless industrious disorientated surreptitiously adolescents conundrum drooping lagoon dwindling ploy indispensable invincible overburdening mundane depiction mandatory agription clantical patricating tance aspictuous opernitive TEXT ‘‘Achieving a Balanced Life—What New Zealanders Are Saying About the Work–Life Balance’’ Target words to be taught Target words not being taught punitive boisterous waning squabbles ensuing reiterated paramount auspices magnitude uphold grappling insubstantial strife hordes moderation imperative predetermined exemplify Nonsense words assigned to each text smorty resplugnant nutious flaster deruptucated unobtanium SHOULD VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION BE INTEGRATED OR ISOLATED? 247 Appendix C FIGURE A Preteaching (isolated) instructional sequence 248 TESOL QUARTERLY FIGURE 2B During teaching (integrated) instructional sequence SHOULD VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION BE INTEGRATED OR ISOLATED? 249