Computer-Mediated Vocabulary Learning: Using Dynamic and Non-dynamic Glosses for Acquiring L2 Vocational Vocabularies in ESP Classes

This study focused on the effects dynamic form of text-based vocational vocabulary glosses: Dynamic glosses are a series of incremental mediations intended to support students in identifying correct word definitions. After running a pre-test (TOFEL ibt), 34 ESP learners in medical university were chosen to participate in the study, 17 students randomly assigned to the treatment group and 17 randomly assigned to the control group. Participants in treatment and control conditions received three short ESP texts with many vocational vocabularies using the computers in the language lab and the Adobe Connect application. As the participants in the dynamic gloss condition faced unknown vocational vocabulary items in the passages, the teacher provided the learners with a set of mediations from the most implicit to the most explicit prompts, and the learners tried to identify the correct meaning of the word. In the non-dynamic gloss condition, the learners were given the L1 definition for the target words. The post-test results indicated that the treatment group meaningfully outperformed the control group.