Explicit, Implicit, and Blended Vocabulary Instruction: Efficiency in an Aviation English Course
Main Article Content
Abstract
This paper reports on the results of vocabulary teaching sessions in an Aviation English Course conducted with three different groups of 12 fourth-year undergraduate students at the Flight Academy of the National Aviation University in Ukraine. The research objective was to identify how the explicit, the implicit, and the blended instruction influenced the students’ progress in Aviation English vocabulary acquisition. Experimental data was analyzed following the grounded theory approach. Each group took a pretest, a post-test, and a delayed test. The results showed that all three types of vocabulary instruction had a positive effect on the learning and recall of aviation vocabulary. The students who received the explicit treatment statistically outperformed the other two treatment groups in the posttest, based on immediate word acquisition. The results of the delayed test demonstrated that blended instruction was the most efficient approach in terms of delayed vocabulary retention as compared to a solely implicit or explicit teaching method. Therefore, we conclude that Aviation English classroom practices should incorporate a balanced approach employing both implicit and explicit vocabulary instruction.
Article Details
References
Barcroft, J. (2015). Lexical input processing and vocabulary learning. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Omanson, R. (1987). The effects and uses of diverse vocabulary instructional techniques. In M. G. McKeown, & M. E. Curtis (Eds.), The nature of vocabulary acquisition (pp. 147–163). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Coxhead, A. (2013). ESP and vocabulary. In B. Paltridge & S. Starfield (Eds.), The handbook for English for specific purposes (pp. 115-132). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Cunningham, A. E. (2005). Vocabulary growth through independent reading and reading aloud to children. In E. H. Hiebert & M. L. Kamil (Eds.), Teaching and learning vocabulary: Bringing research to practice (pp. 45–68). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Douglas, D. (2000). Assessing languages for specific purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dudley-Evans, T., & St. John, M. J. (1998). Developments in ESP: a multi-disciplinary approach. Edinburgh: Cambridge University Press.
Dakun, W. (2000). Vocabulary acquisition: implicit learning and explicit teaching. REACT, 2, 15-22.
Fainman, I. & Tokar, Y. (2018). Komponenty navchannia anhliiskoyi leksiki v aviatsiinomu VNZ [Components of teaching English vocabulary in aviation universities and colleges]. Filolohichni Studiyi. Naukovyi Visnyk Kryvorizkoho Derzhavnoho Pedahohichnoho Universytetu [Philological Sudios. Scientific Collection of Krivoi Roh State Pedagogical University], 17, 260-271.
Graves, M.F., August, D., & Mancilla-Martinez, J. (2013). Teaching vocabulary to English language learners. New York, USA: Teachers College Press.
Hirsch, E.D. (2003). Reading comprehension requires knowledge — of words and the world scientific insights into the fourth-grade slump and the nation's stagnant comprehension scores. American Educator, 27, 10-29.
Hirvela, A. R. (2013). ESP and reading. In B. Paltridge & S. Starfield (Eds.), The handbook for English for specific purposes (pp. 77-94). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Huckin, T., & Coady, J. (1999). Incidental vocabulary acquisition in a second language:a review. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 21, 181-193.
Hulstijn, J.H. (2001). Intentional and incidental second-language vocabulary learning: A reappraisal of elaboration, rehearsal and automaticity. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and Second Language Instruction (pp. 258-286). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ICAO (2010). Manual on the implementaion of ICAO language proficiency requirements. Doc 9835 AN 453, 2nd ed. Montreal, Canada. Retrieved from https://www4.icao.int/aelts/ uploads/icao%20doc9835%202nd%20edition.pdf
Laufer, B. (2009). Second language vocabulary acquisition from language input and from form focused activities. Language Teaching, 42, 341-354. doi:10.1017/S0261444809005771
McCarthy, M. (1990). Vocabulary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kolosov, V. A., & Ivanova, T.A. (2000). Analiz oshibok rechevoho vzaimodeistviia ekipazhey i dispetcherov UVD [Analysis of mistakes in speech communication between crew and air traffic controllers]. In Psihophiziolohicheskiie problemy povysheniia rabotosposobnosti liotnoho i dispetcherskoho sostava hrazhdanskoy aviatsii (Psychological and physiological problems of improving efficiency of civil aviation crew and ATCs) (pp. 90-101). Saint Petersburg: Civil Aviation Academy.
Kusumawati, E., & Widiati, U. (2017). The effects of vocabulary instructions on students’ reading comprehension across cognitive styles in ESP. Journal of Education and Practice, 8(2), 175-184.
Mukoroli, J. (2011). Effective vocabulary teaching strategies for the English for academic purposes ESL classroom. MA TESOL Collection, 501, 1 -53.
Nagy, W. (1997). On the role of context in first- and second-language vocabulary learning. In N. Schmitt & M. McCarthy (Eds.), Vocabulary: description, acquisition and pedagogy (pp. 64-83). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Nation, I.S.P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nation, I.S.P., & Webb, S. (2011). Content-based instruction and vocabulary learning. In E. Hinkel. Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning, Volume II. (pp. 631-644). London: Routledge.
Newton, J. (1995). Task-based interaction and incidental vocabulary learning: a case study. Second Language Research, 11(2), 159-177.
Ozola, I. (2015). Using audio materials for ESP vocabulary acqusition. In N. StojkoviÄ (Ed.), Vistas of English for specific purposes (pp. 317-324). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Petty, W., Herold, C., & Stoll, E. (1968). The State of the knowledge of the teaching of vocabulary (Cooperative Research Project No. 3128). Champaign, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
Secer, Y. E., & Sahin, M. (2014). Challenges of teaching aviation vocabulary and radio phraseology at high school level. International Journal on New Trends in Education and Their Implications, 5 (4), 110-120.
Schmitt, N. (2000). Vocabulary in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schmitt, N. (2008). Instructed second language vocabulary learning. Language Teaching Research. 12(3), 329–363.
Sökmen, A.J. (1997). Current trends in teaching second language vocabulary. In N. Schmitt, & M. McCarthy (Eds.), Vocabulary: description, acquisition and pedagogy (pp. 237-257). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Souleyman, H. M. (2009). Implicit and explicit vocabulary acquisition with a computer-assisted hypertext reading task: comprehension and retention. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Stahl, S.A. (2005). Four problems with teaching word meanings (and what to do to make vocabulary an integral part of instruction). In E. H. Hiebert, & M.L. Kamil (Eds.), Teaching and learning vocabulary: bringing research to practice (pp. 95-114). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Sternberg, R.J. (1987). Most vocabulary is learned from context. In M.G. McKeown, & M. Curtis (Eds.), The nature of vocabulary acquisition (pp. 89-105). Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Strevens, P. (1988). ESP after twenty years: A re-appraisal in Tickoo M. ESP: State of the art (pp.1-13). Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Centre.
TakaÄ, V. P. (2008). Vocabulary learning strategies and foreign language acqusition. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Tokar, Y. & Fainman, I. (2018). Teaching vocabulary in aviation English course: a step-by-step method, strategies and classroom activities. Journal of Teaching English for Specific and Academic Purposes, 6(3), 441-454.
Woodward-Kron, R. (2008). More than just jargon – the nature and roles of specialist knowledge in learning disciplinary knowledge . Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 7, 234–249.
Wray, A. (2002). Formulaic language and the lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zhang, W. (2008). In Search of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' knowledge of vocabulary instruction. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Georgia State University, Georgia, USA.
Zimmerman, C. B. (1997). Historical trends in second language vocabulary instruction. New York: Cambridge University Press.