Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 61, February 2013, Pages 251-260
Computers & Education

RoLo: A dictionary interface that minimizes extraneous cognitive load of lookup and supports incidental and incremental learning of vocabulary

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.10.006Get rights and content

Abstract

Dictionary use can improve reading comprehension and incidental vocabulary learning. Nevertheless, great extraneous cognitive load imposed by the search process may reduce or even prevent the improvement. With the help of technology, dictionary users can now instantly access the meaning list of a searched word using a mouse click. However, they must spend great cognitive effort identifying the most appropriate meaning for a given context, contributing to the disruption of the flow of reading and decreasing the positive effect of dictionary use. Furthermore, dictionary users face difficulty in exploiting accumulative illustrations from multiple contexts to understand obscure words whose appropriate meanings are not in the dictionary or are difficult to identify. To address these issues and to offer language learners, especially lifelong learners, effective support for incremental and incidental learning of vocabulary through reading, this research proposes a dictionary interface named RoLo (Remind on Lookup). Each time an unfamiliar word is re-looked up, RoLo reminds users about contextual information and word knowledge learned in previous encounters of the word in an appropriate manner. Two studies were conducted to evaluate RoLo. The first study, with 34 participants, examined the effect of RoLo use on incidental vocabulary learning. The second examination, involving 43 participants who used the prototype of RoLo for one month, investigated dictionary users' evaluation of RoLo. The results show that RoLo helps dictionary users enhance vocabulary learning and text comprehension and search for unfamiliar words more easily and faster.

Highlights

► A dictionary interface called RoLo (Remind on Lookup) is proposed. Two studies have been conducted to evaluate RoLo. RoLo helps dictionary users look up words significantly faster and more easily. RoLo helps dictionary users enhance vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. RoLo assists lifelong learners of language, encourages learners to use for long time.

Introduction

One of the best ways to develop vocabulary and improve reading comprehension is frequent reading practice. Especially, reading authentic texts in a foreign or second language (L2) has long been recognized as essential for developing L2 literacy (Gilmore, 2007; Kern, 2003). Thus, with the large variety of authentic reading materials that are available on the Web, reading authentic texts for interesting content is an excellent way to encourage motivated learners to become engaged in real interpretive communication. In addition, reading authentic L2 texts is a frequent activity among individuals who pursue higher education or conduct research. Therefore, the ability to read and comprehend authentic L2 texts efficiently is crucial for all language learners. To successfully comprehend authentic L2 texts, L2 readers must be able to automatically recognize and decode 95%–99% of the words in the texts (Laufer, 1997; Nation, 2001). However, previous studies showed that understanding unknown words in authentic texts presents significant challenges for L2 readers (Groot, 2000), and these readers commonly lack sufficient word knowledge to support successful guessing (Chen, 1998; Grabe & Stoller, 1997). Thus, the likelihood of comprehending authentic L2 texts without the effective semantic support of a dictionary is frustratingly low. In fact, many studies have shown that dictionary use improves reading comprehension (Prichard, 2008). Dictionaries are, therefore, an important learning tool that nearly all L2 readers utilize to facilitate reading comprehension.

In addition to enhancing reading comprehension, dictionary use also improves incidental vocabulary learning1 (Chun & Plass, 1996, 1997; Hulstijn, Hollander, & Greidanus, 1996; Knight, 1994). This is because searching for a word in a dictionary and selecting the correct definition require substantial attention to the target word, and “the more a learner pays attention to a word's morphophonological, orthographic, prosodic, semantic, and pragmatic features and to intraword and interword relations, the more likely it is that the new lexical information will be retained” (Hulstijn, 2001, p. 285). However, if a dictionary imposes excessive cognitive load on its users during the search process, it may reduce learners' attention to the target words, disrupt fluent reading, and discourage learners from searching for unfamiliar words. Nevertheless, not all types of cognitive load imposed by the search process should be avoided. According to Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller, 2005), there are three types of load imposed on a learner's processing, intrinsic, germane, and extraneous cognitive load. Intrinsic cognitive load is due to the innate complexity of the content and is considered unavoidable. Germane cognitive load is due to relevant instructional activities or learning strategies and is considered beneficial to learning. Extraneous cognitive load is due to characteristics of the learning context that are not necessary for learning the content and may even interfere with learning. Thus, to be effective, dictionary interfaces should decrease extraneous cognitive load (such as reading the definitions of irrelevant meanings) and involve an appropriate level of germane cognitive load. In fact, Craik and Lockhart (1972) suggested that retention of information is determined by the manner in which this information is processed.

The advent of electronic dictionaries encouraged research on how these dictionaries are used and their usefulness as learning tools and as contributors to incidental vocabulary learning. Leffa (1992) compared the effect of an electronic dictionary and a paper dictionary on a translation task and found that the electronic dictionary allowed the students to “understand 38% more of the passage, using 50% less time” (p. 63). Recently, Dziemianko (2010) found that compared with paper dictionaries, electronic dictionaries largely enhance both passive recall and active recall of meaning. According to her, this is partly because the visual impact created by an electronic dictionary and the prominent position of a headword on the computer screen attract greater attention than a printed page. These studies suggest that electronic dictionaries are better learning tools than paper dictionaries. Furthermore, with the help of technology, it is possible to design electronic dictionaries with interfaces integrated into the reading environments in which word meanings can be instantly accessed by a mouse click. Examples of these dictionary interfaces include LiveDictionary, the Google dictionary extension for the Google Chrome browser, and the two dictionary services on the Ultralingua.net and WordCham websites. These dictionaries display a popup window with word meanings near the word when users point to the word or click/double-click on it. Another example is MS Word 2007, which displays a panel with word meanings on the right hand side of the main window when the user presses the Alt key and clicks on the unknown word in the main window. Despite providing instant access to the word meanings, these dictionary interfaces have the following three drawbacks:

First, they do not support selecting the suitable definition for a given usage of an unfamiliar word. Rather than placing definitions with a high possibility of being selected at the top of the meaning list, current dictionaries display all meaning definitions or translations in the same order for all user searches. This is improper because of the following reasons: 1) Dictionary users often stop reading the entry for a word after reading only the top few definitions, irrespective of whether they provide the correct definition for the given usage of the word (Bogaards, 1998; Kulkarni, Heilman, Eskenazi, & Callan, 2008). 2) The process of understanding a meaning definition or translation and then evaluating whether it fits the current context requires some cognitive load. Doing this many times for irrelevant meanings not only increases extraneous cognitive load and impedes the flow of reading, but also discourages users from searching for unknown words, which in turn may negatively affect text comprehension. Furthermore, increasing extraneous cognitive load reduces attention to the correct meaning and thus reduces incidental learning of this meaning. 3) Dictionary users look up a word not only to find an unknown meaning, but also to recall a forgotten meaning. Displaying all possible meanings of the word in the same way makes it difficult for dictionary users to identify the forgotten meaning found during previous searches for the word. 4) Different dictionary users may search for different meanings of the same word. Furthermore, a single user often works with only one particular meaning of a word during a certain period of time.

Second, current dictionaries do not support L2 readers to incrementally learn unfamiliar words through accumulated illustrations from multiple encountered contexts. Dictionary information is not always sufficient for learners to understand unfamiliar words in authentic texts. To understand a difficult word feature (e.g., meanings of specialized terms or obscure words) or to have a deep understanding of a word, learners must not only read the entry of dictionaries, but also observe accumulated illustrations from different encountered contexts. Furthermore, word learning is an incremental process (Nation, 2001). Acquiring a word is not simply the act of connecting a word form to word meaning, but a complex process that involves the learning of grammatical functions such as parts of speech, sociolinguistics factors such as word connotation, and frequency intuitions such as collocation over the course of multiple encounters of the target word in diverse contexts (Nation, 1990, 2001). Each time L2 readers encounter an unknown word, they learn some word knowledge from the context and/or dictionary information. However, this knowledge gain is incomplete and easy to forget. Besides, in real life, the interval between illustrative encounters (i.e., encounters whose contexts illustrate some word features) is often large enough for learners to forget the word knowledge that was learned during previous encounters. This causes difficulties in accumulating knowledge from multiple encounters to gradually form a complete understanding of the word. Thus, dictionary interfaces should support users in understanding unfamiliar words on the basis of not only dictionary information, but also accumulated illustrations from multiple illustrative and relevant contexts.

Third, current dictionaries do not support making, testing and developing a hypothesis about word meaning. In many cases, such as when facing obscure words or domain-specific terms or in contexts with many unknown words, users cannot choose the suitable meaning, even with substantial effort. Current dictionaries do not provide an effective storing–retrieving mechanism that stores the current context together with the temporary result of inferring word meaning from the context, such as a hypothesis about the word's general meaning, to retrieve and develop in the future. Thus, when re-encountering the word in an illustrative context, current dictionary users lose their work results (e.g., hypothesized meanings) from previous encounters. The incremental learning process based on a series of formulating, testing and developing hypothesis about word meaning on the basis of illustrations from encountered contexts must be supported because previous research studies showed that “meaning inferred” yields higher retention than “meaning given” (Hulstijn, 1992; Mondria & Boer, 1991). Moreover, the generative models (e.g., Wittrock, 1974) claim that learning and retention are improved when learners create connections between old and new knowledge by using, reformulating and elaborating the new information. Many lexical studies have confirmed that increased generative processing results in increased word gain (Joe, 1995, 1998; Zaki & Ellis, 1999).

In the current research, we aim to propose and evaluate a dictionary interface, named RoLo (Remind on Lookup). This interface not only addresses the above issues, but also offers language learners, especially lifelong learners, effective support for incremental and incidental learning of vocabulary through reading. RoLo reminds its users about word knowledge (e.g., hypothesized meanings, knowledge illustrated by encountered contexts, etc.) and contextual information (location, date) from previous encounters of a word in an appropriate manner (see Section 2.2.2) when that word is searched again (hereafter, re-looked up). This behavior is similar to the way humans answer questions previously asked. When we answer a question that was previously asked and answered, we tend to remind the questioner about where and when the question was asked. Dumais et al. (2003) suggested that people often rely on contextual cues such as time and author to retrieve information that was previously encountered. To reduce the cognitive load required by selecting the appropriate meaning during a search, RoLo places the most recently encountered meaning of a word at the top of the word's meaning list. This behavior is based on the phenomenon that when a meaning is chosen during a search for a word, it is quite likely that the same meaning will be chosen during the next search for that word. This phenomenon is due to the re-access pattern, forgetting, and the limiting nature of lexicon. An example of re-access pattern has been observed (Catledge & Pitkow, 1995; McKenzie & Cockburn, 2001; Tauscher & Greenberg, 1997), as 58–81% of Web pages accessed were re-visits to previously viewed pages. Similar re-access patterns have been observed in the usage of Unix commands (Greenberg, 1993), library book borrowing (Burrell, 1980), human memory (Anderson & Schooler, 1991), and computer memory reference (Patterson & Hennessy, 2005, p. 468). When reading texts that cover a particular field, it is quite likely that different appearances of a word in the same or different texts have the same meaning. In this case, dictionary searches for that word, except the first search, are re-lookups. Another form of re-lookup occurs when dictionary users perform searches for different morphological forms of the same word when they do not know that the forms are indeed of a single word.

Section snippets

System architecture

The system is designed based on the MVC architecture pattern2 and can be logically divided into the following six components: the Interface component, the Controller component, and four database components, which include Dictionary, Extra-meanings, Morphological forms, and Historical information (see Fig. 1).

The Dictionary component stores all dictionary information, which, in our implementation, can be either the WordNet database from

Evaluation

To evaluate the efficacy of RoLo, two studies were conducted. The first study, described in Section 3.1, aimed to answer the question of how RoLo use influences incidental vocabulary learning. The second study, described in Section 3.2, investigated how dictionary users evaluate RoLo. The simplified version was examined in the first study, and the full version was used in the second study. Both versions had interfaces that were integrated into Internet Explorer (IE) so that the participants

Conclusion

This research proposes and evaluates RoLo, a dictionary interface that reminds users about meaning choices, contextual information, and hypothesized meanings (if any) from previous searches for an unfamiliar word each time the word is searched. The results from the studies in this research show that RoLo improves not only incidental vocabulary learning, but also the ease and speed of re-lookup. Compared to conventional dictionaries, RoLo provides more effective support for understanding

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