Using the Internet with a structured think-aloud methodology to enhance college students' vocabulary
Item
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Title
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Using the Internet with a structured think-aloud methodology to enhance college students' vocabulary
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:db08814dc570:11303
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identifier
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11681
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Creator
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Ebner, Rachel J.,
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Contributor
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Linnea C. Ehri
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Date
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2012
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Educational psychology | Educational technology | Language arts | online learning | online literacy | self-regulation | think-aloud | vocabulary | word learning
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Abstract
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The present study built upon an earlier study by Ebner and Ehri (in press), which examined the Internet's potential as a learning tool for enhancing college students' vocabularies. The current research sought to extend that study by determining how to make online vocabulary learning more effective. An experiment was conducted to investigate a structured think-aloud methodology that encouraged participants' metacognitive focus on an online vocabulary task. Participants were 70 students from a New York City public university. They were randomly assigned to either a treatment condition to learn about particular terms contained in an online text using a structured think-aloud method, or to a control condition using an unstructured think-aloud method. Analyses of variances revealed that structured think-aloud participants demonstrated significantly greater vocabulary gains, both overall and within specific dimensions of word knowledge, compared to the control group. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed that differences between conditions in vocabulary gains were attributable to structured think-aloud participants' greater metacognitive focus on the task (e.g., greater instances of reminding themselves about the online vocabulary goal; planning and evaluating their online actions in relation to achieving the goal). Correlations and regression analyses also showed that participants showing the best performance in the online vocabulary task had more extensive vocabularies going into the activity, had some prior familiarity with the terms, and were assigned to the structured think-aloud condition. Results offer strong support for the structured think-aloud methodology as a scaffold for making online vocabulary learning more effective.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Educational Psychology
