The effects of language and emotionality of stimuli on vocabulary learning

Candice Frances; Angela de Bruin; Jon Andoni Duñabeitia

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0240252

The effects of language and emotionality of stimuli on vocabulary learning

Candice Frances, Angela de Bruin, Jon Andoni Duñabeitia

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Learning new content and vocabulary in a foreign language can be particularly difficult. Yet, there are educational programs that require people to study in a language they are not native speakers of. For this reason, it is important to understand how these learning processes work and possibly differ from native language learning, as well as to develop strategies to ease this process. The current study takes advantage of emotionality-operationally defined as positive valence and high arousal-to improve memory. In two experiments, the present paper addresses whether participants have more difficulty learning the names of objects they have never seen before in their foreign language and whether embedding them in a positive semantic context can help make learning easier. With this in mind, we had participants (with a minimum of a B2 level of English) in two experiments (43 participants in Experiment 1 and 54 in Experiment 2) read descriptions of made-up objects-either positive or neutral and either in their native or a foreign language. The effects of language varied with the difficulty of the task and measure used. In both cases, learning the words in a positive context improved learning. Importantly, the effect of emotionality was not modulated by language, suggesting that the effects of emotionality are independent of language and could potentially be a useful tool for improving foreign language vocabulary learning.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	e0240252
Journal	PLoS ONE
Volume	15
Issue number	10
Early online date	7 Oct 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240252
Publication status	Published - 2020

Bibliographical note

Access to Document

10.1371/journal.pone.0240252Licence: CC BY

journal.pone.0240252
© 2020 Frances et al.
Final published version, 1.36 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{160bca3764694d00aa874d085d731a38,

title = "The effects of language and emotionality of stimuli on vocabulary learning",

abstract = "Learning new content and vocabulary in a foreign language can be particularly difficult. Yet, there are educational programs that require people to study in a language they are not native speakers of. For this reason, it is important to understand how these learning processes work and possibly differ from native language learning, as well as to develop strategies to ease this process. The current study takes advantage of emotionality-operationally defined as positive valence and high arousal-to improve memory. In two experiments, the present paper addresses whether participants have more difficulty learning the names of objects they have never seen before in their foreign language and whether embedding them in a positive semantic context can help make learning easier. With this in mind, we had participants (with a minimum of a B2 level of English) in two experiments (43 participants in Experiment 1 and 54 in Experiment 2) read descriptions of made-up objects-either positive or neutral and either in their native or a foreign language. The effects of language varied with the difficulty of the task and measure used. In both cases, learning the words in a positive context improved learning. Importantly, the effect of emotionality was not modulated by language, suggesting that the effects of emotionality are independent of language and could potentially be a useful tool for improving foreign language vocabulary learning.",

author = "Candice Frances and {de Bruin}, Angela and Du{\~n}abeitia, {Jon Andoni}",

note = "{\textcopyright} 2020 Frances et al.",

year = "2020",

doi = "10.1371/journal.pone.0240252",

language = "English",

volume = "15",

pages = "e0240252",

journal = "PLoS ONE",

issn = "1932-6203",

publisher = "Public Library of Science",

number = "10",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - The effects of language and emotionality of stimuli on vocabulary learning

AU - Frances, Candice

AU - de Bruin, Angela

AU - Duñabeitia, Jon Andoni

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - Learning new content and vocabulary in a foreign language can be particularly difficult. Yet, there are educational programs that require people to study in a language they are not native speakers of. For this reason, it is important to understand how these learning processes work and possibly differ from native language learning, as well as to develop strategies to ease this process. The current study takes advantage of emotionality-operationally defined as positive valence and high arousal-to improve memory. In two experiments, the present paper addresses whether participants have more difficulty learning the names of objects they have never seen before in their foreign language and whether embedding them in a positive semantic context can help make learning easier. With this in mind, we had participants (with a minimum of a B2 level of English) in two experiments (43 participants in Experiment 1 and 54 in Experiment 2) read descriptions of made-up objects-either positive or neutral and either in their native or a foreign language. The effects of language varied with the difficulty of the task and measure used. In both cases, learning the words in a positive context improved learning. Importantly, the effect of emotionality was not modulated by language, suggesting that the effects of emotionality are independent of language and could potentially be a useful tool for improving foreign language vocabulary learning.

AB - Learning new content and vocabulary in a foreign language can be particularly difficult. Yet, there are educational programs that require people to study in a language they are not native speakers of. For this reason, it is important to understand how these learning processes work and possibly differ from native language learning, as well as to develop strategies to ease this process. The current study takes advantage of emotionality-operationally defined as positive valence and high arousal-to improve memory. In two experiments, the present paper addresses whether participants have more difficulty learning the names of objects they have never seen before in their foreign language and whether embedding them in a positive semantic context can help make learning easier. With this in mind, we had participants (with a minimum of a B2 level of English) in two experiments (43 participants in Experiment 1 and 54 in Experiment 2) read descriptions of made-up objects-either positive or neutral and either in their native or a foreign language. The effects of language varied with the difficulty of the task and measure used. In both cases, learning the words in a positive context improved learning. Importantly, the effect of emotionality was not modulated by language, suggesting that the effects of emotionality are independent of language and could potentially be a useful tool for improving foreign language vocabulary learning.

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0240252

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0240252

M3 - Article

C2 - 33027296

SN - 1932-6203

VL - 15

SP - e0240252

JO - PLoS ONE

JF - PLoS ONE

IS - 10

ER -