Vocabulary learning from audiovisual input at first exposure in young adult novice learners

Abstract

In this ‘First Exposure’ (FE) study, 106 Catalan/Spanish young adults proficient in English watched a short advert with the audio in English and subtitles in Polish, a language they were not familiar with. Results indicated that vocabulary learning took place, as their meaning recognition scores were significantly higher than those of a control group who had not seen the video. The most recurrent learning strategies these novice learners used were associations with imagery and with vocabulary in previously learned languages, along with attention to specific input factors such as frequency of word occurrence. Findings reveal how audiovisual input can help vocabulary acquisition at FE, as well as factors relevant for learning from video viewing at these very first stages.