Woorden Leren in Een Vreemde Taal

In an experiment two hypotheses were tested: 1. learning new words by extracting their meaning from context and by rehearsing them in context, facilitates the use of these words in situations involving the foreign language (e.g. a cloze test) 2. learning new words by linking them to mother tongue equivalents and rehearsing them in isolation, facilitates the use of these words involving the mother tongue ( e.g. an isolated word test). Two methods of learning English words by 13 year old Dutch pupils were contrasted. All subjects were presented several English texts containing unfa-miliar word. In one condition they received with every unfamiliar word three English sentences containing the target word. The meaning of the word was to be extracted from the text and the sentences. In the other condition they received with every unfamiliar word the entry from a bilingual dictionary. The translation which best fitted the text was to be chosen. Subjects performed the task individually and at their own speed. Afterwards the teacher provided the translation of each target word. Next the words were rehearsed. In one condition the subjects rehearsed the target words in English sentences. In the other condition they linked the target words to mother tongue equivalents. Two tests were administered. One was a cloze test. Subjects had to fill in the target words in several unfamiliar English texts. The other was an isolated word test. Subjects had to provide the target words, cued by translations. Both hypotheses were confirmed. Type of learning activity and kind of test interacted. Looking for the best method to teach words therefore seems futile. Learning words in a foreign language is a task in which several factors must be taken into account: learner, learning activities, material and test.