There is a lack of research which examines the effects of online pop-up dictionaries in the context of less commonly taught languages including Japanese as a second and foreign language (JSL and JFL), despite the growing popularity of such tools. This qualitatively-oriented study is an attempt to fill this void. The study investigates differences…

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…

The use of marginal reading glosses by 18 second language (L2) learners is examined through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of audiotaped think-aloud protocols. How these readers interact with the glosses is identified and divided into five categories or gloss interactions. Examples from each are presented. The primary research question…

This study investigated the relationship between task-induced involvement load and ESL learners' inferencing and learning word meanings from context. Thirty-two ESL learners were randomly assigned to one of three groups, with each group receiving a different version of a text that was assumed to differ from one another in terms of the degree of…

In recent years the study of second language (L2) vocabulary learning through reading has attracted much attention in the field of L2 acquisition. A specific area that has received wide interest is the examination of the processes involved in deriving word meanings from context. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships…

The present study investigates the effects that different types of multimedia glosses, namely textual, pictorial, and textual + pictorial, have on text comprehension and vocabulary learning when the goal is exclusively comprehension of a computerized text. This study is based on the theoretical framework of attention, which maintains that…

The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a district-wide professional development effort based on a modified Ramp-Up Program, designed to help high school teachers improve the reading skills of their students. Ramp-Up is a two-year course that seeks to accelerate the learning progress of entering high school students who…