Is this picture corresponds to the verb "emit"

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mikonai
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Re: Is this picture corresponds to the verb "emit"

Postby mikonai » Wed Jan 16, 2019 11:17 pm

I think part of the issue is also that we're not sure about the contexts where you are using these images. If you are relying on the image alone to get a person to respond with the word "emit", then it's not clear these images will work well at all. But it sounds like you are trying to see if you can get any retention of incidental vocabulary by presenting a related image alongside the word you want them to learn in context, right?

If that's the case, and since you also have subtitles, then probably pictures of sunbeams are ok. The volcano seems a little less useful, unless the video is actually talking about the lava emitting light or something while it is displayed.


If I may give some other advice for your study: It looks like you have some words where it is very easy to get closely corresponding images, and other words which are more abstract and difficult to find clear imagery for. To balance this out you may want to do a couple of things:

1. Run a control group in addition to your testing group. The control group would get the same audio, but would see unrelated or random images instead of corresponding images. Then when you run your statistics, you compare the improvement in the two groups.

2. When you do those same statistics, you may also want to check on a per-word basis to see if some of the more abstract words (like "emit") show no improvement at all, and deal with them separately. You may come to the conclusion that this technique works with concrete nouns and concepts with very simple visual representations, but not well for abstract ones that have no clear visual correspondence.


Probably you and/or your advisor have already considered these things, however. But since there is probably a bigger imbalance than you can correct with choice of image, you can probably satisfy your examiners by at least accounting for the potential issues elsewhere in your experimental design.
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sg2019
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Re: Is this picture corresponds to the verb "emit"

Postby sg2019 » Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:48 am

mikonai wrote:But it sounds like you are trying to see if you can get any retention of incidental vocabulary by presenting a related image alongside the word you want them to learn in context, right?

1. Run a control group in addition to your testing group. The control group would get the same audio, but would see unrelated or random images instead of corresponding images.

Thank you so much for your detailed feedback. It was indeed very helpful.
The material was not images but L2 subtitled videos of documentary series to which learners were exposed over 8 weeks period. I have no control over the videos (Students are exposed to full-length episodes) + I finished my experiment one year ago (Jan 2018) :(
The volcano seems a little less useful, unless the video is actually talking about the lava emitting light or something while it is displayed.

Yes,it does. The verbal context (subtitles + audio) clearly explains and relates to the corresponding image.
2. you may also want to check on a per-word basis to see if some of the more abstract words (like "emit") show no improvement at all, and deal with them separately.

Indeed, I have an independent variable called (imageability), an I am looking into its effects on learning as well as the effect of its interaction with verbal visual frequency.
I will try as much as I can to account for the potential issues. Thank you so much for your support.
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