Mariko Fujita: How to Make English Vocabulary Stick?

2023/09/05

Recently, I read "The Science of English Vocabulary Learning" (by Tatsuya Nakata, Kenkyusha). One concept that caught my eye was the "principle of consistency between learning and testing." It suggests that "the closer the learning conditions are to the testing conditions, the more effective the learning becomes." For example, if students study using flashcards with an English word on the front and its Japanese translation on the back, a test where they see the English word and recall the Japanese translation can be expected to be highly effective. Conversely, a test where they see the Japanese translation and recall the English word is said to be less effective.

This year, I am teaching a Reading & Vocabulary class for high school seniors. I give vocabulary tests every time, but I realized that "learning" and "testing" are not consistent at all. Students' studying consists only of looking at the words and their explanations in their vocabulary books. Almost no students practice by writing the English words. The tests use different English sentences instead of the example sentences in the vocabulary book, and the test formats include multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blanks, and word unscrambling. This reflects the teacher's desire for students to learn various aspects such as the form, meaning, and usage of the words. However, some research suggests that if you try to make students learn too many things at once, they won't master any of them. Is the reason English vocabulary doesn't stick due to the mismatch between student learning and teacher testing?

Therefore, as a measure for the final exam, I used a tool called Quizlet to create 220 flashcards from the words appearing in the exam's text range. I wrote the English words on the front and their Japanese translations on the back, making them available for students to use online two weeks before the test. On the exam, I included 20 of those words. I used a crossword format where the across and down clues were the Japanese translations, and the task was to write the English word indicated by that translation, ensuring that the learning and testing were consistent. I also informed the students of the test format in advance. The effect was enormous. The average score for the 162 students was 16 out of 20. Fifty-two students achieved a perfect score of 20. In a previous test, I had used English definitions for the across and down clues instead of Japanese translations, but the students' performance was not good. It may be that the set of an English word and its Japanese translation is easier to stick in students' brains.

My students taught me that the effects of daily learning are demonstrated through tests that match that learning. I want to continue exploring the "consistency between learning and testing."