The Effects and Efficiency of Hearing Stories on Vocabulary Acquisition by Students of German as a Second Foreign Language in Japan

Beniko Mason
Shitennoji University Junior College
Osaka, Japan

Martina Vanata
Speak & Write
Marburg, Germany

Katrin Jander
Deutschkolleg - Centre for Foreign Language Training of Tongji University
Shanghai. China

Ramona Borsch
Novosibirsk State University
Novosibirsk, Russia

Stephen Krashen
University of Southern California (Emeritus)
Los Angeles, CA, USA

The usual approach to vocabulary learning is to present students with a list of words to be memorized, present them in the context of a text, and then provide exercises to "reinforce" the vocabulary. The purpose of these studies with beginning level German-as-a-foreign language university students in Japan was to determine whether beginning level students with limited vocabulary in German could sustain their interest in hearing a story for over 20 minutes, and to determine how much vocabulary could be gained just from hearing stories, without a list to memorize and supplementary vocabulary exercises. The first experiment showed that hearing a story had a higher acquisition/learning rate than a list method. The second and third experiments showed that supplementary focus on form activities were not worthwhile on vocabulary acquisition/learning, and that the rate of acquisition/learning was .10 words per minute during the seven weeks. It appears to be the case that students acquire six words per hour when they hear stories, while they learn 2.4 words per hour in traditional classes.

The usual approach to vocabulary learning is to present students with a list of words to be mastered, then present them in the context of a text, and then provide exercises to "reinforce" the vocabulary. Research, however, tells us that a great deal of vocabulary acquisition can take place through story hearing, read-alouds, and pleasure reading (Cho & Choi, 2008; Elley, 1989, 1991; Vivas, 1996; Mason & Krashen, 2004; Krashen, 2004; Wang & Lee, 2007).

The goal of the studies presented here is to determine whether and how much vocabulary can be gained without presenting students with a list of words, and without supplementary vocabulary exercises, using a method in which target words are presented in the context of a story. The approach used here is not a pure "acquisition" approach, as some focus on form is involved. The results of the study thus will have limited implications for theory. The results will tell us, however, if a story-centered method can work, and whether we can dispense with at least some aspects of traditional instruction, which we suspect discourages students from foreign language study.

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