Literature Review: Online Strategy Training of Self-Regulated Academic Vocabulary Learning

Seker (2016) examined the impact of scenario-based instruction on language learners' use and awareness of self-regulated language learning strategies to present an instructional design that can successfully promote them. The study used 125 participants drawn from foreign (English) language learners in preparatory classes at a state university. The participants were between 18 and 21 years old, and 8%were male while 42% were women (Seker, 2016). Participants were divided into two; the first group with 61 students formed the experimental group while 64 constituted the control group (Seker, 2016). The study used experimental design methodology employing three instruments: whole-class discussions, strategy inventory for language learning, and semi-structured interviews. The study developed a scenario-based self-regulated language learning strategy instruction design based on Oxford's Strategic, Self-Regulation (S2R) Model. Based on an analysis of pre- and post-training results from both experimental and control groups, the study established that the experimental group demonstrated increased awareness and a higher reported use of strategies (Seker, 2016). The study took a significant step in determining the awareness and use of self-regulated language learning strategies. This step enhanced the reliability of the results of the study because it ensured that prior participant experiences did not affect the results.

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Deng (2016) investigated the effect of a self-regulated vocabulary intervention on reading comprehension, word knowledge, and self-regulated learning for elementary English language learners. The study was conducted in a large public school district in the Midwest involving 9 upper elementary-level English language learners (2 female and 7 male) out of a population of 546 students (Deng, 2016). The participants were randomly assigned to three groups: A, B, and C, with each group containing three students. The participants underwent baseline, intervention and maintenance phases. At baseline phase, participants received self-regulated word-learning measure, reading and word knowledge protocol. At intervention, participants from all the groups continued responding to baseline probes until group A attained criterion performance. Maintenance phase involved repetition of baseline procedures to determine maintained effects for the intervention. The study analyzed the results for every child and when taken together, it showed that teaching task-specific cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies significantly improved upper elementary English language learners word knowledge, reading comprehension, and self-regulated word learning (Deng, 2016). Although the study provides compelling results arrived at through a carefully selected methodology, the researcher adopted a small sample that does not effectively reflect the entire population (9 out of 546 students).

Gao, He and Zeng (2017) analyzed five strategy-training models to build a discussion on the design and authentic practice of a new model, TCLTSP, for explicit foreign language learning strategy training. The researchers reviewed and analyzed instructional models designed in the researches of strategy training which included the Strategy Teaching Model, The Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA) model, The CRAPEL Model, and The Flower Model. The analysis aimed at demonstrating how strategy training program based on TCLTSP model for freshmen is undertaken in Southwest Petroleum University in China. The freshmen are learning English as a foreign language. The study established that training students to become more aware and proficient in the use of broad range strategies that can be employed in the process of learning the language. TCLTSP model is designed to focus on the understanding of the target, learners themselves and understanding learning strategies, endeavoring to take conscious control of the learning process (Gao et al., 2017). The weakness of this study is the fact that no raw data was collected for analysis; hence conclusions are based on existing literature without new knowledge input.

Ranalli (2012) undertook a VVT project (a web-based platform for strategy instruction) to investigate the feasibility of automated, online strategy instruction for complementing teacher-led forms and evaluating the potential of online resources to deal with long-standing challenges in the area of L2 strategy instruction. The study was undertaken in the context of a large public research university in the Midwestern U.S where a majority of the international student population comprises of mainland Chinese (Ranalli, 2012). A sample of 64 Mandarin Chinese students participated in the study and was administered with the Vocabulary Levels Test (VVT). The study established that in the absence of instruction, most students performed poorly; however, as VVT course was administered, their scores increased substantially. The author concluded that there was evidence for the feasibility of automated, online strategy instruction for complementing teacher-led platforms. Further, the study demonstrated the potential of an integrative, multicomponent model of self-regulation for theorizing and researching about L2 learning (Ranalli, 2012).

Ebner and Ehri (2016) investigated the benefits of teaching students structured thinking procedures to remain metacognitively engaged when learning vocabulary online. The researchers described their development and research on an earlier study they had conducted to report the various benefits of teaching students structured thinking procedures when learning vocabulary online. Their initial research with a structured think-aloud procedure, Ebner and Ehri (2013), had involved 70 college students. The results had revealed that structured think-aloud participants showed substantially greater vocabulary gains within specific dimensions of word knowledge as well as overall (Ebner & Ehri, 2016). Ebner and Ehri (2016) further established that using the Internet for vocabulary development helps students rapidly expand their vocabularies. The Internet provides opportunities for the students to interact both multimodally and instantaneously with words in different contexts. Through the use of hyperlinks and search engines, students can immediately access visual, textual, and auditory information about a word, and can as well experience the word in a variety of contexts (Ebner & Ehri, 2016). The enjoyment of these benefits, however, can be maximized when the students are able to self-regulate their online actions such that they can avoid the multitudinous distractions of the Internet (Ebner & Ehri, 2016). Although the results of the study follow a logical reasoning, the absence of the original methodology that was followed to attain the results used in this study lowers its credibility.

Ardasheva, Wang, Adesope and Valentine (2017) conducted a meta-analysis to estimate the effects of strategy instruction and their moderators on 2 domains: foreign language and self-regulated learning. The study synthesized a total of 37 studies for language domain and 16 studies for self-regulated learning domain. The study established that overall effects of strategy instruction were large with language domain accounting for 0.78 whereas self-regulated learning accounted for 0.87. A variety of context characteristics including educational level, script differences, methodology (pretest), and treatment (delivery agent) moderated strategy instruction significance (Ardasheva, 2017). Overall, the study concluded that strategy instruction was a viable instructional tool for foreign language classrooms, and there is a need for greater emphasis on self-regulated learning in strategy instruction intervention and research. This study used results from a significant amount of recent studies which has added credibility to the findings.

Lu, Lo and Lincoln (2017) examined the process of self-regulated learning and the impacts of an intervention program on self-regulated learning designed for the second language (L2) learners. The study used 120 participants who were randomly assigned to either control or experimental group from sophomores majoring in English education at a university in an Asian country. Self-regulated learning intervention comprised of 6 weekly 2-hour training sessions that deliberated on 5 main variables of the self-regulatory process: self-efficacy, goal setting, language learning strategies, time and study environment management, and attribution (Yu et al., 2017). The findings showed that learner self-regulation influences their L2 proficiency through improvement of motivational variables. Time and study environment management skills, self-efficacy, and students' learning time directly affected their L2 proficiencies (Yu et al., 2017). Intrinsic goal orientation indirectly affected L2 proficiency via its influence on time and study environment management skills. On the other hand, attribution influenced L2 proficiency indirectly through its impact on learning time (Yu et al., 2017). Results of immediate training influences on self-efficacy, goal setting, attribution, memory strategy, time and study environment management, metacognitive strategy, compensation strategy, and L2 proficiency confirmed that self-regulation is a learner characteristic that is trainable which can be used effectively in an L2 classroom (Yu et al., 2017).

Ranalli (2014) outlined a paper discussing the potential of technology-mediated forms of the second language (L2) learners to not only facilitate strategy instruction (SI) but also improve evaluation of L2 strategy research and SI interventions more generally. The study used results from a recent empirical study, Ranalli and Nurmukhadev (2014), to demonstrate how computer-based forms of SI may provide remedies for problematic features of evaluation, including the timing and frequency of collection of learner perception data, access to process data showing how learners actually perform strategy-related tasks, and data about task perception and metacognitive monitoring, which can frame L2 strategies within a scaffold for self-regulated learning (Ranalli, 2012). Form the discussion, three benefits of technology-mediated SI emerge: more rigorous and ecologically research designs, less biased and finer-grained learner perception data, and enhanced ability to capture traces of student behavior, and use them to make solidly founded inferences about strategy use and associated learning phenomena (Ranalli, 2012). The results of this study follow a logical explanation based on prior collected data, hence credible.

Conclusion

Mizumoto (2013) explored the effects of integrating a self-regulated learning approach on self-efficacy in vocabulary learning. Participants comprised of 115 learners learning English as a foreign language at a university in Japan. Participants were divided into a treatment group, contrast group 1, and contrast group 2, wherein the treatment group only received intervention based on the self-regulated learning approach (Mizumoto, 2013). Also, the participants filled a questionnaire on self-efficacy in vocabulary learning thrice while taking a vocabulary test twice during the longitudinal study period. A multilevel analysis of change was employed to determine the impacts of the treatment. The study established that the treatment group demonstrated a steady increase in self-efficacy and vocabulary knowledge compared to contrast groups. The results suggested that a self-regulated learning approach can enhance self-efficacy in foreign language learners which can then contribute to the development of vocabulary knowledge (Mizumoto,...