<b>Hypermidia gloss in the teaching and learning of implicit vocabulary in the english language

Abstract

Owing to the relevance of hypermedia in a foreign language's vocabulary learning and to the lack of studies on the influence of the linguistic proficiency in implicit vocabulary learning within a hypermedia environment, current study investigates the relevance of hypermedia glossary in the teaching and learning of implicit vocabulary by students of English as a foreign language, at elementary level. Current research is foregrounded on the Connectionism Approach, which explains human cognition and knowledge acquisition, and on the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning by Mayer (2001) which explains information processing within a multimodal learning environment. Selection and development of hypermedia material featuring hypermedia glossary for implicit vocabulary learning are forwarded according to parameters outlined in the theoretical framework. The material used in data retrieval was applied to 39 students of English, at the elementary level, of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil, divided into 2 groups (A and B). The average gain of learning in the two groups (A = 28.5 [p.p.] and B = 21 [p.p.]) reveals that hypermedia glossary may contribute towards implicit vocabulary learning by elementary level students, with special reference to visual annotation.