THE MUTATION OF WRITING HABITS AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR L2 WORD LEARNING

Although applied linguists agree that developing phonological and orthographic representations of new words is key to recalling word form and underpins the ability to process new language, research on the mnemonic benefits of writing down target words during L2 vocabulary acquisition has produced mixed results (Thomas & Dieter 1987; Barcroft 2006, 2007). In addition, writing is facing increasingly keen competition from typing in the digital age. Today, paper-and pencil communication has had to make room for key-to-screen communication in educational as well as professional contexts.
From research in educational psychology we know that taking notes on laptops instead of writing longhand involves shallower information processing which negatively affects performance on knowledge tests (Mueller & Oppenheimer 2014). In the case of L2 word learning the phonological and orthographical processing that takes place when noting down new words might be sensitive to variations in the conditions under which this processing takes place, i.e. writing versus typing.
In our study a classroom experiment was set up to look into the differential impact of writing or typing new words on immediate and delayed receptive and productive vocabulary acquisition as compared to a word learning condition that involved no production of output. The main goal of the study is to verify findings concerning the trade-off relation between semantic and structural processing when learning new words. A second research question is to investigate whether the structural elaboration processes that take place when writing new words leads to similar learning gains than when typing new words. Thirdly, we want to explore whether learners will obtain higher scores in their preferred learning condition.
The main results of this study show that the words that had been typed showed less attrition in the delayed test than the words that had been written. This will be explained in light of the multimodality of the output condition.

References:
- Thomas, M.H. & Dieter, J.N. (1987). The positive effects of writing practice on integration of foreign words in memory. Journal of Educational Psychology ,
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- Barcroft, J. (2006). Can writing a new word detract from learning it? More negative effects of forced output during vocabulary learning. Second
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- Barcroft, J. (2007). Effects of opportunities for word retrieval during second language vocabulary learning. Language Learning, 57, 35-56.
- Mueller, P.A. & Oppenheimer, D.M. (2014) The pen is mightier than the keyboard: advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological
Science, 25 (6): 1159-1168