November 19, 2024
Fatemeh Nemati

Fatemeh Nemati

Academic Rank: Associate professor
Address:
Degree: Ph.D in General Linguistics
Phone: 09128027039
Faculty: Faculty of Humanities

Research

Title
The Effects of Emotional Valence on Iranian EFL Students’ Vocabulary Learning in Learner- vs. Teacher-generated Digital Storytelling
Type Thesis
Keywords
Emotional valence, vocabulary learning, learner-generated content, teacher-generated content, Digital storytelling, English as a Foreign Language
Researchers azadeh basoli (Student) , Fatemeh Nemati (Primary advisor) , Parvaneh Shayesteh Far (Primary advisor)

Abstract

Emotion has always been the center of attention in relation to cognition, memory and learning. Given the importance of word learning in speaking and reading and the incurred costs of language learning programs, the role of emotion in cognition and the acquisition of lexical items is worthy of further scrutiny. Although the interaction of emotion and vocabulary learning has been a heated topic in psycholinguistic studies, little research has explored the impacts of affective dimensions of words or the tory context in learner or teacher generated digital storytelling on word learning and memory. Thus, the present study sought to find whether the valence of a novel word conveyed through digital contexts lead to enhanced word processing and vocabulary learning by Persian learners of English as a foreign language. It also aimed at finding whether there is any significant difference between the effect of learner- and teacher-generated stories on EFL students' vocabulary learning. To these aims, 90 English novel words with different degrees of valence (positive, negative, neutral) were taught to 40 intermediate EFL learners. The words were then used in developing story scripts for generating digital narratives. In addition, the participants were taught how to use DST tools to generate digital narratives using the selected words. After the intervention, two sentence completion tasks were administered to gain the accuracy of word retrieval. Using generalized linear mixed-effects regression models, the study revealed the facilitatory impact of video generation and scenario valence on vocabulary learning. However, it showed no significant difference between different conditions of different story generation and the impact of lexical valence. The study outcomes benefit language teachers, not limited to English teachers, and material developers by providing insight about the positive effects of the valence of texts and students involvement in multimodal productions on language l