雖然過去許多研究著重於不同語言的受測者單字聯想的結果，以及詞性和單字聯想的關聯性，然而很少有學者把單字聯想視為一種教學法或單字學習策略，即使有少部分的研究試圖把單字聯想應用在教學上，但這些研究對象的母語皆非中文。此外，過去的研究顯示圖像記憶不適合用在抽象的單字教學上。有些學者認為句子寫作比圖像記憶來的有效果，然而另一派的學者則認為圖像記憶比句子寫作更能幫助學生記住單字。本研究的目的在於探討畫圖聯想法與句子寫作法對台灣小學生單字習得之成效。以下為本研究探討的問題：
1. 畫圖聯想法相較於句子寫作法，何者對於提升台灣小學生的單字程度比較有成效？
2. 台灣小學生對於這兩種教學法的看法為何？
本研究共二十六位國小五年級和六年級學生參加。學生被分為兩組，分別為畫圖聯想法和句子寫作法。十二個目標單字取自於英國國家語料庫、教育部國中小基本英語字彙1200字，以及全民英檢初級單字表的共通單字，分別有六個具體名詞和六個抽象名詞。
研究結果顯示，不論是具體名詞，還是抽象名詞，畫圖聯想法的單字習得成效比句子寫作法好。兩組的後測結果都明確的顯示具體名詞的學習成效比抽象名詞的學習成效更佳。學生訪談的結果顯示，學生對於畫圖聯想法或句子寫作法的偏好，與學生實際的單字學習成效不見得相符。本研究提供教學上的建議，意旨提升台灣小學生單字教學與單字習得成效。

Numerous studies have been devoted to word associations in comparison and contrast of responses between different groups of participants or between different languages (Amer, 1980; Dalrymple-Alford & Aamiry, 1970), or to investigate word class influence on word association test results (Nissen & Henriksen, 2006). However, rather less attention has been paid to word association as a teaching method or strategy. Although Cohen & Aphek (1980) and Hopkins & Bean (1998) claimed the effectiveness of word association teaching method, the participants in those studies were students whose L1s were not Chinese. Besides, past studies (McCarthy, 1992; Pressly, Levin, & Miller, 1981; Thornbury, 2004) found that it might be hard or ineffective to use images to teach abstract words. Some research (Pressley et al., 1981) suggested the efficacy of sentence writing teaching method over visual aid teaching method while other research (Barcroft, 2004) claimed that visual aid was more effective than sentence writing.
Thus, the present study investigated the efficacy of the Word Association plus Learners’ Drawing Method in comparison to the Sentence Creation Method on young Chinese EFL learners’ L2 vocabulary knowledge. Students’ perceptions of the two vocabulary teaching methods were investigated as well. Two research questions were proposed:
(1) To what extent do young Chinese EFL learners increase their L2 vocabulary knowledge through the Word Association plus Learners’ Drawing Method in comparison to the Sentence Creation Method?
(2) What is the relationship between students’ perceptions of the two vocabulary teaching methods used in this study and actual outcomes?
Twenty six Taiwanese learners of English in an English cram school were recruited. All of them were grade five and grade six elementary school students who attended public Chinese-medium Taiwanese elementary school and had learned English for approximately five years. The participants were divided into two groups. One group was composed of 13 students who received the Sentence Creation Method and the other group included 13 leaners who were instructed the Word Association plus Learners’ Drawing Method. Before the experiment, an online free sample test from Cambridge English Young Learners tests series was used as the screening test to make sure that all participants were at the same proficiency level. English target words were six concrete nouns and six abstract nouns which were covered by the “Frequency List of Nouns” from the British National Corpus, the Elementary and Junior High School Vocabulary List (教育部國中小基本英語字彙1200字), and the word list of the General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) elementary level.
The results revealed that the Word Association plus Learners’ Drawing Method seemed to be more useful than the Sentence Creation Method in teaching both the concrete nouns and the abstract nouns. Furthermore, the results also revealed that both groups developed concrete noun knowledge better than the abstract noun knowledge after the treatment. That is, the two teaching methods were more effective for teaching the concrete nouns than the abstract nouns. The interview results showed that there were inconsistencies between learners’ preferences for these two teaching methods and their actual performance outcomes. Some pedagogical implications were offered to facilitate young L2 learners’ vocabulary teaching and learning.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT (Chinese) i
ABSTRACT (English) iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
LIST OF TABLES xii
LIST OF FIGURES xiv
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background and Motivation 1
1.2 Purpose of the study 4
1.3 Significance of the study 4
Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6
2.1 Overview 6
2.2 Word knowledge 6
2.2.1 The definition of word knowledge 6
2.2.2 The Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) and word knowledge 8
2.2.3 Depth of processing and vocabulary learning 9
2.2.4 Word association 9
2.2.4.1 The definition of word association 9
2.2.4.2 Studies on word association 10
2.2.4.2.1 Studies on word associations to compare responses between different groups of participants or between different languages 11
2.2.4.2.2 Study on word class influence on word association test result 12
2.2.4.2.3 Studies utilizing word association as an assessment of word knowledge 12
2.2.4.2.4 Studies using word association as a teaching method or strategy 13
2.3 Pictures or visual aids in vocabulary teaching and learning 15
2.3.1 Advantages and drawbacks of pictures in teaching vocabulary 15
2.3.2 Drawing 16
2.3.2.1 Drawing on the board by teachers 16
2.3.2.2 Drawing created by learners 17
2.3.3 Studies on pictures or visual aids in vocabulary teaching and learning 18
2.3.3.1 Studies on teacher-generated pictures and vocabulary teaching and learning 18
2.3.3.2 Studies on learner-generated drawings and vocabulary teaching and learning 21
2.4 Sentence creation 32
2.4.1 Semantic elaboration 32
2.4.1.1 Semantic elaboration and L1 vocabulary learning 32
2.4.1.2 Semantic elaboration and L2 vocabulary learning 33
2.4.2 Output production 34
2.5 Link between previous studies and the current study 37
Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY 39
3.1 Research Questions 39
3.2 Participants 39
3.3 Target Words Selection 41
3.4 Pretest Results 52
3.5 Research Design and Treatment 52
3.6 Post Test Procedure 61
3.7 Participant Interviews 61
3.8 Data processing and analysis 63
3.8.1 Pretest scoring standards 63
3.8.2 Immediate and delayed post-tests scoring standards 63
3.8.3 Learners’ performance types 66
Chapter 4 RESULTS 72
4.1 Overview 72
4.2 The concrete noun results 72
4.2.1 The concrete noun results of the Word Association plus Learner’s Drawing Method group 72
4.2.2 The concrete noun results of the Sentence Creation Method group 78
4.2.3 The concrete noun results between groups 81
4.3 The Abstract noun results 90
4.3.1 The Abstract noun results of the Word Association plus Learners’ Drawing Method group 90
4.3.2 Abstract nouns results of the Sentence Creation Method group 96
4.3.3 The abstract noun results between the two groups 100
4.4 Summary of the first research question 108
4.5 Interview results of the Word Association plus Learners’ Drawing Method group 110
4.5.1 Participants who performed well both in the concrete nouns and the abstract nouns 111
4.5.2 Participants who performed badly both in the concrete nouns and the abstract nouns 113
4.6 Interview results of the Sentence Creation Method group 115
4.6.1 Participants who performed relatively well both in the concrete and the abstract nouns 116
4.6.2 Participants who performed badly both in the concrete nouns and the abstract nouns 117
4.7 Summary of the second research question 122
Chapter 5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 124
5.1 Overview 124
5.2 Discussion of research question 1 124
5.3 Discussion of research question 2 126
5.4 Contributions and implications 127
5.5 Limitations and future research 128
References 130
Appendices 140
Appendix A 140
Appendix B 146
Appendix C 148



LISTS OF TABLES
Table 2.1 Components of Word Knowledge 7
Table 2.2 The Vocabulary Knowledge Scale 8
Table 2.3 Cohen & Aphek’s (1980) List of Associations 14
Table 2.4 Self-report Questionnaire Items 18
Table 2.5 Vocabulary Memory Strategy Worksheet (Nemati, 2009) 20
Table 3.1 The Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (Paribakht & Wesche, 1993) 48
Table 3.2 The Chinese version of VKS used in the present study 48
Table 3.3 Twelve Selected Target Words 51
Table 3.4 The detailed teaching procedure for the two groups 60
Table 3.5 Pretest (Chinese translations) scoring standards 63
Table 3.7 Learners’ performance types 67
Table 4.1 The Word Association plus Learners’ Drawing Method group participants’ concrete nouns individual performance data 77
Table 4.2 The Sentence Creation Method group participants’ concrete nouns individual performance data 81
Table 4.3 Pearson Chi-Square data of the concrete noun results between the two groups 87
Table 4.4 The Word Association plus Learners’ Drawing Method group participants’ abstract nouns individual performance data 95
Table 4.5 The Sentence Creation Method group participants’ abstract nouns individual performance data 99
Table 4.6 Pearson Chi-Square data of the abstract noun results between the two groups 105













LISTS OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1 Science Vocabulary Square Example (Hopkins & Bean, 1998) 23
Figure 2.2 Root Word Vocabulary Square Example (Hopkins & Bean, 1998) 23
Figure 3.1 Screen shots of VocabProfilers website 44
Figure 3.2 Screen shot of the English Profile website 47
Figure 3.3 The Sentence Creation Method group participants’ sentence creation samples 54
Figure 3.4 Word association plus learners’ drawing samples from the Word Association plus Learners’ Drawing Method group participants 58

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