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COVID-19 accelerated the adoption of modern emerging technologies, altering people’s lifestyles, work patterns, and business strategies (Amankwah-Amoah et al., 2021). Even though the epidemic is ongoing, many countries still conduct international trade and transactions to cope with the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. Therefore, it is of significance for business practitioners to communicate effectively in English due to the dominant position of this language in the business world. Business English vocabulary plays a vital role in business English learning.
During this special time, online learning has offered great opportunities for any type of education. Learners can find numerous online resources and platforms. For instance, the use of Twitter exerted a strong and positive impact on general education, as well as academic accomplishment in education (Yu & Yu, 2022). Similarly, learners can also learn business English vocabulary under simultaneous professional guidance via such online resources and platforms, e.g., the Tencent Meeting (one of the popular online platforms, a Chinese version of Zoom). However, e-learning was confronted with both benefits and challenges (Yu, 2021). Therefore, it is meaningful to investigate factors that may aid business English vocabulary retention during this particular time.
Plenty of studies have investigated online vocabulary learning and retention. Many factors can exert an influence on vocabulary recall. In the formal instruction context, the teacher’s attitude toward the concept of vocabulary and students’ willingness to learn vocabulary could influence the final outcome (Shamsan et al., 2021). In addition, other factors that could influence vocabulary learning included: the linguistic features of vocabulary; individual differences; first language and foreign-language interference; the teacher and teaching strategies; the ability of memory to encode, store, and recollect acquired vocabulary; the nature of vocabulary development; and the presentation mode of vocabulary (Takac, 2008). This study will compare the impacts of different presentation modes on new vocabulary recollection.
Previous works have compared several presentation modes where pictures were widely used. Lin & Yu (2017) studied mobile-assisted vocabulary learning using three modes: text mode, text-picture mode, text-sound mode, and text-picture-sound mode. Ren (2018) compared three groups that were shown words with text, pictures, and a combination of the two respectively. Liu (2018) explored the effectiveness of word-picture presentation, word-list presentation, and word-context presentation. However, most studies have only examined presentation modes on general vocabulary learning; little is investigated in business English vocabulary. Since the 1960s, business English differentiated itself from general English with its professional terms (Ellis & Johnson, 1994). In this light, the outcomes of business English vocabulary learning using various presenting approaches may differ from those of general vocabulary.
This research examined the effectiveness of pictorial aids on business lexis recollection through Tencent Meeting. To reduce as many variables as possible, the author presented the learning materials and control the time for retention by using the Tencent Meeting. Since the target of recalling the business English vocabulary in this research was to identify and remember the meaning and form (spelling) of every word, an English-to-Chinese translation (E-C) test and a Chinese-to-English translation (C-E) test were implemented. The main research question in this study is: do pictorial annotations play a vital role in people’s business English vocabulary retention? The following specific research questions are proposed: