This study aimed to investigate the effect of visual input enhancement (VIE) on the comprehension of reading texts and the learning of two grammatical forms: English relative clauses and articles. Individual learners’ working memory (WM) capacity was also tested to explore its impact on the effectiveness of VIE. A total of 48 Korean college learners of English were assigned into three groups: (a) relative group receiving VIE on relative clauses (b) article group receiving VIE on articles, and (c) a control group receiving no VIE. Results showed that VIE did not have any negative effect on the learners’ reading comprehension. Rather, it had positive effects on the learning of the two grammatical forms. According to the findings, VIE on relative clauses enhanced the learners’ receptive knowledge of the grammatical form, whereas VIE on articles enhanced the learners’ productive knowledge of the form. There was a potential link between the effectiveness of VIE and the learners’ working memory processing ability. Pedagogical implications are also discussed based on these findings.

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of visual input enhancement (VIE) of target forms and deliberate attention on grammar learning and reading comprehension of Korean high school students. In Experiment 1, eighty-eight students read one of the three experimental texts: (i) BT (baseline text), (ii) VIE (BT with the target forms visually enhanced), and (iii) VIE-Attention (VIE with explicit instruction asking students to pay deliberate attention to both the target forms and reading comprehension). After reading, the students responded to grammar and reading comprehension tests. The results showed that only VIE-Attention promoted grammar learning, while both the VIE and VIE-Attention significantly impaired reading comprehension. In Experiment 2, an eye tracker was used in order to further probe the effects of VIE and deliberate attention. The results revealed that the VIE and VIEAttention groups fixated longer and more often than those in the BT group and that the VIE and VIE-Attention groups performed better in the grammar test and poorer on the reading comprehension test than the BT group. The present study makes significant contributions to the VIE literature since it provides the first eye movement data elucidating the effects of VIE.

본 연구는 혼합주석 (combined glossing)이 읽기 자료에 적용되었을 때 즉각적 어휘 회상(immediate word recall) 과 2주 후 어휘 기억유지 (word retention) 에 주는 효과에 대해 살펴보았다. 연구를 위해 읽기 자료의 내용 이해에 중요한 단어들을 학습 목표의 어휘로 삼고 이들이 4번 반복적으로 나오도록 약간의 수정이 이루어 졌고, 세 가지 혼합주석이 다음과 같이 적용되었다: (1)네 번의 L1 주석 (4G); (2) L1 주석 한번과 의미 써보기 (GR); (3) L1 주석 한번과 3번 볼드체 (GB3).초급을 조금 벗어난 (공인토익 450-470점) 30 명의 학습자들에게서 얻은 데이터 분석 결과, GR 주석이 즉각적인 수용적, 생산적 어휘 회상에 있어 가장 의미 있는 결과를 얻었고, 다음으로 4G 와 GB3순서로 나타났다. 장기 어휘 기억 유지에 있어서는, 수용적 그리고 생산적 어휘 기억 유지에 있어 GB3 주석이 가장 효과적이었고 다음으로 4G 와 GR 순서로 의미가 있었다. 이러한 결과는 읽기 자료에 L1 주석과 의미적 강화인 단어 회상하여 써보기 (written retrieval), 또는 시각적 강화인 볼드체의반복 (frequent boldface) 과 혼합될 때 EFL 학습자의 어휘 학습에 많은 도움이 된다는 것을 나타내고 있다.