Thesis (M.A.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Arts - Department of English

The aim of the study is to compare the effect of L1 (Arabic) glosses to the effect of L2 (English) glosses on L2 word form incidental immediate and delayed meaning recall of Egyptian learners of English as a foreign language (EFL), with concern given to the recall of the semantic and morphological components of L2 word forms. The participants were 68 intermediate-level Egyptians enrolled in a language center; they were divided into L1 glossing group and L2 glossing group. Each group had one reading session including a text followed by reading comprehension questions and an L1 meaning provision vocabulary test; the vocabulary test was repeated after two weeks. The data was analyzed quantitatively using the t-test and two- proportions test. The results showed that L1 glosses resulted in better immediate meaning recall of L2 word forms. However, no significant difference was found between the effect of the two glossing languages on either the delayed meaning recall of L2 word forms, the immediate and delayed meaning recall of synonyms, polysemes, and the whole set of associations, whether the morphological knowledge was considered or not; or on the immediate and delayed recall of precise and hypernym meanings, when the morphological knowledge was considered; nevertheless, when it was not considered, a significant difference was found between the effect of the two glossing languages on the immediate and delayed recall of the precise and hypernym meanings, but no difference was found concerning the immediate and delayed recall of hyponym meanings

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