Verification of the effectiveness of vocabulary learning strategies using Russian word formation based on empirical research

This study aims to verify the effectiveness of vocabulary learning strategies using Russian word formation through empirical research. More specifically, this study investigates whether knowledge about word formation can be used to effectively predict the meanings of unknown derived verbs with a verbal prefix v- ‘in, into’.

In the experiments, a control group and an experimental group were prepared. First, both groups underwent a pretest to predict the meanings of derived verbs with v- in context. Afterwards, only the experimental group received instruction about general word-formation rules, usage of the prefix v- and meaning prediction tasks. Subsequently, both groups took a posttest at the same level as the pretest. The author designed the pretest and posttest so that the participants in both groups were familiar with all of the words in the questions and the base words of the target derivatives. The experimental group acquired the abovementioned knowledge about word formation through the instruction. Thus, if the instruction was helpful for determining the meanings of unknown derived verbs, the posttest score of the experimental group would surpass that of the control group. The results highlight the following two points: (1) In fact, the experimental group achieved a higher score than the control group. Therefore, vocabulary learning strategies with Russian word formation can be used to effectively predict the meanings of unknown words. (2) However, unlike some other vocabulary learning strategies, using affix knowledge requires regular and numerous repetitions of tasks.