Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Abstract

This study tests Newports Less is More hypothesis with a language teaching experiment. Computerized French language lessons were presented to forty-two adults over two one-hour sessions. Learning trials were presented either in full sentences to resemble the adult learning environment, or in small increments that gradually increased to full sentences, resembling the steadily expanding processing capabilities of children. Trials were also presented randomly or ordered such that multiple examples of the same objects and verbs were presented consecutively. Language proficiency tests were administered after the lessons. A 2 (Presentation: incremental or full sentence) x 2 (Order of presentation: blocked or random) mixed ANOVA was used to analyze the data. The incremental conditions outperformed the sentence conditions on all proficiency measures. There was no significant effect of the blocking manipulation. This outcome suggests that a teaching method based on Newport's Less is More hypothesis can be advantageous in learning a foreign language.

Extent

viii, 60 p. : ill.

Comments

by Simone L. Chin.|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009.|Includes bibliography.|Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.|by Simone L. Chin.

Identifier

FADT368254

Format

pdf

Download

Share

COinS