Impact of Verb–Noun Pairing on Meaning Retrieval for Japanese Junior High School Students

抄録

This study investigated the efficacy of associating a new verb with a known noun versus learning a new verb in isolation. It focused on the impact of this approach on meaning retrieval by evaluating each aspect of effectiveness through retrieval and retention. Inspired by the research design of Kasahara (2010, 2011, 2015), we enlisted 36 third-year junior high school students to memorize the Japanese meanings of 20 new verbs: 10 verb-only (VO) items and 10 verbs paired with known nouns (VN). We administered two test types, namely, the verb-only (VO) and verb with noun (VN) tests, immediately after a five-minute learning phase and after one week. The findings revealed a significant pattern: verb with noun condition (VNC) scored higher than verb-only condition (VOC) in the VN test for retrieval, whereas VOC outperformed VNC in the VO test for retrieval. Retention exhibited no substantial difference between the two conditions. Additionally, VNC in the VN test scored significantly higher than that in the VO test. These findings indicated that VNC is not necessarily superior to VOC in meaning retrieval and retention. Moreover, VNC is significantly less likely to retrieve meanings when there are no known words than when there are known words. Furthermore, the result suggested potential shortcomings in learning known and unknown words and that a certain degree of ingenuity in instruction and testing is required.