Dataset for "Visual Over Auditory: The Overreliance of Orthography in EFL Vocabulary Learning"
Description
Overview & Research Hypothesis This dataset was collected to investigate the relative development of orthographic and phonological knowledge during the initial stages of English vocabulary learning among Japanese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). The primary research hypothesis is that learners with a logographic first language (L1) background demonstrate an "orthographic bias"—a disproportionate reliance on visual-orthographic cues at the expense of phonological knowledge—from the very first contact with unfamiliar L2 words. Data Collection Methodology The data was gathered from 31 Japanese university students. After a 3-minute study session featuring both visual (spelling/meaning) and audio (pronunciation) inputs for 12 completely novel English words, participants completed an original Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondence (GPC) test. The test comprised two multiple-choice tasks: Pronunciation task (identifying the correct auditory option). Spelling task (identifying the correct visual spelling). Participants also rated their confidence for each answer on a 3-point scale (1 = not confident at all, 3 = very confident). Additionally, a post-test questionnaire (using a 6-point Likert scale) was administered to measure learners' self-reported attentional focus on pronunciation versus spelling. Data Structure (How to use it) The dataset includes the raw scores of the GPC test (correct=1, incorrect=0), total scores, individual confidence ratings, and questionnaire responses. (Note: Student IDs have been anonymized for privacy). Researchers can use this data to perform statistical analyses (e.g., paired t-tests, Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, correlation analyses) to compare the performance and metacognitive awareness across the two modalities (orthographic vs. phonological). Notable Findings & Interpretation The data demonstrate a statistically significant imbalance between the two domains. Participants exhibited significantly higher accuracy and confidence in the spelling task compared to the pronunciation task. Notably, even when participants reported being "not confident at all," spelling accuracy remained higher than pronunciation accuracy. Furthermore, correlation data indicate that while conscious attention to pronunciation significantly predicts phonological accuracy, spelling acquisition occurs somewhat independently of conscious focus. These findings can be interpreted as empirical evidence of early L1 orthographic transfer and the cognitive overload caused by L2 phonological processing constraints.