The story-plus-study group experienced the following method:
(1) Twenty target words from a story were written on the board in front of the class.
(2) The subjects took a translation test (pretest) on these 20 words (5 minutes). They were asked to write a Japanese definition for each English word on the list.
(3) The students put down the paper and pencil and listened to a story (The Three Little Pigs), which contained the target words. The teacher told the story in English (15 minutes).
(4) Comprehension questions (both yes/no and wh-questions) were presented orally. The target words were used in questions and the questions required the use of the target words in the answers (10 minutes).
(5) The students took the same translation test again (5 minutes).
(6) After taking the test, students exchanged their test papers with a partner and checked their answers with the teacher who gave the correct answers in Japanese (10 minutes).
(7) The students read a written version of the story (10 minutes). They were asked to underline the words they wanted to learn.
(8) The students told the same story to their study partner. They were encouraged not to refer to the text, but to use the target words on the board (20 minutes).
(9) The students retook the translation test (5 minutes).
(10) The teacher gave the correct answers to the test (5 minutes).

The story-only group thus spent only 15 minutes hearing a story. The story-plus- study group spent nearly the entire class hour (85 minutes) hearing the story and doing the supplementary activities.

For both groups, during the actual telling of the story, there was little interaction between the teacher and the subjects. Before hearing the story, students saw the words on the board and took the pre-test, which may have primed them to pay attention to the words during the storytelling. When the students looked uncertain about the meaning of a word during the story telling, the teacher briefly explained the meanings of the unknown words in English, sometimes using pictures or actions as well. Students were aware that the purpose of the lesson was not only to understand the story but also to increase their vocabulary. There was no corrective feedback and there were no output activities for the story-only group.

Measure. Both groups took a translation test on the 20 target words as a pretest and posttest. The story-only group took the posttest after hearing the story, and the story plus study group took it after the comprehension questions. The story-plus- study group also took the test after the study session. The test was presented again to both groups as an unexpected follow-up test five weeks later.

The reliability of the pretest was unavoidably low (KR 21 = .08) because of the low scores and lack of variability (see below). Reliability of the posttest and delayed tests were satisfactory (.85 and .83).

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