L2 Vocabulary Learning and Linguistic Mediation: Working with Phrasal Verbs through Mediation Activities

The latest version of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2018) remarks linguistic mediation as one of the communicative skills to be developed by foreign language learners. In this paper, two groups of secondary education students of English as a Second Language work on several phrasal verbs through different activities. One of the groups uses mediation activities, while the other group works with other more traditional classroom activities. After the intervention, students were evaluated on both receptive and productive acquisition of these verbs. The results show that, although no significant differences in productive knowledge were found, the group that had worked with mediation activities did obtain better results in their receptive knowledge of those terms. This suggests that mediation, in addition to its value in itself as a skill within the communicative competence, may have a relevant role in the development of other aspects within L2 learning.