The effects of personalized narratives on second language vocabulary learning outcomes and interest

This study investigates the effects of personalized narratives on second language vocabulary learning outcomes and learning interest among Korean adolescents. Forty middle school students participated and were assigned to either a personalized (experimental) group, which learned target words through personalized narratives incorporating learner-provided information, or a general (control) group, which learned through a narrative without such information. Participants read a narrative text in Korean containing 20 target words and completed a five‑step learning task, followed by assessments of story comprehension, vocabulary tests, and a vocabulary learning interest survey. Results revealed that both groups achieved comparably high performance in meaning recall and meaning recognition, indicating that narrative-based learning was effective for vocabulary learning regardless of context-personalization. However, in the form recognition test, the personalized group outperformed the general group. This suggests that personalized narratives may provide a supportive context for facilitating form–meaning connections in new vocabulary. In the survey, both groups reported higher post-ratings than pre-ratings, which implies a positive perception of narrative-based vocabulary learning overall. This study empirically demonstrates the potential for personalized elements in story- based learning to enhance vocabulary learning and offers practical implications for the development of AI-based personalized learning materials.