What are the qualitative word processing characteristics triggered through multiple-choice and the single-translation glosses?
Research question one sought to record the characteristics (quality) of readers’ processing mechanisms triggered by MCGs and STGs. This allowed further insights into the process of establishing initial FMCs through such glosses. The data analysis revealed that MCG readers processed the TWs in a qualitatively different way than STG readers in that they integrated meta-cognitive (58%) and semantic-elaborative (42%) knowledge sources (Table 3) to establish a FMC. MCGs clearly triggered readers to rigorously evaluate the provided gloss choices by using background knowledge, context and hypothesis-testing strategies – a notion predicted for MCGs by Hulstijn (1992). Some readers chose a gloss option after testing several meanings in the context. For example, one reader tried out two meanings of the TW provided in the MCG, used the immediate context to disconfirm and then to confirm her initial hypothesis about the TW meaning: There lived rich man in a village. I think that might be shack. Er
