README
======

Dataset title: 
PrepApp Data 2021: A digital tool for long-term preposition acquisition

Recommended Citation:  
Okonski, L. (2026) PrepApp Data 2021: A digital tool for long-term preposition acquisition. Ume University. doi:10.5878/0c2x-1m83.

See the Researchdata.se catalogue entry for this dataset - accessible via the DOI link above - for compete metadata, including the dataset description, contact information and information about how to obtain the dataset. 

Responsible organization:
Ume University

Content
PrepApp Data Storage:	1
READ ME FILE	1
I.	Brief Description of Design & Methods	1
II.	Brief Description of Excel Files	2
Experiment 1	2
Experiment 2	2
III.	Brief Description of Excel Worksheets	3
IV.	Brief Description of Variables	3
V.	Abbreviations	4
VI.	References	4


I. Brief Description of Design & Methods

PrepApp was an educational study comparing a newly developed preposition tool, incorporating an embodied scenes approach (insights from Cognitive Linguistics and Corpus Linguistics) to learn in detail about the preposition into, to a traditional preposition lesson that introduces many prepositions. The goal was to see if these lessons can help English as a Second Language (ESL) students to improve their preposition accuracy. The tool was tested in two classrooms so that students took a pre-test. In the next step, they used one of the tools to learn more about prepositions; then they took a post-test and a delayed post-test. Pre-test scores were compared to post-test scores to measure any short-term learning that may have occurred during the learning session. Delayed post-test scores were also compared to pre-test scores to determine if there was any long-term growth for preposition knowledge. Paired t-tests were conducted to test if the students in the Cognitive or Traditional Group showed reliable improvements.

The participants were randomly assigned to be in one of two groups:

1. The Cognitive Group (also referred to as the Embodied Scenes (ES) group in the manuscript): This group saw the new preposition lessons developed with an embodied scenes approach for this study.
2. The Traditional Group: This group saw the traditional preposition lessons modified from already existing preposition content.

All students were tested on the same preposition items but the preposition items were developed to match up with either the cognitive/ES or traditional content:

1. The into items: These items were based on the cognitive PrepApp tool developed for this study. There are three different kinds of items related to the lessons which are called Building Blocks (BB), Category Mix & Match (MM), and Word Play (WP). The items are listed by participant in each participants tab (according to their Participant ID Number) and then the summary of percentages correct are given by participant in the summary tab. 
2. The mixed preposition items: These items were developed from the traditional preposition content. Each participants individual items are listed on their own tab and then the summary page provides the percentage correct out of all of the mixed preposition items by participant ID number.

II. Brief Description of Excel Files

Study 1 and Study 2 have the same file structures, and each study has 4 associated spreadsheets:

Experiment 1
1. Cognitive Group Into Items Experiment 1
2. Cognitive Group Mixed Items Experiment 1
3. Traditional Group Into Items Experiment 1
4. Traditional Group Mixed Items Experiment 1

Experiment 2
1. Cognitive Group Into Items Experiment 2
2. Cognitive Group Mixed Items Experiment 2
3. Traditional Group Into Items Experiment 2
4. Traditional Group Mixed Items Experiment 2

The tests were administered 3 times so that there are three sets of scores in each spreadsheet (note: some students were absent for either the post-test or the delayed post-test and this is marked as absent within the spreadsheet on the summary tab):

1. Pre-Test
2. Post-Test
3. Delayed Post-Test

The items from each parallel test version are also available in tabs named:

1. Items of Form A
2. Items of Form B

Please, note that there different test forms for the into items-experiments and for the mixed items-experiments. 

In addition to the tabs with the data summary, there are tabs where you can see individual performance by item. These tabs are labeled by participant ID number (ID#).

III. Brief Description of Excel Worksheets
Each spreadsheet will contain the following tabs:
1. The Test Items: this will either be labeled as into items or mixed items depending on which spreadsheet you look at. As for the into item they include the test sets BB, MM and WP. As for the mixed items, they include the test sets of the corresponding Test Forms A and B.
2. Test scores: This lists all the scores from the pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test for each student (by their student ID number ID#).
3. Form A: All items for form A are listed in this tab.
4. Form B: All items for form B are listed in this tab.
5. [Student ID ID#]: For example, 13 indicates that the tab holds the test scores for the student with the ID number 13. For each test, the items are listed with a binary coding system so that a 1 indicates the student answered the question correctly and a 0 indicates that they did not answer the question correctly. If absent, the student is marked absent. If a question is not answered, the corresponding cell is marked unanswered. The two experiments have unique participants so that any ID numbers from the first study do not match up with participants from the second study (e.g., participant 23 from study 1 is a different individual than participant 23 from study 2).

***NOTE*** Participant 10, from Experiment/Study 1, had great difficulties logging in for the Pre-Test. Accordingly, we let the student continue in the activity for educational purposes but she/he was unable to complete the pretest (many items were left blank). As a result, their scores were excluded from the analysis.

IV. Brief Description of Variables

ID#: Students were all randomly assigned ID numbers to anonymize the data

BB: Items/scores labeled as BB are test items developed to test the content from the Cognitive PrepApp tool in the first lesson on Building Blocks.

These lessons introduce the most basic, concrete, spatial uses of the prepositions and highlight aspects of the spatial scene that relate to figurative themes introduced in later lessons.

MM: Items/scores labeled as MM are test items developed to test the content from the Cognitive PrepApp tool in the second lesson on Category Mix& Match. 

These lessons introduce some of the overarching themes from the corpus linguistics preposition profiles, which revealed that there are some categories that describe the kinds of nouns that co-occur with the prepositions. For example, the preposition into often goes into physical containers, such as a bowl or a house, or it may go into abstract containers, such as if we burst into tears or laughter.

WP: Items/scores labeled as WP are test items developed to test the content from the Cognitive PrepApp tool in the third lesson on Word Play.

These lessons expand further on the abstract senses by discussing metaphorical themes. One such theme related to the transformation that can occur with the preposition ntois the idea that change is motion.

Regarding the mixed prepositions, this was less to test the knowledge of all prepositions and more so to test how prepositions are currently taught. They are typically taught all at once or very briefly in shorter exercises focusing on one sense of the preposition. We took the materials from a text that focused on prepositions at length, but we went over multiple prepositions. These examples constituted the traditional content, and the test questions related to these items directly to test whether these lessons were memorable.

Pre-Test: Items/scores labeled as Pre-Test are derived from performance on the pre-test.

Post-test: Items/scores labeled as Post-Test are derived from performance on the post-test.

Delayed Post-Test: Items/scores labeled as delay are derived from performance on the delayed post-test.


V. Abbreviations

Pts: Points

VI. References

Okonski, L., & Johansson Falck, M. (2025). The effect of the embodied scenes approach to preposition learning with PrepApp. Cognitive Linguistic Studies, 12(1), 69106. https://doi.org/10.1075/cogls.22020.oko

	You can access the full text of the accepted author manuscript in the DiVA repository.
URN: https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn%3Anbn%3Ase%3Aumu%3Adiva-235284
DiVA id: https://umu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1942345

