scholarly journals Exploring the learning burden and decay of foreign language vocabulary knowledge

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Barclay ◽  
Ana Pellicer-Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Word Length ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Decay Process ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Mixed Effects Models ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Form Recognition

Abstract Research has shown that several intralexical factors affect the learning burden of foreign language vocabulary (e.g., Laufer, 1997) and that some accrued lexical knowledge is forgotten. It is often assumed that the lexical items most difficult to acquire are those easiest to forget. However, few studies have provided empirical evidence to support this claim. This study examined the effect of two intralexical factors, part of speech and word length, on the learning burden and decay of intentionally learned foreign language lexical knowledge, as well as the role that learning burden played in the decay process. Forty-eight learners of English studied words of various parts of speech and lengths using flashcard software. Knowledge (form recall and recognition) of target items was assessed immediately after learning and four weeks later. Results of mixed-effects models showed that part of speech and word length have differential impacts on learning burden and decay and that increased burden mitigated loss of form recognition knowledge.

scholarly journals Apocope in Heritage Italian

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 120
Author(s):  
Anissa Baird ◽  
Angela Cristiano ◽  
Naomi Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Generational Differences ◽  
Word Length ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Mixed Effects Models ◽  
Vowel Reduction ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Relevant Factors

Apocope (deletion of word-final vowels) and word-final vowel reduction are hallmarks of southern Italian varieties. To investigate whether heritage speakers reproduce the complex variable patterns of these processes, we analyze spontaneous speech of three generations of heritage Calabrian Italian speakers and a homeland comparator sample. All occurrences (N = 2477) from a list of frequent polysyllabic words are extracted from 25 speakers’ interviews and analyzed via mixed effects models. Tested predictors include: vowel identity, phonological context, clausal position, lexical frequency, word length, gender, generation, ethnic orientation and age. Homeland and heritage speakers exhibit similar distributions of full, reduced and deleted forms, but there are inter-generational differences in the constraints governing the variation. Primarily linguistic factors condition the variation. Homeland variation in reduction shows sensitivity to part of speech, while heritage speakers show sensitivity to segmental context and part of speech. Slightly different factors influence apocope, with suprasegmental factors and part of speech significant for homeland speakers, but only part of speech for heritage speakers. Surprisingly, for such a socially marked feature, few social factors are relevant. Factors influencing reduction and apocope are similar, suggesting the processes are related.

A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF TIME-PREPOSITIONS IN THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (28) ◽  
pp. 187-195
Author(s):  
Yabing Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Foreign Students ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
Organic Structure ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
True Meaning ◽  
Oral Speech ◽  
The Russian Language

This article is devoted to the problem of using Russian time-prepositions by foreigners, especially by the Chinese. An analysis of modern literature allows the author to identify the main areas of the work aimed at foreign students’ development of the skills and abilities to correctly build the prepositional combinations and continuously improve the communication skills by means of the Russian language. In this paper, the time-prepositions in the Russian language have been analyzed in detail; some examples of polysemantic use of prepositions, their semantic and stylistic shades alongside with possible errors made by foreign students are presented. The results of the study are to help in developing a system of teaching Russian time-prepositions to a foreign language audience, taking into account their native language, on the basis of the systemic and functional, communicative and activity-centred basis. The role of Russian time-prepositions in constructing word combinations has been identified; the need for foreign students’ close attention to this secondary part of speech has been specified. It has been stated that prepositions are the most dynamic and open type of secondary language units within the quantitative and qualitative composition of which regular changes take place. The research substantiates the need that students should be aware of the function of time-preposition in speech; they are to get acquainted with the main time-prepositions and their meanings, to distinguish prepositions and other homonymous parts of speech as well as to learn stylistic shades of time-prepositions. Some recommendations related to the means of mastering time-prepositions have been given: to target speakers to assimilate modern literary norms and, therefore, to teach them how to choose and use them correctly by means of linguistic keys that are intended to fill the word with true meaning, to give it an organic structure, an inherent form and an easy combinability in the texts and oral speech.

scholarly journals English Lexical Acquisition of Adult Learners in Instructional Settings: Issue on Lexical Input

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Azman Mokhtar ◽  
Rafizah Mohd Rawian ◽  
Paramjit Kaur a/p Karpal Singh
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Education System ◽  
English Language ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Tertiary Level ◽  
Vocabulary Test ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Unsuccessful Attempt ◽  
Instructional Settings

<p>This study examined the receptive and productive English vocabulary knowledge of tertiary students. Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) consisted of three tests, namely Passive Vocabulary Test (PVT), Controlled Active Vocabulary Test (CAVT), and Free Active Vocabulary Test (FAVT) was used to collect the data. A total of 360 first-, second- and third-year university students were involved in the study. The findings revealed that majority of them had very limited lexical knowledge to use English as their second or foreign language, though formal exposures to English language had been given to them for at least 11 years before entering the tertiary level. In trying to unfold the unsuccessful attempt to enhance the students’ lexical competent through the present Malaysian education system, the issue of lexical input in terms of quantity and quality had been raised.</p>

scholarly journals Determinants of early lexical acquisition: Effects of word- and child-level factors on Dutch children's acquisition of words

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Josje VERHAGEN ◽  
Mees VAN STIPHOUT ◽  
Elma BLOM
Keyword(s):  
Word Length ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Neighborhood Density ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Lexical Acquisition ◽  
Word Class ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Dutch Children

Abstract Previous research on the effects of word-level factors on lexical acquisition has shown that frequency and concreteness are most important. Here, we investigate CDI data from 1,030 Dutch children, collected with the short form of the Dutch CDI, to address (i) how word-level factors predict lexical acquisition, once child-level factors are controlled, (ii) whether effects of these word-level factors vary with word class and age, and (iii) whether any interactions with age are due to differences in receptive vocabulary. Mixed-effects regressions yielded effects of frequency and concreteness, but not of word class and phonological factors (e.g., word length, neighborhood density). The effect of frequency was stronger for nouns than predicates. The effects of frequency and concreteness decreased with age, and were not explained by differences in vocabulary knowledge. These findings extend earlier results to Dutch, and indicate that effects of age are not due to increases in vocabulary knowledge.

Word skipping during the lexical acquisition process

2020 ◽  
pp. 174702182096729
Author(s):  
Michael A Eskenazi ◽  
Paige Kemp ◽  
Jocelyn R Folk
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Word Length ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Skill Assessment ◽  
Mixed Effects Models ◽  
Lexical Acquisition ◽  
Spelling Skill ◽  
Word Skipping ◽  
Semantic Acquisition ◽  
Novel Words

During reading, most words are identified in the fovea through a direct fixation; however, readers also identify some words in the parafovea without directly fixating them. This word skipping process is influenced by many lexical and visual factors including word length, launch position, frequency, and predictability. Although these factors are well understood, there is some disagreement about the process that leads to word skipping and the degree to which skipped words are processed. The purpose of this study was to investigate the word skipping process when readers are exposed to novel words in an incidental lexical acquisition paradigm. Participants read 18 three-letter novel words (i.e., pru, cho) in three different informative contexts each while their eye movements were monitored. They then completed a surprise test of their orthographic and semantic acquisition and a spelling skill assessment. Mixed-effects models indicated that participants learned spellings and meanings of words at the same rate regardless of the number of times that they were skipped. However, word skipping rates increased across the three exposures and reading times decreased. Results indicate that readers appear to process skipped words to the same degree as fixated words. However, this may be due to a more cautious skipping process used during lexical acquisition of unfamiliar words compared to processing of already known words.

Learning Vocabulary from Reading-only, Reading-while-listening, and Reading with Textual Input Enhancement: Insights from Vietnamese EFL Learners

RELC Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 003368822091148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duy Van Vu ◽  
Elke Peters
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Input Enhancement ◽  
Form Recognition ◽  
Graded Readers

This article reports the results of two experiments which compared the effects of reading-only, reading-while-listening, and reading with textual input enhancement (i.e. underlining) on Vietnamese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ learning of three aspects of vocabulary knowledge: form recognition, form recall, and meaning recall. Sixty Vietnamese EFL learners (32 beginner and 28 intermediate learners) were assigned to one of three experimental conditions: reading-only, reading-while-listening, or reading with textual input enhancement. During four weeks, all learners read four graded readers in their condition groups. Tests of target words were administered three times: one week before the reading (pretests), immediately after the reading (immediate posttests), and one week after the reading (delayed posttests). To gain more insights into the learners’ perspectives, follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted. The results showed that the three reading modes resulted in word learning gains for the three word knowledge aspects tested. However, reading with textual input enhancement resulted in significantly more vocabulary learning than reading-only, while the reading-while-listening and reading-only groups did not differ significantly. In addition, form recognition had the largest gains while form recall the smallest.

scholarly journals Replacing Translation Tests With Yes/No Tests

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-48
Author(s):  
Raymond Stubbe ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Classroom Teachers ◽  
Prediction Formula ◽  
Foreign Language Teachers ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Better Than

Along with personal interviews, individual word translation tests from the target language to the mother tongue are recognized as a reliable method of determining students’ actual lexical knowledge. However, as most English as a foreign language teachers are aware, the marking of these tests can be a laborious task. A far easier vocabulary testing format is the Yes/No (YN) checklist test, which can examine a large number of words while not over-burdening the marker. Pseudowords, which look like real words but do not bear meaning, have been added to the YN format to check for evidence of overestimation of lexical knowledge by test-takers. Four scoring formulae, which adjust YN results according to the number of pseudoword reports, have become established in the literature. Of these, the h-f formula has become recognized as the simplest to use for adjusting YN scores. This study presents a regression-based prediction formula derived from the h-f results in a pilot study, which was then applied to the YN h-f adjustments in a second study (the main study) to predict actual vocabulary knowledge as demonstrated by a meaning recall translation test of the same items. This prediction formula, labeled h-fRF, was compared with another regression-based formula as well as the original h-f formula. Results showed that 54% of the 455 individual h-fRF predictions were within 5% (4.8 of 96 words) of matching translation test scores, and 82% were within 10%, which were better than the other formula predictions. These results may be of interest to classroom teachers as they suggest that by using the h-fRF, the burden of marking translation tests can be reduced by the far easier YN test format.

scholarly journals L2 irregular verb morphology: Exploring behavioral data from intermediate English learners of German as a foreign language using generalized mixed effects models

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-556
Author(s):  
Thomas Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Mental Lexicon ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Behavioral Data ◽  
Mixed Effects Models ◽  
Verb Morphology ◽  
Irregular Verbs

This paper examines possible psycholinguistic mechanisms governing stem vowel changes of irregular verbs in intermediate English learners of German as a foreign language (GFL). In Experiment 1, nonce-infinitives embedded in an authentic fictional text had to be inflected for German preterite, thus testing possible analogy driven pattern associations. Experiment 2 explored the psycholinguistic reality of the so-called apophonic path by prompting two inflections for one given nonce-word. Data were analyzed using generalized mixed effects models accounting for within-subject as well as within-item variance. The results of Experiment 1 and 2 support the notion of a pattern associator and yield only scarce evidence for the psycholinguistic reality of a universal apophonic path. Therefore, the organization of irregular verb morphology in the mental lexicon of intermediate GFL learners might best be captured by the linguistic notion of structured lexical entries as well as the psycholinguistic mechanism of an analogy-based pattern associator.

scholarly journals ENGLISH LEXICAL ACQUISITION OF ADULT LEARNERS IN INSTRUCTIONAL SETTINGS: ISSUE ON LEXICAL INPUT

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Azman Mokhtar
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Education System ◽  
English Language ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Tertiary Level ◽  
Vocabulary Test ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Unsuccessful Attempt ◽  
Instructional Settings

This study examined the receptive and productive English vocabulary knowledge of tertiary students. Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) consisted of three tests, namely Passive Vocabulary Test (PVT), Controlled Active Vocabulary Test (CAVT), and Free Active Vocabulary Test (FAVT) was used to collect the data. A total of 360 first-, second- and third-year university students were involved in the study. The findings revealed that majority of them had very limited lexical knowledge to use English as their second or foreign language, though formal exposures to English language had been given to them for at least 11 years before entering the tertiary level. In trying to unfold the unsuccessful attempt to enhance the students’ lexical competent through the present Malaysian education system, the issue of lexical input in terms of quantity and quality had been raised.

ABOUT THE PROBLEM OF CLASSIFICATION OF THE CONCEPTS OF INFORMATICS STUDIED AT SECONDARY SCHOOL

2018 ◽  
pp. 4-7
Author(s):  
S. I. Zenko
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Definition Of

The article raises the problem of classification of the concepts of computer science and informatics studied at secondary school. The efficiency of creation of techniques of training of pupils in these concepts depends on its solution. The author proposes to consider classifications of the concepts of school informatics from four positions: on the cross-subject basis, the content lines of the educational subject "Informatics", the logical and structural interrelations and interactions of the studied concepts, the etymology of foreign-language and translated words in the definition of the concepts of informatics. As a result of the first classification general and special concepts are allocated; the second classification — inter-content and intra-content concepts; the third classification — stable (steady), expanding, key and auxiliary concepts; the fourth classification — concepts-nouns, conceptsverbs, concepts-adjectives and concepts — combinations of parts of speech.

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