To What Extent is Collocation Knowledge Associated with Oral Proficiency? A Corpus-Based Approach to Word Association

2021 ◽  
pp. 002383092110138
Author(s):  
Takumi Uchihara ◽  
Masaki Eguchi ◽  
Jon Clenton ◽  
Kristopher Kyle ◽  
Kazuya Saito

This study examined the relationship between second language (L2) learners’ collocation knowledge and oral proficiency. A new approach to measuring collocation was adopted by eliciting responses through a word association task and using corpus-based measures (absolute frequency count, t-score, MI score) to analyze the degree to which stimulus words and responses were collocated. Oral proficiency was measured using human judgements and objective measures of fluency (articulation rate, silent pause ratio, filled pause ratio) and lexical richness (diversity, frequency, range). Forty Japanese university students completed a word association task and a spontaneous speaking task (picture narrative). Results indicated that speakers who used more low-frequency collocations in the word association task (i.e., lower collocation frequency scores) spoke faster with fewer silent pauses and were perceived to be more fluent. Speakers who provided more strongly associated collocations (as measured by MI) used more sophisticated lexical items and were perceived to be lexically proficient. Collocation knowledge remained as a unique predictor after the influence of learners’ vocabulary size (i.e., knowledge of single-word items) was considered. These findings support the key role that collocation plays in oral proficiency and provide important insights into understanding L2 speech development from the perspective of phraseological competence.

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 1807-1821
Author(s):  
Margaret M. Kehoe ◽  
Tamara Patrucco-Nanchen ◽  
Margaret Friend ◽  
Pascal Zesiger

Purpose This study examines the influence of lexical and phonological factors on expressive lexicon size in 40 French-speaking children tested longitudinally from 22 to 48 months. The factors include those based on the lexical and phonological properties of words in the children's lexicons (phonetic complexity, word length, neighborhood density [ND], and word frequency [WF]) as well as variables measuring phonological production (percent consonants correct and phonetic inventory size). Specifically, we investigate the relative influence of these factors at individual ages, namely, 22, 29, 36, and 48 months, and which factors measured at 22 and 29 months influence lexicon size at 36 and 48 months. Method Children were selected based on parent-reported vocabulary size. We included children with low, medium, and high vocabulary scores. The children's lexicons were coded in terms of phonetic complexity, word length, ND, and WF, and their phonological production skills were based on measures of percent consonants correct and phonetic inventory size extracted from spontaneous speech samples at 29, 36, and 48 months. In the case of ND and WF, we focused on one- and two-syllable nouns. Results Across the age range, the most important factor that explained variance in lexicon size was the WF of nouns. Children who selected low-frequency nouns had larger vocabularies across all ages (22–48 months). The WF of two-syllable nouns and phonological production measured at 29 months influenced lexicon size at 36 months, whereas the WF (of one- and two-syllable words) influenced lexicon size at 48 months. Conclusions The findings support the role of WF and phonological production in explaining expressive vocabulary development. Children enlarge their vocabularies by adding nouns of increasingly lower frequency. Phonological production plays a role in accounting for vocabulary size up until the age of 36 months. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12291074


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 312-328
Author(s):  
Alessia Rochira ◽  
Evelyn De Simone ◽  
Terri Mannarini ◽  
Sergio Salvatore

The relationship between sense of community (SOC) and citizen participation has been extensively studied in community psychology. Connecting Social Representations and SOC theory, this study explored the lay meanings of citizen participation and its association with SOC. A word association task and a measure of territorial SOC were administered to 390 participants, and data analyzed to explore the contents of the social representations of citizen participation conveyed by the interviewees and their salience. Results revealed that different levels of SOC were associated with variations in the social representation of citizen participation. Specifically, among high-SOC participants the notion of formal political participation prevailed, while among low-SOC participants a more articulated vision emerged, encompassing social and community participation, and also conventional and non conventional types of participatory behaviors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Adel W. Alqallaf ◽  
Madani O. Ahmed

This study investigates the size and depth of vocabulary knowledge and its relationship to the general language proficiency of EFL learners. The study sample included 120 students from the University of Bahrain. The sample was randomly selected from the student population and split into two groups in terms of their level of English: intermediate and advanced. The study aims to answer four questions: (1) What is the effect of general language proficiency on the sizes of the receptive and productive vocabularies of learners of English at the University of Bahrain? (2) How does general language proficiency affect the depth of vocabulary knowledge of learners of English at the University of Bahrain? (3) What is the relationship between receptive and productive vocabularies and the depth of vocabulary knowledge? and (4) What is the relationship between vocabulary size and the nature of lexical networking? All the students in the sample completed three vocabulary tasks. The first two tasks were Meara and Jones’s Eurocentres Vocabulary Size Test (1990) and Meara and Fitzpatrick’s Lex30 word association task (2000), which were used to measure the sizes of receptive and productive vocabularies. The third task was Gyllstad’s COLLEX test (2007), which was used to investigate the depth of vocabulary knowledge. A quasi-experimental approach was adopted using a quantitative approach to analyze the data. The data of the study were analyzed by comparing the results of the two groups in relation to the three tasks using SPSS 16.0. The findings of the study have revealed that general language proficiency has a positive effect on learners’ receptive vocabulary size, a moderate effect on learners’ productive vocabulary size, and a very low effect on the depth of vocabulary knowledge. In addition, no relationship was shown between the size of vocabulary and the nature of lexical networking. With reference to these results, pedagogical and future research recommendations are made.


2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Munson ◽  
Jan Edwards ◽  
Mary E. Beckman

A growing body of research has documented effects of phonotactic probability on young children's nonword repetition. This study extends this research in 2 ways. First, it compares nonword repetitions by 40 young children with phonological disorders with those by 40 same-age peers with typical phonological development on a nonword repetition task in which the frequency of embedded diphone sequences was varied. Second, it examines the relationship between the frequency effect in the nonword repetition task and other measures of linguistic ability in these children. Children in both groups repeated low-frequency sequences less accurately than high-frequency sequences. The children with phonological disorders were less accurate overall but showed no larger disadvantage for the low-frequency sequences than their age peers. Across the group, the size of the frequency effect was correlated with vocabulary size, but it was independent of measures of speech perception and articulatory ability. These results support the hypothesis that the production difficulty associated with low/frequency sequences is related primarily to vocabulary growth rather than to developments in articulatory or perceptual ability. By contrast, production problems experienced by children with phonological disorders do not appear to result from difficulties in making abstractions over known lexical items. Instead, they may be associated with difficulties in building representations in the primary sensory and motor domains.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Dabbagh ◽  
Mostafa Janebi Enayat

Abstract This study compared two tests of second language (L2) depth of vocabulary knowledge, namely the word association test (WAT) and vocabulary knowledge scale (VKS), with respect to their associations with vocabulary size. The same relationships were further examined separately for the five word-frequency bands of the vocabulary size test. To this end, 115 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners took the WAT, VKS, and Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT). Results of multiple linear regression analyses indicated that: (a) while both measures of vocabulary depth were predictive of the VLT, the WAT had a higher association with the dependent variable; (b) both the WAT and VKS were predictive of the high-frequency vocabulary, with the relationships being more significant for the WAT; (c) the WAT could significantly predict the mid-frequency vocabulary, whereas the VKS had no significant contribution; and (d) while the VKS was significantly associated with the low-frequency vocabulary, the WAT had no significant contribution to the prediction of this level. The findings are interpreted with reference to the suitability of both the WAT and VKS depending on the type of input, expected response, and desired frequency of the target words.


Author(s):  
P. A. Marsh ◽  
T. Mullens ◽  
D. Price

It is possible to exceed the guaranteed resolution on most electron microscopes by careful attention to microscope parameters essential for high resolution work. While our experience is related to a Philips EM-200, we hope that some of these comments will apply to all electron microscopes.The first considerations are vibration and magnetic fields. These are usually measured at the pre-installation survey and must be within specifications. It has been our experience, however, that these factors can be greatly influenced by the new facilities and therefore must be rechecked after the installation is completed. The relationship between the resolving power of an EM-200 and the maximum tolerable low frequency interference fields in milli-Oerstedt is 10 Å - 1.9, 8 Å - 1.4, 6 Å - 0.8.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain Mackinnon

This article employs a new approach to studying internal colonialism in northern Scotland during the 18th and 19th centuries. A common approach to examining internal colonial situations within modern state territories is to compare characteristics of the internal colonial situation with attested attributes of external colonial relations. Although this article does not reject the comparative approach, it seeks to avoid criticisms that this approach can be misleading by demonstrating that promoters and managers of projects involving land use change, territorial dispossession and industrial development in the late modern Gàidhealtachd consistently conceived of their work as projects of colonization. It further argues that the new social, cultural and political structures these projects imposed on the area's indigenous population correspond to those found in other colonial situations, and that racist and racialist attitudes towards Gaels of the time are typical of those in colonial situations during the period. The article concludes that the late modern Gàidhealtachd has been a site of internal colonization where the relationship of domination between colonizer and colonized is complex, longstanding and occurring within the imperial state. In doing so it demonstrates that the history and present of the Gaels of Scotland belongs within the ambit of an emerging indigenous research paradigm.


1997 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-175
Author(s):  
Pantaleon Fassbender

Relevance and scope of projective techniques for the purpose of organizational consulting are discussed. As an example, responses to a word-association task requiring each participant to visualize his company as an animal were compared with the rated appraisal for different values and qualifications as elements of corporate success. The sample consisted of 219 German managers (48% of them were CEOs or board members). Meaningful relationships between the choice of certain animals and value preferences were shown. Finally, widespread disapproval of projective techniques in management diagnosis and organizational consulting may be challenged.


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