scholarly journals Real world word learning: Exploring the development of children’s lexical representations

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Asimina M. Ralli ◽  
Julie E. Dockrell
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Multiple Choice ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Generation Task ◽  
Semantic Domain ◽  
Unknown Words ◽  
Target Words

The ability to acquire new words draws on cognitive, linguistic and socialcompetencies. Assessments of lexical acquisition are often limited to studies using multiple choice comprehension measures in contrived experimental contexts. To address these limitations the current study assessed the ways in which children developed their semantic representations of animal and artefact terms. Children differed in their knowledge of the target terms and experienced different linguistic exposures over a four week period. One hundred and thirty preschool children (mean age = 5;6) were randomly assigned to five conditions (one control and four experimental conditions). For the control and the phonological group, the knowledge children acquired about the target words was assessed at two points, baseline and at a three week follow up. For the remaining experimental groups their understanding of the terms was assessed at five points in time (baseline, 1st week, 2nd week and 3rd week post test). A range of assessment tasks were used to assess lexical knowledge: confrontational naming, multiple choice comprehension measures, sorting, short questions, identification of relations, (association task) definitions and a story generation task. Children’s word knowledge from the different conditions/groupswas compared across tasks and time. The analysis focused on the depth and breadth of knowledge that the children acquired for the target words. Independent variables included previous knowledge of the target words, lexical knowledge of other words from the same semantic domain, semantic domain of the target words and type of lexical exposure. There were subtle and complex effects of the different exposure contexts for word learning. Children’s performance was significantly better for items that were partially represented than for the unknown words. Children’s existing vocabulary knowledge for animals was positively correlated with the acquisition of the target words describing animals. However, this was not the case for artefacts. Theassessments of word knowledge revealed different aspects of depth in lexical knowledge.

scholarly journals Progressive Reduction of Iconic Gestures Contributes to School-Aged Children’s Increased Word Production

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich J. Mertens ◽  
Katharina J. Rohlfing
Keyword(s):  
Relevant Literature ◽  
The Other ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Learning Study ◽  
Progressive Reduction ◽  
Successful Communication ◽  
Subject Design ◽  
Research Gap ◽  
Unknown Words ◽  
Target Words

The economic principle of communication, according to which successful communication can be reached by least effort, has been studied for verbal communication. With respect to nonverbal behavior, it implies that forms of iconic gestures change over the course of communication and become reduced in the sense of less pronounced. These changes and their effects on learning are currently unexplored in relevant literature. Addressing this research gap, we conducted a word learning study to test the effects of changing gestures on children’s slow mapping. We applied a within-subject design and tested 51 children, aged 6.7 years (SD = 0.4), who learned unknown words from a story. The storyteller acted on the basis of two conditions: In one condition, in which half of the target words were presented, the story presentation was enhanced with progressively reduced iconic gestures (PRG); in the other condition, half of the target words were accompanied by fully executed iconic gestures (FEG). To ensure a reliable gesture presentation, children were exposed to a recorded person telling a story in both conditions. We tested the slow mapping effects on children’s productive and receptive word knowledge three minutes as well as two to three days after being presented the story. The results suggest that children’s production of the target words, but not their understanding thereof, was enhanced by PRG.

scholarly journals Investigating the Effects of Learning Tasks on Vocabulary Knowledge

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Stuart Alexander Webb
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Incidental Learning ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Explicit Learning ◽  
Partial Knowledge ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Unknown Words

<p>This thesis looks at whether different kinds of vocabulary learning tasks result in different types of word knowledge. In almost every study that has investigated the effects of tasks on vocabulary learning; the only aspect of word knowledge that was tested was meaning and form. Since researchers agree that knowing a word involves much more than knowing its meaning and form, prior research may have measured partial knowledge of only one of several aspects of knowledge. In order to determine the effects of vocabulary learning tasks, several aspects of knowledge should be tested. The experiments in this thesis investigated how vocabulary learning tasks affect both receptive and productive knowledge of five aspects of word knowledge: orthography, association, syntax, meaning and form, and grammatical functions. In the first of six experiments, the effects of incidental learning from reading and explicit learning from word pairs on word knowledge were compared. The results indicated that gains in knowledge tend to increase as the number of repetitions increases; however, partial gains from an informative context may be reduced or eliminated if followed by a less informative context. The results also showed that learning from word pairs contributed to surprisingly greater gains in all of the aspects. In the second experiment, two tasks (learning from glossed sentences, and learning from word pairs) were compared to determine the effects of context and synonymy on vocabulary knowledge. It was found that the subjects gained greater knowledge of unknown words that had high frequency synonyms than for those with less frequent synonyms. The results also indicated that a single context may have little effect on acquisition. In the third, fourth and fifth experiments, the effects of receptive and productive learning tasks on vocabulary knowledge were examined. The results indicated that productive learning from word pairs may be more effective at developing productive knowledge while receptive learning from word pairs may be more effective at increasing receptive knowledge. The sixth experiment investigated the effects of receptive and productive learning from word pairs on communication. It was found that the receptive task may be superior in improving comprehension, and the productive task may be better suited to facilitating writing. Taken as a whole, this thesis indicates that measuring multiple aspects of vocabulary knowledge both receptively and productively may provide a much more accurate assessment of the relative efficacy of vocabulary learning tasks. Moreover, it suggests that different tasks may have a different effect on vocabulary knowledge.</p>

Het Afleiden Van de Betekenis Van Vreemdtalige Woorden Uit de Context

1989 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 13-25
Author(s):  
Jan H. Hulstijn
Keyword(s):  
Incidental Learning ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Multiple Choice ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Intentional Learning ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Unknown Word ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Unknown Words

This research focused on the incidental learning of the meaning of new word forms occurring in a reading passage. In five experiments, a comparison was made of the retention effects of several ways to orient readers to the meaning of twelve new word forms ("targets"), occurring in a reading passage, containing otherwise simple vocabulary. In all experiments the same four-page Dutch reading passage was used (on the role of advertisement agencies). In experiments I, III, and V, the targets were 12 Dutch low frequency verbs. Subjects in these experiments were adult intermediate learners of Dutch as a second language (65, 45, and 35 Ss respectively). In experiments II and IV, these Dutch verbs were replaced by twelve pseudo-verbs. Subjects in these two experiments were adult Dutch native speakers (98 and 52 Ss respectively). In the margin of the text various sorts of cues were given, orienting the readers in various ways to the meaning of the targets. The following orienting cues (experimental conditions) were compared: (1) Translation: Translation of the target into LI (Exp. I), (2) Synonym: Dutch synonym of the target (Exp. II-V), (3) Context: a sample sentence providing a concise and highly specific context for the target's meaning (Exp. I and II), (4) Multiple Choice: four (Exp. I-III) or two (Exp. IV-V) verbs to choose from, one verb being a correct synonym, the other verbs giving wrong meanings (distractors), and (5) Control: absence of cue (Exp. I-II). In all five experiments Ss read the text and answered six multiple-choice comprehension questions, each question pertaining to the meaning of one or two paragraphs. This reading-for-comprehension task was unexpectedly followed by some posttests, eliciting knowledge of the twelve targets (incidental learning). In experiments IV and V half of the Ss were informed that retention tests were to follow the reading task (intentional learning). The results of these five experiments and the conclusions drawn from them can be summarized as follows: 1. The retention of word meanings in a truly incidental task is very poor indeed. The chance that readers will remember the meaning of an unknown word, occurring once in the text, is minimal. 2. The presence of an orienting cue enhances word meaning retention, as compared to the absence of an orienting cue. In the latter case, readers often spontaneously infer a wrong (although possible) meaning. 3. From 2 it follows that in language pedagogy one should try to assess the differential effect of various orienting cues, rather than compare giving the meaning to the reader/learner (cue presence) with having the reader/learner infer the meaning without any help (cue absence). 4. A comparison between the Multiple Choice and the Synonym conditions showed in three out of four experiments that the former had a higher retention effect than the latter in an incidental (as opposed to intentional) learning setting. With the multiple-choice procedure, however, there is a chance that the readerAearner infers a wrong meaning (distractor). This procedure should therefore only be used in the classroom, with immediate feedback from the teacher. For unguided reading/learning at home, the synonym (or translation) procedure seems to be more appropriate. 5. The results of these experiments provide modest evidence for a mental effort hypothesis. The net retention effect (i.e. in an incidental learning task) of conditions in which the meaning of unknown words must be inferred by the reader/earner is higher than of conditions in which the meaning is given. However, as said under 4, it is assumed that language teachers will generally opt for the safer procedure of giving the meaning of an unknown word, rather than for the (somewhat) more effective procedure of having the reader/learner infer the meaning.

scholarly journals Manipulating word properties: Targeting vocabulary learning for children with and without speech sound inaccuracies

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-121
Author(s):  
Kimberly D McDowell ◽  
Jeri Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Absolute Number ◽  
Neighborhood Density ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Phonotactic Probability

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to examine the relations between speech sound accuracy, vocabulary, and phonological awareness, and (2) to examine the effect of word properties of neighborhood density and phonotactic probability on word learning within a storybook context, for children with and without speech sound inaccuracies. Fifty K–1 children (aged 5–6 years; 25 with, 25 without speech sound inaccuracies) completed inclusionary measures of oral language, speech sound accuracy, hearing screening, oral–motor screening, and nonverbal intelligence. Participants completed study-specific measures of standardized receptive and expressive vocabulary, stimuli-specific vocabulary knowledge, and phonological awareness. Twice weekly, for 30 minutes, an 11-week storybook-based intervention took place, targeting word learning, with words selected based on density and probability. Storybooks were researcher generated to intentionally manipulate the word properties of the stimuli words. Each storybook contained two stimuli words, four exposures per word per reading. Results indicated that both speech sound accuracy and vocabulary predicted unique variance in phonological awareness in children with speech sound inaccuracies. No statistically significant differences in the absolute number of words children learned emerged. Group differences were noted in emerging word knowledge with typically developing children outperforming children with speech sound inaccuracies. Differences were noted in the types of words that children learned. Results suggest that children with speech sound inaccuracies may be at risk for later reading difficulties. Speech language pathologists need to be targeting words that promote change within a child’s phonological system (sublexical) and his/her lexical system.

scholarly journals Partial Word Knowledge and Vocabulary Growth during Reading Comprehension

1997 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula J. Schwanenflugel ◽  
Steven A. Stahl ◽  
Elisabeth L. McFalls
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School Children ◽  
Fourth Graders ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Control Vocabulary ◽  
Story Reading ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Vocabulary Growth ◽  
Partial Word ◽  
Unknown Words

The experiment investigated the development of vocabulary knowledge in elementary school children as a function of story reading for partially known and unknown words. Fourth graders participated in a vocabulary checklist in which they provided definitions or sentences for words they knew (known words) and checked off words they did not know the meaning of but were familiar with (partially known words). Children then read stories containing some of these words. The remaining words served as a control. Vocabulary growth was small but even for both partially known and unknown words. However, the characteristics of the words being learned themselves (particularly, part of speech and concreteness) were more important in determining this growth than aspects of the texts.

scholarly journals Individual Differences in Children’s (Language) Learning Skills Moderate Effects of Robot-Assisted Second Language Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rianne van den Berghe ◽  
Ora Oudgenoeg-Paz ◽  
Josje Verhagen ◽  
Susanne Brouwer ◽  
Mirjam de Haas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Phonological Memory ◽  
Robot Assisted ◽  
Experimental Conditions

The current study investigated how individual differences among children affect the added value of social robots for teaching second language (L2) vocabulary to young children. Specifically, we investigated the moderating role of three individual child characteristics deemed relevant for language learning: first language (L1) vocabulary knowledge, phonological memory, and selective attention. We expected children low in these abilities to particularly benefit from being assisted by a robot in a vocabulary training. An L2 English vocabulary training intervention consisting of seven sessions was administered to 193 monolingual Dutch five-year-old children over a three- to four-week period. Children were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: 1) a tablet only, 2) a tablet and a robot that used deictic (pointing) gestures (the no-iconic-gestures condition), or 3) a tablet and a robot that used both deictic and iconic gestures (i.e., gestures depicting the target word; the iconic-gestures condition). There also was a control condition in which children did not receive a vocabulary training, but played dancing games with the robot. L2 word knowledge was measured directly after the training and two to four weeks later. In these post-tests, children in the experimental conditions outperformed children in the control condition on word knowledge, but there were no differences between the three experimental conditions. Several moderation effects were found. The robot’s presence particularly benefited children with larger L1 vocabularies or poorer phonological memory, while children with smaller L1 vocabularies or better phonological memory performed better in the tablet-only condition. Children with larger L1 vocabularies and better phonological memory performed better in the no-iconic-gestures condition than in the iconic-gestures condition, while children with better selective attention performed better in the iconic-gestures condition than the no-iconic-gestures condition. Together, the results showed that the effects of the robot and its gestures differ across children, which should be taken into account when designing and evaluating robot-assisted L2 teaching interventions.

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 Investigating the Effects of Learning Tasks on Vocabulary Knowledge

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Stuart Alexander Webb
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Incidental Learning ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Explicit Learning ◽  
Partial Knowledge ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Unknown Words

<p>This thesis looks at whether different kinds of vocabulary learning tasks result in different types of word knowledge. In almost every study that has investigated the effects of tasks on vocabulary learning; the only aspect of word knowledge that was tested was meaning and form. Since researchers agree that knowing a word involves much more than knowing its meaning and form, prior research may have measured partial knowledge of only one of several aspects of knowledge. In order to determine the effects of vocabulary learning tasks, several aspects of knowledge should be tested. The experiments in this thesis investigated how vocabulary learning tasks affect both receptive and productive knowledge of five aspects of word knowledge: orthography, association, syntax, meaning and form, and grammatical functions. In the first of six experiments, the effects of incidental learning from reading and explicit learning from word pairs on word knowledge were compared. The results indicated that gains in knowledge tend to increase as the number of repetitions increases; however, partial gains from an informative context may be reduced or eliminated if followed by a less informative context. The results also showed that learning from word pairs contributed to surprisingly greater gains in all of the aspects. In the second experiment, two tasks (learning from glossed sentences, and learning from word pairs) were compared to determine the effects of context and synonymy on vocabulary knowledge. It was found that the subjects gained greater knowledge of unknown words that had high frequency synonyms than for those with less frequent synonyms. The results also indicated that a single context may have little effect on acquisition. In the third, fourth and fifth experiments, the effects of receptive and productive learning tasks on vocabulary knowledge were examined. The results indicated that productive learning from word pairs may be more effective at developing productive knowledge while receptive learning from word pairs may be more effective at increasing receptive knowledge. The sixth experiment investigated the effects of receptive and productive learning from word pairs on communication. It was found that the receptive task may be superior in improving comprehension, and the productive task may be better suited to facilitating writing. Taken as a whole, this thesis indicates that measuring multiple aspects of vocabulary knowledge both receptively and productively may provide a much more accurate assessment of the relative efficacy of vocabulary learning tasks. Moreover, it suggests that different tasks may have a different effect on vocabulary knowledge.</p>

Measuring Word Learning Ability in Sequential Bilingual Children

2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pui Fong Kan
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Learning Skills ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Novel Word Learning ◽  
L1 And L2

Abstract The purpose of this article is to look at the word learning skills in sequential bilingual children—children who learn two languages (L1 and L2) at different times in their childhood. Learning a new word is a process of learning a word form and relating this form to a concept. For bilingual children, each concept might need to map onto two word forms (in L1 and in L2). In case studies, I present 3 typically developing Hmong-English bilingual preschoolers' word learning skills in Hmong (L1) and in English (L2) during an 8-week period (4 weeks for each language). The results showed gains in novel-word knowledge in L1 and in L2 when the amount of input is equal for both languages. The individual differences in novel word learning are discussed.

Generation and Associative Encoding in Young and Old Adults

2008 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Taconnat ◽  
Charlotte Froger ◽  
Mathilde Sacher ◽  
Michel Isingrini
Keyword(s):  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Generation Effect ◽  
Elderly Adults ◽  
Generation Task ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Old Adults ◽  
Strength Of Association ◽  
Target Words

Abstract. The generation effect (i.e., better recall of the generated items than the read items) was investigated with a between-list design in young and elderly participants. The generation task difficulty was manipulated by varying the strength of association between cues and targets. Overall, strong associates were better recalled than weak associates. However, the results showed different generation effect patterns according to strength of association and age, with a greater generation effect for weak associates in younger adults only. These findings suggest that generating weak associates leads to more elaborated encoding, but that elderly adults cannot use this elaborated encoding as well as younger adults to recall the target words at test.

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