Multiple measures of assessing vocabulary acquisition: Implications for understanding lexical development

This study examined lexical development from an interactionist perspective. More specifically, we investigated student gains in seven specific vocabulary words as a function of their frequency of occurrence and the type and amount of focus on form episodes related to them. Pretests and posttests were given to an intact class of second-year Spanish students to assess their gains for the seven words. Each day of class was recorded and transcribed to enable corpus- and interaction-based analyses of target word use whether in isolation or within focus on form episodes. We present the results of overall (quantitative) and more finely-grained, word-by-word (qualitative) analyses, both of which indicate the insufficiency of any single variable to predict lexical development, thus providing support for multifaceted and mixed-method approaches to the understanding and research of vocabulary acquisition. Finally, the results are discussed in relation to models of L2 vocabulary learning, within the interactionist framework in particular.

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Early lexical development in English- and Korean-speaking children: language-general and language-specific patterns

Journal of Child Language ◽

10.1017/s0305000900004104 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 225-254 ◽

Cited By ~ 61

Author(s):

MIKYONG KIM ◽

KARLA K. McGREGOR ◽

CYNTHIA K. THOMPSON

Keyword(s):

English Learners ◽

Vocabulary Acquisition ◽

English Learning ◽

Lexical Development ◽

Korean Children ◽

Relative Ease ◽

Specific Factors ◽

English Speaking ◽

Korean Learners

The present study examined the composition of the early productive vocabulary of eight Korean- and eight English-learning children and the morpho-syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic characteristics of their caregivers' input in order to determine parallels between caregiver input and early lexical development. Vocabulary acquisition was followed using maternal diary and checklists for the Korean-learning children (from a mean age of 1;6 to 1;9) and for the English-learning children (from a mean age of 1;4 to 1;8). Results showed that both Korean- learning and English-learning children acquired significantly more nouns than verbs at the 50-word mark. However, Korean children learned significantly more verbs than did English-learning children. The relative ease with which Korean learners, as compared to English learners, acquired verbs parallels several differences in the linguistic and socio-pragmatic characteristics of the input addressed to them. Korean- speaking caregivers presented more activity-oriented utterances, more verbs, and more salient cues to verbs than did English-speaking caregivers. These data suggest that both general and language-specific factors shape the early lexicon.

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Lexical Development in Bilingual French/ Portuguese Speaking Toddlers

Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech ◽

10.1558/jmbs.v1i2.11880 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Sophie Kern ◽

Daniela Valente ◽

Christophe Dos Santos

Keyword(s):

Vocabulary Acquisition ◽

Developmental Stages ◽

Vocabulary Size ◽

Lexical Development ◽

Language Dominance ◽

European Portuguese ◽

Communicative Development ◽

Almost All

In this study, we explore if French-European Portuguese (EP)-speaking bilingual toddlers produce the same number of words as their monolingual peers, in French, in EP, or in both languages. Furthermore, we explore the link between language dominance and lexicon size. We tested 53 bilingual French-EP children, among which 16 were 16–18 months old, 16 were 24–25 months old and 21 were 30–35 months old. The parents completed the French and the EP Communicative Development Inventory (adaptations of MacArthur–Bates CDI [Fenson et al., 2007]), the PaBiQ (Tuller, 2015) to evaluate language dominance and the ASQ-3 (Squires et al., 2009) to assess their developmental stages. The total vocabulary (both language combined, TV?F+EP), the total vocabulary (TV) in each language (TV?EP and TV?F) and the conceptual vocabulary (CV) were calculated. These vocabulary measures were compared with the monolingual norms in French and EP. The results showed that almost all participants had the same performance in vocabulary acquisition as their monolingual peers in French and EP, measured through the CDI in each language respectively. Their TV?F+EP and CV exceeded the vocabulary of monolinguals and language dominance was correlated with vocabulary size.

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THREE DIMENSIONS OF VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263199002089 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 21 (2) ◽

pp. 303-317 ◽

Cited By ~ 160

Author(s):

Birgit Henriksen

Keyword(s):

Vocabulary Acquisition ◽

Word Meaning ◽

Vocabulary Development ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Three Dimensions ◽

Lexical Development ◽

Depth Of Knowledge ◽

Precise Knowledge ◽

Lexical Competence ◽

The Relationship

Progress toward establishing a model of lexical development to guide vocabulary acquisition research requires more precise specification of the various dimensions of lexical competence, the interrelationships among them, and how they interface with processes of word learning and use. Three dimensions of lexical competence are proposed: (a) partial to precise knowledge, (b) depth of knowledge, and (c) receptive to productive use ability. The relationship between the two knowledge dimensions and the acquisition of word meaning is considered, with emphasis on the complexity of the semantization1 process and on the need for redefining lexical development as both item-learning and system-changing. The adequacy of the three-dimensional description as a reflection of the process of vocabulary development is then discussed. Consideration of the nature of the developmental interrelationships among the dimensions raises two further questions: (a) Is depth of knowledge a prerequisite for developing precise comprehension? and (b) Are precise knowledge and depth of knowledge prerequisites for a word to become productive?

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Parasitic vocabulary acquisition, cross-linguistic influence, and lexical retrieval in multilinguals

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s1366728913000722 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

pp. 145-162 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

PETER ECKE

Keyword(s):

Vocabulary Acquisition ◽

Research Evidence ◽

Developmental Changes ◽

Lexical Retrieval ◽

Lexical Development ◽

The Third ◽

Individual Word ◽

Word Forms

The first part of this paper reviews research evidence for typological similarity and/or L2 status as determinants of cross-linguistic influence (CLI) in multilingual lexical production. The second part presents a model of vocabulary acquisition as a framework to explain CLI at the levels of form, (syntactic) frame, and meaning, as well as some of the developmental changes that have been reported for CLI patterns in relation to L3 learners’ proficiency. It is suggested that these patterns can be related to default processes and stages involved in the acquisition of individual word forms and their integration into networks of existing lexical triads, as described in the Parasitic Model of vocabulary acquisition. The third part of this paper points to research into the complexity and non-linearity of multilingual lexical development and the need to learn more about it.

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