scholarly journals Mental Lexicon, Working Memory and L2 (English) Vocabulary in Polish Students with and without Dyslexia

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-89
Author(s):  
Marta Łockiewicz ◽  
Martyna Jaskulska
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Mental Lexicon ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Educational Programme ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
L2 Vocabulary

The aim of our study was to examine the relationship between access to the mental lexicon, working memory and knowledge of English (L2) vocabulary. Analyses were undertaken amongst monolingual speakers of Polish (26 with dyslexia, 24 without) who studied English as a second language as part of their compulsory educational programme at school.We assumed that students with dyslexia would manifest deficits in access to the mental lexicon and verbal working memory, and would have a limited L2 vocabulary. We also assumed that better access to the mental lexicon facilitates knowledge of English (L2) vocabulary, and that this relationship is present in both the criterion and the control group. All of the students participated in both parts of the assessment, the group part (i.e., questionnaire, IQ test, two vocabulary tasks) and the individual part (i.e., psychological measures: verbal working memory, RAN, verbal fluency, and single word reading in L1 task). We found that students with dyslexia exhibited deficits in the speed of access to data from the mental lexicon. The predictive function of memory for vocabulary was more conspicuous in the control group; in the criterion group, the result might constitute a risk factor for L2 vocabulary acquisition in dyslexia, which may manifest with increased proficiency in word knowledge. Poor vocabulary knowledge renders the L2 learning experience difficult, as it impairs students’ reading comprehension, writing and conversational skills.

The same or different: An investigation of cognitive and metalinguistic correlates of Chinese word reading for native and non-native Chinese speaking children

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 765-781 ◽  
Author(s):  
YANLING ZHOU ◽  
CATHERINE MCBRIDE
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
English Word ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Chinese Word ◽  
Lexical Tone ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Chinese Learning

We investigated cognitive and metalinguistic correlates of Chinese word reading in children with L2 Chinese learning experience and compared these to those in L1 Chinese speaking children. In total, 102 third and fourth grade children were recruited for the study. We examined a range of Chinese and English word reading related cognitive and metalinguistic skills. Compared to the native Chinese speaking group (NCSS), the non-native Chinese speaking group (NNCS) only performed better in English vocabulary knowledge and English working memory. On Chinese word reading related skills the NNCS group performed significantly worse than the NCS group. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the unique correlates of Chinese word reading for both groups were Chinese vocabulary, working memory, lexical tone awareness, and orthographic skills. For the NNCS group only, visual skills were also unique correlates of word reading skills. The results suggest cognitive similarities and differences in reading among native and non-native Chinese speakers.

Mobile-assisted vocabulary learning: Investigating receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge of Chinese EFL learners

ReCALL ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Yan Li ◽  
Christoph A. Hafner
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Mobile Platforms ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Learning Group ◽  
Chinese University ◽  
L2 Vocabulary

Abstract Considerable research has been conducted on the advancement of mobile technologies to facilitate vocabulary learning and acquisition in a second language (L2). However, whether mobile platforms lead to a comprehensive mastery of both receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge has seldom been addressed in previous literature. This study investigated English vocabulary learning from engagement with mobile-based word cards and paper word cards in the context of the Chinese university classroom. A total of 85 undergraduate students were recruited to take part in the study. The students were divided into two groups, a mobile learning group and a paper-based learning group, and tested on two word knowledge components: receptive knowledge of the form–meaning connection and productive knowledge of collocations. Both the digital and non-digital word cards enhanced L2 vocabulary learning, and the results showed that the mobile application (app) promoted greater gains than physical word cards.

Shared Predictors of Academic Achievement in Children with ADHD: A Multi-Sample Study

2021 ◽  
pp. 108705472110120
Author(s):  
Kelly D. Carrasco ◽  
Chi-Ching Chuang ◽  
Gail Tripp
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Children With Adhd ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Visual Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Predictors Of Academic Achievement

Objective: To identify common and shared predictors of academic achievement across samples of children with ADHD. Method: Two clinically referred samples from New Zealand (1 n = 88, 82% boys; 2 n = 121, 79% boys) and two community samples from the United States (3 n = 111, 65% boys; 4 n = 114, 69% boys), completed similar diagnostic, cognitive and academic assessments. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses identified significant predictors of word reading, spelling, and math computation performance in each sample. Results: Entered after IQ, semantic language, age at testing, and verbal working memory emerged as consistent predictors of achievement across academic subjects and samples. Visual-spatial working memory contributed to variance in math performance only. Symptom severity explained limited variance. Conclusions: We recommend evaluations of children with ADHD incorporate assessments of working memory and language skills. Classroom/academic interventions should accommodate reduced working memory and address any identified language weaknesses.

scholarly journals Verbal Working Memory in Children With Cochlear Implants

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (11) ◽  
pp. 3342-3364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Nittrouer ◽  
Amanda Caldwell-Tarr ◽  
Keri E. Low ◽  
Joanna H. Lowenstein
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Fourth Graders ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Speech In Noise ◽  
Serial Recall Task

Purpose Verbal working memory in children with cochlear implants and children with normal hearing was examined. Participants Ninety-three fourth graders (47 with normal hearing, 46 with cochlear implants) participated, all of whom were in a longitudinal study and had working memory assessed 2 years earlier. Method A dual-component model of working memory was adopted, and a serial recall task measured storage and processing. Potential predictor variables were phonological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, nonverbal IQ, and several treatment variables. Potential dependent functions were literacy, expressive language, and speech-in-noise recognition. Results Children with cochlear implants showed deficits in storage and processing, similar in size to those at second grade. Predictors of verbal working memory differed across groups: Phonological awareness explained the most variance in children with normal hearing; vocabulary explained the most variance in children with cochlear implants. Treatment variables explained little of the variance. Where potentially dependent functions were concerned, verbal working memory accounted for little variance once the variance explained by other predictors was removed. Conclusions The verbal working memory deficits of children with cochlear implants arise due to signal degradation, which limits their abilities to acquire phonological awareness. That hinders their abilities to store items using a phonological code.

A comparison of the cognitive processes underlying reading comprehension in native English and ESL speakers

2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline B. Low ◽  
Linda S. Siegel
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Phonological Processing ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
Relative Role ◽  
Syntactic Awareness

The present study examined the relative role played by three cognitive processes — phonological processing, verbal working memory, syntactic awareness — in understanding the reading comprehension performance among 884 native English (L1) speakers and 284 English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) speakers in sixth-grade (mean age: 11.43 years). The performance of both groups of speakers were comparable on measures of word reading, word reading fluency, phonological awareness, phonological decoding fluency and verbal working memory. However, the ESL speakers lagged behind L1 speakers in terms of syntactic awareness. This study also emphasizes the importance of the three cognitive processes in establishing a common model of reading comprehension across English L1 and ESL reading.

scholarly journals The Devil in the Details Can Be Hard to Spot: Malapropisms and Children With Hearing Loss

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Joanna H. Lowenstein ◽  
Susan Nittrouer
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Hearing Aids ◽  
Phonological Processing ◽  
Speech Signal ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Academic Competence ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Children With Hearing Loss

Purpose Better auditory prostheses and earlier interventions have led to remarkable improvements in spoken language abilities for children with hearing loss (HL), but these children often still struggle academically. This study tested a hypothesis for why this may be, proposing that the language of school becomes increasingly disconnected from everyday discourse, requiring greater reliance on bottom-up phonological structure, and children with HL have difficulty recovering that structure from the speech signal. Participants One hundred nineteen fourth graders participated: 48 with normal hearing (NH), 19 with moderate losses who used hearing aids (HAs), and 52 with severe-to-profound losses who used cochlear implants (CIs). Method Three analyses were conducted. #1: Sentences with malapropisms were created, and children's abilities to recognize them were assessed. #2: Factors contributing to those abilities were evaluated, including phonological awareness, phonological processing, vocabulary, verbal working memory, and oral narratives. #3: Teachers' ratings of students' academic competence were obtained, and factors accounting for those ratings were evaluated, including the five listed above, along with word reading and reading comprehension. Results #1: Children with HAs and CIs performed more poorly on malapropism recognition than children with NH, but similarly to each other. #2: All children with HL demonstrated large phonological deficits, but they were especially large for children with CIs. Phonological awareness explained the most variance in malapropism recognition for children with CIs. Vocabulary knowledge explained malapropism recognition for children with NH or HAs, but other factors also contributed. #3: Teachers rated academic competence for children with CIs more poorly than for children with NH or HAs, and variance in those ratings for children with CIs were primarily explained by malapropism scores. Conclusion Children with HL have difficulty recognizing acoustic–phonetic detail in the speech signal, and that constrains their abilities to follow conversations in academic settings, especially if HL is severe enough to require CIs. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13133018

scholarly journals Vocabulary profiles and reading comprehension in young bilingual children

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie Fraser ◽  
Alexandra Gottardo ◽  
Esther Geva
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Group Model ◽  
English Reading ◽  
English Reading Comprehension ◽  
L2 Vocabulary ◽  
L1 And L2

Strong vocabulary knowledge is important for success in reading comprehension for English language learners (ELLs). The interplay between first (L1) and second language (L2) vocabulary knowledge in L2 English reading comprehension was examined to determine whether ELLs, whose command of L1 and L2 vocabulary varied across languages, differed in English reading comprehension in grades 2 and 4. ELLs (n = 105) were assigned to a bilingual profile group based on their L1 and L2 vocabulary knowledge and in relation to the sample: L1 dominant (strong L1), L2 dominant (strong L2), high balanced (strong in both), or low balanced (compromised in both). Relationships among L1 and L2 (English) vocabulary, nonverbal cognitive ability, word reading, and reading comprehension in English were examined. Results indicated that reading comprehension was related to bilingual profile, and that a three group model better characterized the sample when compared to the four group model that was initially hypothesized. L1 vocabulary was not uniquely predictive of L2 (English) reading comprehension. L2 vocabulary aligned betterwith reading comprehension concurrently in grade 2, and longitudinally in grade 4. In support of a common underlying cognitive processes perspective, individual differences in learning vocabulary may be a proxy forgeneral language learning ability, which supports reading comprehension.

scholarly journals Subtitling, Working Memory, and L2 Learning: A Correlational Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 665-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Matielo ◽  
Roberta Pires de Oliveira ◽  
Luciane Baretta
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Vocabulary Test ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
L2 Vocabulary ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Processing Mechanisms

ABSTRACT This study investigates the impact of intralingual and interlingual subtitles on Brazilian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners as a result of their processing of a North-American sitcom. More specifically, it examines whether subtitling interacts with one’s individual differences, working memory (WM) as the case in point. Thirty-six intermediate-level EFL learners were evenly divided into two experimental groups (intralingual subtitles and interlingual subtitles) and one control group (no subtitles). Participants’ performance was measured based on an L2 video comprehension test and an L2 vocabulary test. Participants’ performance was correlated with their scores on two WM tests. The results obtained revealed that both participants’ L2 video comprehension, as well as their L2 vocabulary test performance, did not significantly interact with their WM capacity under any of the experimental conditions. These results are discussed in light of the possible processing mechanisms employed by the participants that may account for the lack of statistically significant correlations found.

Manipulation of the Involvement Load of L2 Reading Tasks: A Useful Heuristic for Enhanced L2 Vocabulary Development

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824402110517
Author(s):  
Ehsan Namaziandost ◽  
Murad Hassan Mohammed Sawalmeh ◽  
Shouket Ahmad Tilwani ◽  
Meisam Ziafar ◽  
Arin Arianti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
L2 Reading ◽  
High Involvement ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Involvement Load ◽  
Knowledge Scale ◽  
L2 Vocabulary

Ensuring second language (L2) learners have an adequate breadth and depth of L2 vocabulary knowledge is a key pedagogical objective in L2 learning contexts. For this reason, establishing guiding principles that successfully enhance the efficacy of L2 vocabulary knowledge development is of strong importance. The current study investigated the value of applying principles from the Involvement Load Hypothesis (ILH) as part of a reading comprehension task among 40 intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) students. Half of the group undertook a high involvement reading task, whereas the other half undertook a low involvement reading task. After the reading task, an unannounced Vocabulary Knowledge Scale test was administered to measure incidental vocabulary gains. Results showed the high involvement group remarkably outflanked the low involvement groups in terms of the target words learned from the reading task. A delayed post-test indicated that the retention of target word knowledge was more robust among the high involvement group, but that this difference did not maintain a level of statistical significance after 2 weeks. We conclude with suggestions about how EFL/ESL instructors can apply the principles of the ILH in efforts to systematically enhance learners’ L2 vocabulary knowledge.

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