scholarly journals Lexical-semantic integration by good and poor reading comprehenders

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-78
Author(s):  
Lucilene Bender de Sousa ◽  
Lilian Cristine Hübner ◽  
Roselaine Berenice Ferreira da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Semantic Integration ◽  
Performance Comparison ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Poor Reading ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Poor Comprehenders ◽  
The Difference

In this paper, we investigate the level of vocabulary knowledge and the lexical-integration ability of good and poor comprehenders at the 8th grade of Elementary School. The participants were assessed in the following tasks: reading comprehension, listening comprehension, decoding, vocabulary, lexical-semantic integration and incongruence detection. The performance comparison revealed that good comprehenders performed significantly better than poor comprehenders in the measures of vocabulary and integration. The difference in the accuracy of the integration tasks remained significant after controlling for word knowledge. The results suggest that good and poor comprehenders differentiate not only in lexical semantic knowledge but also in lexical-semantic processing.

scholarly journals VOCABULARY SIZE AT FOUR STAGES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Daskalovska
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
School Students ◽  
Authentic Texts ◽  
The Difference

One of the main aims of language learning is developing communicative competence, or the ability to communicate effectively in everyday situations. In order to achieve that, besides grammar knowledge, learners need to acquire enough vocabulary knowledge that would enable them to use the language outside the classroom, which requires acquiring significant receptive and productive word knowledge in order to be able to participate in various communicative situations. Research shows that the most frequent 2000 words comprise about 85% of the words in any text regardless of the topic, and that learners need to know at least 3000 word families in order to be able to use the language successfully and to be able to read authentic texts with understanding. However, experience shows that acquiring a large vocabulary is one of the biggest obstacles that language learners face in the process of language acquisition. Nevertheless, since vocabulary knowledge is the key component of the overall communicative competence, is it necessary to invest time and effort to learn the most frequent words in the language. The aim of this study is to determine the vocabulary size of language learners at four stages of language development. In addition, the study attempts to determine the difference between receptive and productive knowledge of vocabulary, as well as the difference between knowledge of words seen in isolation and in context. The participants were four groups of learners, of whom three groups comprised elementary and secondary school students and one group were university students. The results showed that during the first five years of learning the vocabulary knowledge increases at a greater rate, that learners have better receptive than productive knowledge of words, and that seeing words in context helps learners demonstrate greater receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0725/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

scholarly journals Phonotactic Knowledge and Lexical-Semantic Processing in One-year-olds: Brain Responses to Words and Nonsense Words in Picture Contexts

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (11) ◽  
pp. 1785-1802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela Friedrich ◽  
Angela D. Friederici
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Semantic Integration ◽  
Control Group ◽  
First Year ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Lexical Priming ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
One Year ◽  
First Year Of Life

During their first year of life, infants not only acquire probabilistic knowledge about the phonetic, prosodic, and phonotactic organization of their native language, but also begin to establish first lexical-semantic representations. The present study investigated the sensitivity to phonotactic regularities and its impact on semantic processing in 1-year-olds. We applied the method of event-related brain potentials to 12-and 19-month-old children and to an adult control group. While looking at pictures of known objects, subjects listened to spoken nonsense words that were phonotactically legal (pseudowords) or had phonotactically illegal word onsets (nonwords), or to real words that were either congruous or incongruous to the picture contents. In 19-month-olds and in adults, incongruous words and pseudowords, but not non-words, elicited an N400 known to reflect mechanisms of semantic integration. For congruous words, the N400 was attenuated by semantic priming. In contrast, 12-month-olds did not show an N400 difference, neither between pseudo-and nonwords nor between incongruous and congruous words. Both 1-year-old groups and adults additionally displayed a lexical priming effect for congruous words, that is, a negativity starting around 100 msec after words onset. One-year-olds, moreover, displayed a phonotactic familiarity effect, that is, a widely distributed negativity starting around 250 msec in 19-month-olds but occurring later in 12-month-olds. The results imply that both lexical priming and phonotactic familiarity already affect the processing of acoustic stimuli in children at 12 months of age. In 19-month-olds, adult-like mechanisms of semantic integration are present in response to phonotactically legal, but not to phonotactically illegal, nonsense words, indicating that children at this age treat pseudo-words, but not nonwords, as potential word candidates.

Has Vocabulary Intervention Had an Effect? A Valid, Reliable, and (Fairly) Quick Outcome Measure for Semantic Knowledge

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 506-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawna Duff
Keyword(s):  
Outcome Measure ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Clinical Use ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Vocabulary Intervention ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Implementation Resources

Purpose Vocabulary intervention should be guided by information from outcome measures that demonstrate whether the student has grown in depth or breadth of understanding of the taught words. However, there is a paucity of tools, to measure depth of vocabulary knowledge, that are available for clinical use. Method The challenges of vocabulary measurement are summarized. A procedure to assess semantic knowledge of specific words, both before and after treatment, is outlined: 5 yes/no questions that use the target word in different contexts ( Stallman et al., 1995 ), and definitions, scored on a 5-point scale ( Duff, 2019 ). These combined measures evaluate word knowledge along a wide continuum of semantic knowledge. Results Evidence for the validity and reliability of these measures, as well as sensitivity to treatment effects, is reviewed, and implementation resources are provided for clinicians. Conclusion This protocol can be used by clinicians to evaluate the effectiveness of vocabulary treatment by comparing a child's semantic knowledge of specific words before and after treatment.

scholarly journals Sleep-dependent consolidation in children with comprehension and vocabulary weaknesses: It’ll be alright on the night?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma James ◽  
M. Gareth Gaskell ◽  
Lisa Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Picture Naming ◽  
Developmental Disorders ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Stem Completion ◽  
New Words ◽  
Poor Comprehenders ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

Background: Vocabulary is crucial for an array of life outcomes and is frequently impaired in developmental disorders. Notably, ‘poor comprehenders’ (children with comprehension deficits but intact word-reading) often have vocabulary deficits, but underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Prior research suggests intact encoding but difficulties consolidating new word knowledge. We test the hypothesis that poor comprehenders’ sleep-associated vocabulary consolidation is compromised by their impoverished lexical-semantic knowledge.Methods: Memory for new words was tracked across wake and sleep to isolate processes of encoding and consolidation in 8-to-12-year-old good and poor comprehenders. Each child participated in two sets of sessions in which they were taught 12 new words either at the start (AM-encoding) or end (PM-encoding) of the day, alongside training on a nonverbal declarative task. Memory was assessed immediately, 12-, and 24- hours later via stem-completion, picture-naming, and definition tasks to probe different aspects of new word knowledge. Long-term retention was assessed 1-2 months later. Results: Recall of word-forms improved over sleep and post-sleep wake, as measured in both stem-completion and picture-naming tasks. Counter to hypotheses, deficits for poor comprehenders were not observed in consolidation but instead were seen across measures and throughout testing, suggesting an encoding deficit. Variability in vocabulary knowledge across the whole sample predicted sleep-associated consolidation, but only when words were learned early in the day and not when sleep followed soon after learning.Conclusions: Poor comprehenders showed weaker encoding of new word knowledge than good comprehenders, but sleep-associated consolidation benefits were comparable between groups. Sleeping soon after learning had long-lasting benefits for memory, and may be especially beneficial for children with weaker vocabulary. These results provide new insights into the breadth of poor comprehenders’ vocabulary weaknesses, and ways in which learning might be better timed to remediate vocabulary difficulties.

scholarly journals Lexical-Semantic Development in Bilingual Toddlers at 18 and 24 Months

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie De Anda ◽  
Margaret Friend
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Dual Language ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
First Language ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Semantic Development ◽  
Semantic Associations ◽  
Cross Language

An important question in early bilingual first language acquisition concerns the development of lexical-semantic associations within and across two languages. The present study investigates the earliest emergence of lexical-semantic priming at 18 and 24 months in Spanish-English bilinguals (N = 32) and its relation to vocabulary knowledge within and across languages. Results indicate a remarkably similar pattern of development between monolingual and bilingual children, such that lexical-semantic development begins at 18 months and strengthens by 24 months. Further, measures of cross-language lexical knowledge are stronger predictors of children’s lexical-semantic processing skill than measures that capture single-language knowledge only. This suggests that children make use of both languages when processing semantic information. Together these findings inform the understanding of the relation between lexical-semantic breadth and organization in the context of dual language learners in early development.

scholarly journals Effects of spacing on contextual vocabulary learning: Spacing facilitates the acquisition of explicit, but not tacit, vocabulary knowledge

2020 ◽  
pp. 026765832092776
Author(s):  
Tatsuya Nakata ◽  
Irina Elgort
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Spacing Effect ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Practice Effect ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Spacing Effects ◽  
Semantic Priming Effect ◽  
Massed Learning

Studies examining decontextualized associative vocabulary learning have shown that long spacing between encounters with an item facilitates learning more than short or no spacing, a phenomenon known as distributed practice effect. However, the effect of spacing on learning words in context is less researched and the results, so far, are inconsistent. In this study, we compared the effect of massed and spaced distributions on second language vocabulary learning from reading. Japanese speakers of English encountered 48 novel vocabulary items embedded in informative English sentences, inferred their meanings from contexts, and received feedback in the form of English synonyms and Japanese translation equivalents. To test the hypothesis that the effects of spacing might differentially affect the development of explicit or tacit word knowledge, spacing effects were measured using semantic priming as well as a meaning recall and a meaning–form matching posttest. Results showed an advantage of spaced over massed learning on the meaning recall and meaning–form matching posttests. However, a similar semantic priming effect was observed irrespective of whether an item was encountered in the massed or spaced distribution. These results suggest that the spacing effect holds in contextual word learning for the development of explicit vocabulary knowledge, but massing appears to be as effective as spacing for the acquisition of tacit semantic knowledge.

scholarly journals Why swimming is just as difficult as dying for Japanese learners of English

2003 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 85-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Gabriele ◽  
Gita Martohardjono ◽  
William McClure
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
The Past ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Lexical Semantic Knowledge ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Japanese Learners

While both Japanese and English have a grammatic al form denoting the progressive, the two forms (te-iru & be+ing) interact differently with the inherent semantics of the verb to which they attach (Kindaichi, 1950; McClure, 1995; Shirai, 2000). Japanese change of state verbs are incompatible with a progressive interpretation, allowing only a resultative interpretation of V+ te-iru, while a progressive interpretation is preferred for activity predicates. English be+ing denotes a progressive interpretation regardless of the lexical semantics of the verb. The question that arises is how we can account for the fact that change of state verbs like dying can denote a progressive interpretation in English, but not in Japanese. While researchers such as Kageyama (1996) and Ogihara (1998, 1999) propose that the difference lies in the lexical semantics of the verbs themselves, others such as McClure (1995) have argued that the difference lies in the semantics of the grammatical forms, be+ing and te-iru. We present results from an experimental study of Japanese learners’ interpretation of the English progressive which provide support for McClure’s proposal. Results indicate that independent of verb type, learners had significantly more difficulty with the past progressive. We argue that knowledge of L2 semantics-syntax correspondences proceeds not on the basis of L1 lexical semantic knowledge, but on the basis of grammatical forms.  

The Effect of Vocabulary Intervention on Text Comprehension: Who Benefits?

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 562-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawna Duff
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Text Comprehension ◽  
Classroom Instruction ◽  
Vocabulary Instruction ◽  
Clinical Intervention ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Vocabulary Intervention ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Difference

Purpose Vocabulary intervention can improve comprehension of texts containing taught words, but it is unclear if all middle school readers get this benefit. This study tests 2 hypotheses about variables that predict response to vocabulary treatment on text comprehension: gains in vocabulary knowledge due to treatment and pretreatment reading comprehension scores. Method Students in Grade 6 ( N = 23) completed a 5-session intervention based on robust vocabulary instruction (RVI). Knowledge of the semantics of taught words was measured pre- and posttreatment. Participants then read 2 matched texts, 1 containing taught words (treated) and 1 not (untreated). Treated texts and taught word lists were counterbalanced across participants. The difference between text comprehension scores in treated and untreated conditions was taken as a measure of the effect of RVI on text comprehension. Results RVI resulted in significant gains in knowledge of taught words ( d RM = 2.26) and text comprehension ( d RM = 0.31). The extent of gains in vocabulary knowledge after vocabulary treatment did not predict the effect of RVI on comprehension of texts. However, untreated reading comprehension scores moderated the effect of the vocabulary treatment on text comprehension: Lower reading comprehension was associated with greater gains in text comprehension. Readers with comprehension scores below the mean experienced large gains in comprehension, but those with average/above average reading comprehension scores did not. Conclusion Vocabulary instruction had a larger effect on text comprehension for readers in Grade 6 who had lower untreated reading comprehension scores. In contrast, the amount that children learned about taught vocabulary did not predict the effect of vocabulary instruction on text comprehension. This has implications for the identification of 6th-grade students who would benefit from classroom instruction or clinical intervention targeting vocabulary knowledge.

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.

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