Perceptual Dissimilarity and Cognitive Performance Predict Novel Word Retention, but Not Extension Skills in Down Syndrome

While the influence of cognitive and linguistic capacities and the perceptual features of objects on word-learning skills in people with typical development (TD) are well understood, there is little evidence concerning these mechanisms in people with Down syndrome (DS). Using an eye-tracking task, this study examined the ability of 29 children with DS (mean mental age: 3.44 years) to identify familiar words, fast-map pseudowords to novel objects, retain word-object mappings, and extend these mappings to new objects of similar shape. It also contrasted their word-learning abilities to those of 26 two-to-five-year-olds with TD and examined how cognitive and linguistic skills and perceptual information influenced those abilities. Children with DS were found to have similar identification, fast-mapping, and extension skills as their peers with TD, but retained fewer word-object mappings. Greater retention skills are related to mental age, oral vocabulary, and greater perceptual differences between the target and surrounding objects.

An empirical research on the adequacy of task-induced involvement load hypothesis: A case for intentional vocabulary learning

The present study aimed at examining the adequacy of the task-induced involvement load hypothesis in intentional learning. An investigation was carried out to find out whether proficiency level of learners had a role in the effectiveness of the vocabulary tasks with different involvement loads. One hundred and thirty-six university students were randomly assigned into four task groups, each of which included upper and lower intermediate learners. Reading comprehension and discussion, reading comprehension and gap filling, reading comprehension plus sentence-making and reading comprehension plus translation with different involvement loads were compared against each other in terms of the immediate and delayed retention of new words. The study partially supported the involvement load hypothesis in that the task with the highest involvement loads resulted in better immediate and delayed retention of new words. The results of the experiment also showed that tasks with similar involvement loads might not result in similar amounts of vocabulary learning. Keywords: Task-induced involvement, load hypothesis, vocabulary learning, word retention, task.

The effect of the number of labeled objects on novel referent selection across short and long time delays

Children often hear many new words in one conversation, and yet word learning research overwhelmingly focuses on how children learn and retrieve the meanings of single words. The current experiment tests how the number of labeled objects affects preschoolers’ novel word referent selection immediately after encoding and after a one-week delay. Seventy 3- to 6-year-olds were exposed to four novel objects. Half of the participants were given novel labels for two of the objects and half were given novel labels for all four. Label-referent mapping was tested with a four alternative forced-choice pointing task both immediately after exposure and one week later. Children performed worse overall after a week delay, replicating past work on novel word retention. While children performed significantly worse overall in the Four-Label condition, exploratory analyses revealed that this effect was driven solely by the second test trial immediately after exposure. Analyses suggest that referent selection is strongly influenced by in-the-moment constraints, such as label salience and pragmatic biases, and that these constraints are strongest immediately after novel word exposure.

The Role of Audiovisual Speech in Fast-Mapping and Novel Word Retention in Monolingual and Bilingual 24-Month-Olds

Three experiments examined the role of audiovisual speech on 24-month-old monolingual and bilinguals’ performance in a fast-mapping task. In all three experiments, toddlers were exposed to familiar trials which tested their knowledge of known word–referent pairs, disambiguation trials in which novel word–referent pairs were indirectly learned, and retention trials which probed their recognition of the newly-learned word–referent pairs. In Experiment 1 (n = 48), lip movements were present during familiar and disambiguation trials, but not retention trials. In Experiment 2 (n = 48), lip movements were present during all three trial types. In Experiment 3 (bilinguals only, n = 24), a still face with no lip movements was present in all three trial types. While toddlers succeeded in the familiar and disambiguation trials of every experiment, success in the retention trials was only found in Experiment 2. This work suggests that the extra-linguistic support provided by lip movements improved the learning and recognition of the novel words.

Word learning in monolingual and bilingual children: The influence of speaker eye-gaze

The current study examined the impact of a speaker's gaze on novel-word learning in 4-5-year old monolingual (N = 23) and bilingual children (N = 24). Children were taught novel words when the speaker looked at the object both times while labeling it (consistent) and when the speaker looked at the object only the first time (inconsistent). During teaching, bilingual children differentiated between the target object (that matched the label) and non-target object (that did not match the label) earlier than the monolingual children on trials without eye-gaze information. However, during testing, monolingual children showed more robust retention of novel words than bilingual children in both conditions. Findings suggest that bilingualism shapes children's attention to eye-gaze during word learning, but that, ultimately, there is no bilingual advantage for utilizing this cue in the service of word retention.

EmoTan: enhanced flashcards for second language vocabulary learning with emotional binaural narration

We report on the design and evaluation of a flashcard application, enhanced with emotional binaural narration to support second language (L2) vocabulary learning. Typically, the voice narration used in English vocabulary learning is recorded by native speakers with a standard accent to ensure accurate pronunciation and clarity. However, a clear but monotonous narration may not always aid learners in retaining new vocabulary items in their semantic memory. As such, enhancing textual flashcards with emotional narration in the learner’s native language can foster the retention of new L2 words in episodic rather than semantic memory as greater emotive expression reinforces episodic memory retention. We evaluated the effects of binaural emotive narration with traditional textual flashcards on L2 word retention (immediate and delayed) in laboratory experiments with native Japanese-speaking English learners. Our results suggest that the learners were able to retain approximately 60% more L2 words long-term with the proposed approach compared to traditional flashcards.

Retention of new words learned incidentally from reading: Word exposure frequency, L1 marginal glosses, and their combination

This article examines the influence of different reading conditions (i.e. reading only and reading with first language marginal glosses), number of word encounters (one, three, and seven) while reading, and combinations of these two variables on new word retention. This study considered a total of six possible combinations. Six groups of Chinese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) ( n = 240) were randomly selected and each assigned to a condition including 15 target lexical items. Each treatment session lasted for 5 weeks. One delayed test, containing four dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, was intended to measure learners’ retention of unknown words. The delayed test was administered 2 weeks after the experiment and was not disclosed to the learners in advance. The groups whose reading was accompanied by first-language (L1) marginal glosses scored significantly higher than the reading-only groups. The increased effectiveness of repeatedly encountering target lexical items was more pronounced in the reading experiment including L1 marginal glosses. The combination of L1 marginal glosses and seven encounters was found to be the most effective combination for lexical item retention. This study highlighted the effectiveness of repeatedly encountering target words and being provided with L1 marginal glosses to retain new words incidentally learned from reading. The conditions and relevant teaching implications are discussed in this study.

The effect of cognitive vocabulary learning approaches on Chinese learners’ compound word attainment, retention, and learning motivation

Research has supported the benefit of cognitive vocabulary learning approaches, such as dual-coding (i.e. visual-verbal approach), on Chinese language learners’ vocabulary attainment. However, few studies have systematically examined how to maximize Chinese word retention. Therefore, the goal of this study was to investigate the effects of two types of visual-verbal approaches, i.e. pictographic-verbal coding approach and pictorial-verbal coding approach, on Chinese language learners’ word attainment. The visual support in our proposed pictographic-verbal coding approach uses pictograms, while pictures are used as the visual support in the pictorial-verbal coding approach. Further, we tested whether repetition would impact learners’ Chinese word retention. One-hundred fourth and fifth grade English-speaking Chinese language learners participated in the study. A series of two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures was conducted. Results showed that the pictographic-verbal coding approach assisted learners in acquiring as well as retrieving more Chinese words compared to the pictorial-verbal coding approach. We also found that learners taught by the pictographic-verbal coding approach demonstrated higher learning motivation. Instructional implications were discussed.

A Mixed-Method Case Study: Is there Only the Pictorial Input that Affects Word Retention?

This mixed-method case study was conducted to probe how a set of pictures had an influence on a group of EFL university students’ retention of English words. Seven Thai university participants, enrolling in the course of English for Service Industry, were voluntarily engaged in the study. They took a pretest of 45 words they learned in class through the use of pictorial input for one semester, and right after the posttest, they recalled how they could remember the words in an individually stimulated recall protocol session. The result of T-test from Wilcoxon sign-ranked test showed that the pretest and posttest scores were significantly different at the 0.05 level. Interestingly, the qualitative accounts from the stimulated recall revealed that apart from the pictorial input the participants learned in class, they also employed other strategies to help them memorize the vocabulary. The findings from the study; therefore, shed lights on cognitive-metacognitive processing and strategies an individual EFL learner adopted, and most importantly, on how teachers can encourage their learners to orchestrate them and make the best use of pictures in order to learn ESP vocabulary effectively.