Helping learners engage with L2 words: the form-meaning fit

The pace at which new words are acquired is influenced by the degree of engagement with them on the part of the learner. Insights from Cognitive Linguistics into the non-arbitrary aspects of vocabulary can be turned into stimuli for such engagement. The majority of Cognitive Linguists’ proposals for vocabulary teaching aim at helping learners appreciate the way a single word form can develop different meanings. This, however, presupposes knowledge of the ‘basic’ meaning of that word. We report an experiment in which learners under an experimental treatment were stimulated to consider the possibility that the form-meaning link in target words might not be fully arbitrary. The mnemonic effect of this task-induced engagement was assessed in relation to comparison treatments in immediate and delayed post-tests measuring both receptive and productive knowledge. Results show that simply prompting learners to evaluate the form-meaning match of words can foster vocabulary acquisition, although not all target words lends themselves equally well to this type of engagement

Case Study: Effects of a Systematic Method of Vocabulary Instruction on a Disabled Learner

This descriptive case study examined the effects of instruction in a systematic method of vocabulary instruction which included a mnemonic component on the fifteen-year-old learning disabled female with memory deficits. The researcher and subject met for nine forty-five minute sessions over a period of four weeks. At the end of the study, changes in the subject included increased self-confidence about her ability to learn vocabulary independently. She gained the confidence to volunteer vocabulary related answers in another class, a behavior which the subject reported was something she would not have previously done. She was able to write definitions for 21 out of 27 words which were previously unfamiliar to her. The subject was also able to select the correct word for a fill-in exercise for the remaining six words for which instruction time was limited. A post hoc test administered three months after the end of the study revealed that the subject remembered 19 of the 26 words studied. All words for which she had created mnemonic devices were among those remembered. Instructional implications of this study include a recommendation that time devoted to teaching a method for learning vocabulary may be beneficial for disabled learners. Situational examples of new vocabulary in context were recommended to facilitate faster word learning. Recommendations for future research in this area included an extended length of time to practice using the system with supervision to increase the likelihood that subjects would be able to use the system independently

A rationale and suggestions for including sound symbolic expressive vocabulary in university-level Japanese language classroom instruction

textThe Japanese language is unusually rich in a variety of sound symbolic words. Sound imitation is used to reflect physical, audible noises relating to the actions or movements of people, animals, and things. Such words are also used to express imitation of manner to portray feelings and figurative meanings. These expressions are found in a wide variety of contexts, ranging from classical literature to daily conversation, to manga (the trendy comic books read extensively by virtually every age group in Japan). Sound symbolic vocabulary adds a vividness and flair to the Japanese language, making it colorful, creative, and psychologically expressive. These words have common structural features and syntactic functions that make them readily identifiable (though, perhaps, not at a conscious level for the native speaker) as a lexical group. And yet, despite their undeniable presence in all areas of language use, sound symbolic words have been virtually ignored in Japanese language textbooks and classroom instruction. They continue to represent, to outsiders, at least, one of the most elusive and least understood aspects of the Japanese language. In this dissertation, I frame my discussion of characteristics of sound symbolic vocabulary by first reviewing the literature on Japanese sound symbolic vocabulary and on vocabulary acquisition in L1 and L2. I then discuss the results of interviews with textbook authors and language educators concerning the teaching of sound symbolic words. Although they expressed some divergent views, for the most part they agreed that these words do play an important role and should be introduced to students in manageable increments, at a point when students have acquired enough knowledge to make learning meaningful. Imagery-based pictorial, verbal, and contextual responses to 100 sound symbolic words given by 50 Japanese native speakers are presented. I then provide suggestions for classroom instruction of sound symbolic vocabulary based on a constructivist model using metalinguistic previews and imagery-based elaboration strategies, offering a sample “snapshot” lesson. Ramifications of this dissertation should help students increase their knowledge of and ability to communicate using real-life Japanese, greatly expand their word power, and make significant progress to greater language proficiency.Curriculum and Instructio

Do Learners use Different Strategies for Learning Concrete vs. Abstract Nouns and Verbs?

It is hardly possible to find a learner of a second language who does not use any vocabulary learning strategies. Students might do it unconsciously. The aim of the study is to investigate the strategies that second language learners use to memorize the meanings of the concrete and abstract nouns and verbs and see if they are different. Twenty-seven participants were recruited for the research. One hour interview was held during which students attempted to memorize new words. The results show that the most commonly used strategies for concrete and abstract nouns and verbs were simple word rehearsal, writing of a word and/or its meaning, sound link, cumulative rehearsal, mnemonic use. According to results of the final test nouns had advantage over verbs within concrete category. No other significant differences were found. As for the strategy choice, the research showed that there is no significant difference in the use of strategies between such categories as concrete nouns, concrete verbs, abstract nouns, and abstract verbs. Only abstract verbs seem to stimulate deeper processing which results in the use of more strategies

Perceived Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Turkish University Students

TESOL/ Linguistic

The acquisition of vocabulary through three memory strategies

129 Páginas.El presente estudio explora la aplicación de tres estrategias de vocabulario: tarjetas de palabras, asociación con imágenes, y asociación con un tema a través de fábulas en la adquisición de vocabulario en un grupo de adolescentes con bajo nivel de competencia en inglés en un colegio público. Los participantes tenían dificultades para memorizar y recordar palabras. Los resultados mostraron que estas estrategias ayudan a incrementar el aprendizaje de las palabras y a mejorar la capacidad para recordarlas. El estudio encontró que estas estrategias involucran factores cognitivos y afectivos que pueden afectar la percepción de los estudiantes acerca de las estrategias. La aplicación de estas estrategias informa a la comunidad educativa la necesidad de implementarlas como parte del programa de inglés

Word Roots in English: Learning English Words through Form and Meaning Similarity

The research first proposes a vocabulary learning technique: the word part technique, and then tests its effectiveness in aiding vocabulary learning and retention. The first part of the thesis centers around the idea that the knowledge of the first 2000 words language learners already possess may give them easier access to words of other frequency levels because the root parts of the low frequency new words share form and meaning similarities with the high frequency known words. The research addresses the issue at two stages: to quantify the information concerning the number of words able to be accessed through the analysis of the word roots, and to analyze the pedagogical usefulness of the accessible words. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (Klein, 1966) was used as the source to show the possible formal and meaning connections among words. All the words in the first 2000 word list were first looked up individually and all the cognates provided under each of these words were collected and placed under each of the high frequency words if they meet the requirement that their roots share more than one letter and/or more than one phoneme with the roots of the first 2000 known words. After the data was roughly gathered, three criteria were applied to filter the data, namely, the frequency criterion, the meaning criterion and form criterion. In applying the frequency criterion, words with frequency levels lower than the tenth thousand were removed from the data. In applying the meaning criterion, hints were given to show the semantic relations between the higher frequency words and the first 2000 thousand words. The hints were then rated on the scale for measuring meaning transparency. Words that were rated at level 5 on the scale were considered inaccessible; words that were rated at levels 1, 2a, 2b, 2c, and 3a were considered easy to access. In applying the form criterion, calculations were done for each semantically accessible word to show their phonological similarity and orthographic similarity in relation to the known word. The words whose phonological or orthographical similarity scores were larger than 0.5 were considered to be phonologically or orthographically easy to access. Finally the "find" function of Microsoft Word was used to check the data by picking up any words that might have been missed in the first round of data gathering. The above procedures resulted in 2156 word families that are able to be accessed through the meaning and form relations with the first 2000 words in their root parts. Among the 2156 word families, 739 can be accessed easily and are therefore more pedagogically useful and 259 can be accessed, but with difficulty. 21 pedagogically useful form constants were selected because they can give access to more unknown lower frequency words than other form constants. In the second part of the thesis, an experiment was conducted to test the effectiveness of the word part technique in comparison with the keyword technique and self-strategy learning. The results show that with the experienced Chinese EFL learners, the keyword technique is slightly inferior to the word part technique and the self-strategy learning