L2 English and L3 German vocabulary learning strategies

The focus of this paper is on investigating patterns of use ofvocabularyconsolidation strategies among high school students learning English as their first and German as their second foreign language. The students participating in this study had started learning English in the first grade of elementary school, as it is usually the case in Croatia, and German in the fourth grade of elementary school. A 25-item questionnaire was administered to examine the frequency of individual use of vocabulary consolidation strategies among those high school students. The aim of the study was to comparethe patterns of vocabulary learning strategy use in their first (L2) and second (L3) foreign language.It was expected that these patterns would overlap to a certain extent, i.e., that the frequency of strategy use in learning the first foreign languagewould be similar to the one in learning the second foreign language. Another assumption was that thestudents would use vocabulary consolidation strategies less frequently in German, their second foreign language, because they are less exposed to the German language and they have to approach it (manipulate it) differently.Based on results from research on vocabulary learning (memory) strategies, it was expected that there would be no correlation of school grades with the frequency of use of vocabulary consolidation strategies. The results showed a significant positive correlation between the two questionnaires, i.e., the ways of learning the first and the second foreign language weresimilar. This means that the students who had been using vocabulary consolidation strategies frequently in one foreign language had also been using them frequently in the other foreign language. Also, those students who had been using vocabulary consolidation strategies less frequently when learning one language had also been using them less frequently in the other language. However, on a general level, the students had been using vocabulary consolidation strategies less frequently in their L3 (German). No overall correlation of school grades with the frequency of use of vocabulary consolidation strategies was found, but the frequency of use of several strategies from both questionnaires correlated with the students’ grades in their second foreign language.U ovom se radu istražuju uzorci korištenja strategija učenja vokabulara u svrhu konsolidacije znanja o riječima (prvenstveno značenja). Ispitanici su učenici trećeg razreda gimnazije u Županji kojima je engleski drugi, a njemački treći strani jezik. Učenici su engleski počeli učiti u prvom razredu osnovne škole, kako je u Hrvatskoj uobičajeno (a i zakonski regulirano), a njemački nakon engleskog, većinom u četvrtom razredu osnovne škole. Ispitanici su ispunili upitnik s 25 pitanja koji je za cilj imao prikupiti informacije o učestalosti upotrebe strategija učenja vokabulara među ispitanicima u svrhu uspoređivanja uzorka korištenja strategija učenja vokabulara u njihovom prvom (L2) i drugom (L3) stranom jeziku. Očekuje se da će se ti uzorci u određenoj mjeri preklapati, odnosno da će učestalost korištenja strategija za pamćenje vokabulara u prvom stranom jeziku biti vrlo sličnaučestalosti korištenja strategija za pamćenje vokabulara u drugom stranom jeziku. Sljedeća je pretpostavka da će učenici rjeđe koristiti strategije za učenje vokabulara pri učenju njemačkog kao drugog stranog jezika jer su tom jeziku manje izloženi u izvanškolskom okruženju te stoga učenju vokabulara u tom jeziku moraju pristupiti drugačije, odnosno neke im strategije nisu dostupne zbog manjeg opsega jezičnog materijala kojim raspolažu u tom jeziku. Na temelju rezultata istraživanja strategija učenja (pamćenja) vokabulara postavljena je pretpostavka da neće biti korelacije školskih ocjena s učestalošću upotrebe strategija za konsolidaciju vokabulara. Rezultati ovog istraživanja pokazuju pozitivnu korelaciju između dva upitnika, što znači da učenici koji strategije za konsolidaciju vokabulara često koriste u učenju jednog stranog jezika sličnom učestalošću strategije koriste i u učenju drugog stranog jezika i obrnuto: učenici koji rijetko koriste strategije za konsolidaciju vokabulara u jednom stranom jeziku rijetko ih koriste i u drugom stranom jeziku. Učenici su rjeđe koristili strategije pri učenju njemačkog nego pri učenju engleskog jezika. Nije bilo korelacije školskih ocjena s učestalošću korištenja strategija pamćenja vokabulara, no učestalost korištenja pojedinih strategija u prvom i drugom stranom jeziku bila je u korelaciji saškolskim ocjenama iz drugog stranog jezika

Affektive Faktoren und Erfolg im DaF Unterricht

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird das Phänomen der fremdsprachenspezifischen Angst im Kontext einer Untersuchung thematisiert, an der eine dritte und eine erste Klasse des vierten Gymnasiums in Zagreb teilgenommen haben. Das Ziel der Untersuchung ist zu überprüfen, ob das Konzept der fremdsprachenspezifischen Angst den Schülern im kroatischen Kontext und auf einer Sprachschule überhaupt bekannt oder völlig fremd ist, um später die DaF Noten der Schüler mit ihren Punkten auf der FLCA Skala und Niveaus der fremdsprachenspezifischen Angst zu vergleichen. Zuerst wird die theoretische Grundlage des Phänomens der fremdsprachenspezifischen Angst dargelegt und das Thema in den kroatischen Kontext eingebettet, wonach das in der Untersuchung benutzte Instrument beschrieben wird und die gewonnenen Resultate dargestellt werden. Was folgt ist eine Diskussion der quantitativen Analyse der Schülerantworten in der FLCAS (´Foreign language classroom anxiety scale´) und ein kurzer Überblick über die Perzeption der Schüler über die deutsche Sprache und den DaF Unterricht

Mjerenje širine i dubine akademskoga vokabulara učenika viših razreda osnovne škole

This study analyzes a newly developed measure for assessing the knowledge of general academic vocabulary in upper-elementary school students in Croatia. This researcherdesigned instrument assesses students’ command of synonymy and the limits of collocational use as a proxy for academic vocabulary breadth and depth. Elementary school students in the 5th, 6th, and 7th grade participated in the study (N = 152, 69,7% girls). In addition to the newly developed measure for assessing general academic vocabulary, students completed the Mill Hill Vocabulary Scales, a standardized measure of general vocabulary knowledge. The results show that the newly developed instrument for measuring general academic vocabulary knowledge is reliable and valid—it has adequate internal consistency, is sensitive to the expected age and gender differences in vocabulary, and correlates highly with the results obtained by the Mill Hill Vocabulary Scales. This new instrument could fill the gap in academic vocabulary-related research since the currently available vocabulary assessment measures in Croatian do not focus on this particular register. More specifically, our new measure could be used to evaluate various types of academic vocabulary interventions in schools.U ovom se radu analizira novorazvijena mjera procjene poznavanja općega akademskog vokabulara učenika viših razreda osnovne škole u Hrvatskoj. Njome se procjenjuje poznavanje sinonima (kao mjera širine vokabulara) i ograničenja kolokacijske upotrebe (kao mjera dubine vokabulara) unutar općega akademskog registra. U istraživanju su sudjelovali učenici petog, šestog i sedmog razreda osnovne škole (N = 152, 69,7 % djevojčica). Osim mjere općega akademskog vokabulara, učenici su ispunili i Mill Hill ljestvice rječnika, standardiziranu mjeru općega vokabulara. Rezultati pokazuju da je novi instrument za mjerenje poznavanja općega akademskog vokabulara pouzdan i valjan—ima dobru unutarnju konzistentnost, osjetljiv je na očekivane dobne i spolne razlike u dubini i širini vokabulara te visoko korelira s rezultatima dobivenim na Mill Hill ljestvicama rječnika. Ova bi nova mjera mogla popuniti prazninu u istraživanju akademskoga vokabulara jer nekoliko trenutačno dostupnih mjera procjene vokabulara na hrvatskom jeziku ne testira specifično taj segment, te bi se mogla koristiti za evaluaciju različitih intervencija usmjerenih na razvoj akademskoga vokabulara u školama

Psycho-social factors associated with mental resilience in the Corona lockdown.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is not only a threat to physical health but is also having severe impacts on mental health. Although increases in stress-related symptomatology and other adverse psycho-social outcomes, as well as their most important risk factors have been described, hardly anything is known about potential protective factors. Resilience refers to the maintenance of mental health despite adversity. To gain mechanistic insights about the relationship between described psycho-social resilience factors and resilience specifically in the current crisis, we assessed resilience factors, exposure to Corona crisis-specific and general stressors, as well as internalizing symptoms in a cross-sectional online survey conducted in 24 languages during the most intense phase of the lockdown in Europe (22 March to 19 April) in a convenience sample of N = 15,970 adults. Resilience, as an outcome, was conceptualized as good mental health despite stressor exposure and measured as the inverse residual between actual and predicted symptom total score. Preregistered hypotheses (osf.io/r6btn) were tested with multiple regression models and mediation analyses. Results confirmed our primary hypothesis that positive appraisal style (PAS) is positively associated with resilience (p < 0.0001). The resilience factor PAS also partly mediated the positive association between perceived social support and resilience, and its association with resilience was in turn partly mediated by the ability to easily recover from stress (both p < 0.0001). In comparison with other resilience factors, good stress response recovery and positive appraisal specifically of the consequences of the Corona crisis were the strongest factors. Preregistered exploratory subgroup analyses (osf.io/thka9) showed that all tested resilience factors generalize across major socio-demographic categories. This research identifies modifiable protective factors that can be targeted by public mental health efforts in this and in future pandemics

Croatian Psycholinguistic Database

Hrvatska psiholingvistička baza je skup od ukupno 6000 riječi – 3000 iz korpusa hrvatskoga jezika, 1500 iz Hrvatskog čestotnog rječnika i 1500 iz udžbeničkih tekstova za četvrti, peti i šesti razred osnovne škole (Hrvatski jezik, Matematika, Povijest, Geografija, Priroda). Riječi je moguće pretraživati na temelju objektivnih uvjeta kao što su vrsta riječi, duljina riječi, rod i živost imenica, čestoća riječi u internetskom korpusu hrvatskoga jezika hrWaC. Uz to, riječi je moguće pretraživati i na temelju uvjeta dobivenih psiholingvističkim istraživanjima. Ti su uvjeti konkretnost, predočivost, relativna čestoća i dob usvajanja.Croatian Psycholinguistic Database is a collection of 6000 words – 3000 from the Croatian language corpus, 1500 from the Croatian frequency dictionary and 1500 words excerpted from textbooks for the fourth, fifth and sixth grade of elementary school (Croatian language, Natural Sciences, Mathematics, Geography, History). Words are searchable by objective conditions such as word class, word length, gender, animacy/inanimacy for nouns and word frequency from the Croatian web Corpus hrWaC. In addition to that, words are searchable by psycholinguistic ratings of concreteness, imageability, subjective frequency and age of acquisition.Početna zbirka od 3000 riječi u Hrvatskoj psiholingvističkoj bazi sastoji se od po 1000 imenica, glagola i pridjeva hrvatskoga jezika iz flektivnog leksikona hrLex, čija je frekvencija očitana iz korpusa hrWaC. S obzirom na planirani opseg baze, ekscerpirani su samo leksemi koji se u korpusu pojavljuju češće od 3000 puta. Razlog takvom odabiru je procjena da ispitanici, budu li suočeni s leksemima koji su rijetki i čije im je značenje nepoznato, neće moći procijeniti ni njihovu konkretnost, ni predočivost. Takvom je metodom izdvojeno 7695 imenica, 2849 glagola i 3124 pridjeva. S tako dobivenih popisa slučajnim je izborom odabrano po 1000 leksema za svaku vrstu. Drugi dio baze, tj. novih 3000 riječi koje zajedno s ovima prvima čine ukupno 6000, su skupljane ručno, ispisom iz Hrvatskog čestotnog rječnika, oko 2500 najčešćih punoznačnih riječi koje su zatim uparivane s onima već testiranima i te smo micali dok nismo došli do broja od 1500 dotad netestiranih. Istim je postupkom izvađeno oko 2500 riječi iz udžbenika za hrvatski, matematiku, prirodu, povijest i geografiju u 4., 5. i 6. razredima osnovne škole, riječi za koje smo mislili da ih djeca u toj dobi možda ne bi razumjela, zatim smo opet sve prošli kroz dotadašnja testiranja da vidimo jesmo li ih testirali, da bismo ostali s 1500 netestiranih. Šifre: k.N - konkretnost (N) k.M - konkretnost (M) k.C - konkretnost (C) k.SD - konkretnost (SD) k. MIN - konkretnost (min) k.MAX - konkretnost (max) č.N - subjektivna čestoća (N) č.M - subjektivna čestoća (M) č.C - subjektivna čestoća (C) č.SD - subjektivna čestoća (SD) č. MIN - subjektivna čestoća (min) č.MAX - subjektivna čestoća (max) p.N - predočivost (N) p.M - predočivost (M) p.C - predočivost (C) p.SD - predočivost (SD) p. MIN - predočivost (min) p.MAX - predočivost (max) d.N - dob usvajanja (N) d.M - dob usvajanja (M) d.C - dob usvajanja (C) d.SD - dob usvajanja (SD) d. MIN - dob usvajanja (min) d.MAX - dob usvajanja (max)The initial 3000 words in the Croatian Psycholinguistic Database consist of 1000 nouns and adjectives from the Croatian flective lexicon hrLex. The lexeme frequency was taken from the hrWac corpus. Considering the planned database scope, only the lexemes with frequency higher than 3000 were included in the database. The reason for such choice is the reasoning that the participants would not be able to judge the concreteness or imageability of words that are rare and that they do not know the meaning of. Such method resulted in excerpting 7695 nouns, 2849 verbs and 3124 adjectives. A 1000 lexemes from each word class were then taken by random choice

Psycho-social factors associated with mental resilience in the Corona lockdown.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is not only a threat to physical health but is also having severe impacts on mental health. Although increases in stress-related symptomatology and other adverse psycho-social outcomes, as well as their most important risk factors have been described, hardly anything is known about potential protective factors. Resilience refers to the maintenance of mental health despite adversity. To gain mechanistic insights about the relationship between described psycho-social resilience factors and resilience specifically in the current crisis, we assessed resilience factors, exposure to Corona crisis-specific and general stressors, as well as internalizing symptoms in a cross-sectional online survey conducted in 24 languages during the most intense phase of the lockdown in Europe (22 March to 19 April) in a convenience sample of N = 15,970 adults. Resilience, as an outcome, was conceptualized as good mental health despite stressor exposure and measured as the inverse residual between actual and predicted symptom total score. Preregistered hypotheses (osf.io/r6btn) were tested with multiple regression models and mediation analyses. Results confirmed our primary hypothesis that positive appraisal style (PAS) is positively associated with resilience (p < 0.0001). The resilience factor PAS also partly mediated the positive association between perceived social support and resilience, and its association with resilience was in turn partly mediated by the ability to easily recover from stress (both p < 0.0001). In comparison with other resilience factors, good stress response recovery and positive appraisal specifically of the consequences of the Corona crisis were the strongest factors. Preregistered exploratory subgroup analyses (osf.io/thka9) showed that all tested resilience factors generalize across major socio-demographic categories. This research identifies modifiable protective factors that can be targeted by public mental health efforts in this and in future pandemics

Psycho-social factors associated with mental resilience in the Corona lockdown

Funder: State of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany (MARP program, DRZ program, Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research)Abstract: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is not only a threat to physical health but is also having severe impacts on mental health. Although increases in stress-related symptomatology and other adverse psycho-social outcomes, as well as their most important risk factors have been described, hardly anything is known about potential protective factors. Resilience refers to the maintenance of mental health despite adversity. To gain mechanistic insights about the relationship between described psycho-social resilience factors and resilience specifically in the current crisis, we assessed resilience factors, exposure to Corona crisis-specific and general stressors, as well as internalizing symptoms in a cross-sectional online survey conducted in 24 languages during the most intense phase of the lockdown in Europe (22 March to 19 April) in a convenience sample of N = 15,970 adults. Resilience, as an outcome, was conceptualized as good mental health despite stressor exposure and measured as the inverse residual between actual and predicted symptom total score. Preregistered hypotheses (osf.io/r6btn) were tested with multiple regression models and mediation analyses. Results confirmed our primary hypothesis that positive appraisal style (PAS) is positively associated with resilience (p < 0.0001). The resilience factor PAS also partly mediated the positive association between perceived social support and resilience, and its association with resilience was in turn partly mediated by the ability to easily recover from stress (both p < 0.0001). In comparison with other resilience factors, good stress response recovery and positive appraisal specifically of the consequences of the Corona crisis were the strongest factors. Preregistered exploratory subgroup analyses (osf.io/thka9) showed that all tested resilience factors generalize across major socio-demographic categories. This research identifies modifiable protective factors that can be targeted by public mental health efforts in this and in future pandemics