The eleven chapters of Vocabulary in a Second Language are written by the world's leading researchers in the field of vocabulary studies in second language acquisition. Each chapter presents ...experimental research leading to new conclusions about and insights into the selection, the learning and teaching, or the testing of vocabulary knowledge in foreign languages. This book is intended as an up-to-date overview of the important domain of the lexicon for researchers in the field of second language acquisition, teacher trainers and professional teachers of second or foreign languages.
The study compares the effectiveness of Focus on Form (FonF) and Focus on FormS (FonFs) approaches in learning new L2 words by 158 high-school learners of English as L2. In phase 1 of the study, the ...FonF group read a text containing the target words, discussed it in small groups, and answered comprehension questions. The FonFs group studied the target words as discrete items with their meanings and examples of usage. In phase 2 of the study, all learners received the target words with their meanings and studied them for 15 minutes for a quiz. They were tested immediately after each phase, and two weeks later.
Results revealed significantly higher scores for FonFs group after phase 1, but the difference disappeared after phase 2. As learners cannot be expected to study all vocabulary for tests, form-focused instruction - and particularly FonFs - is claimed to be indispensable for L2 vocabulary learning.
We examined how learning new second language (L2) words was affected by three ‘task type’ conditions (reading only, reading with a dictionary, reading and word focused exercises), three ‘number of ...encounters’ conditions and their combinations. Three groups of L2 learners (n = 185) were exposed to 30 target words (one group in each task condition) and to three ‘number of encounters’ conditions (10 words in each condition) during 11 weeks of regular studies. Delayed unexpected post-tests tested four degrees of knowledge of the target words. Reading with word focused exercises yielded the best results, regardless of type of word knowledge and the number of encounters with the target words. The number of encounters had different effects in different task conditions. We conclude that what learners do with the word may be more important than how many times they encounter it.
The study explores whether Russian immigrants in Israel with no knowledge of Hebrew (L2) can experience attrition of Russian (L1). Immigrants with no knowledge of Hebrew (−Hebrew), bilingual ...immigrants who know Russian and Hebrew (+Hebrew), and monolingual controls were compared on lexical retrieval, correctness judgment of collocations, future tense formation, confidence in providing answers to two tasks and the time it took to complete them. Both immigrant groups showed signs of L1 attrition of collocations and of future tense formation, and the –Hebrew group performed significantly worse than +Hebrew group on future tense formation. The three groups did not differ in time-on-task. The –Hebrew group was less confident than the other groups in one task. Low and significant correlations were found between some sociolinguistic factors and test results. We conclude that first language attrition can occur both when immigrants acquire a second language and when they remain monolingual.
We investigated how long-term retention of new words was affected by task type, number of word occurrences in the teaching materials and the combination of the two factors. The tasks were: reading a ...text with occasional Focus on Form when learners used dictionaries (T+F), or reading a text with Focus on Forms, i.e. word focused exercises (T+Fs). The words occurred 2—3, 4—5, and 6—7 times. Consequently, there were six conditions that reflected the 2 × 3 ‘task × occurrence’ combinations. Learners were exposed to 60 target words, 10 words in each condition during a 13-week course of study, and were subsequently tested on them by two unannounced tests: passive recall and passive recognition. An increase in word occurrence was found to have an effect on retention in T+Fs only. Starting with 4 occurrences, T+Fs fared better than T+F. Task type effect was superior to the effect of word occurrence in recall only (2 word exercises fared better than 6—7 occurrences in text). The value of word-focused practice was also confirmed by learners’ responses to an introspective questionnaire.
Ninety five high school learners of English as L2 received thirty sentences without verbs of the target verb-noun collocations. They were asked to fill in the missing verb, first without any ...dictionary assistance and subsequently with it. Dictionary assistance consisted of three dictionary entries for each of the nouns, from English-English-Hebrew dictionary, LDOCE and either COBUILD, OALD, or CALD. Learners also reported in which dictionary they found each verb. A week later, they were unexpectedly tested on the recall of the target collocations. Three scores were compared: the number of correct verbs supplied with and without the dictionary entries, and the number of verbs retained on the test. Learners' reports on dictionary effectiveness were analyzed as well. Results showed that at times learners had difficulty finding the right verbs, but often they thought they knew the collocations and did not think it was necessary to consult the dictionary. Adapted from the source document
In addition to glosses and dictionaries (paper and electronic), a variety of reading-related vocabulary tasks has been investigated in connection with vocabulary learning. ...Hulstijn (1992) added a ...multiple choice exercise requiring the student to select the appropriate meaning of the new word encountered in a text. Finding a suitable text proved extremely difficult and so a short passage of 165 words was written for the purpose of the experiment. Since the text was presented on a computer screen, its text length was restricted by the size of the computer screen and font size so that it would fit the screen without requiring the reader to scroll up and down. ...we conclude that the type of task, form-oriented rather than message-oriented, accounted for better acquisition results. The answers to questions in Task 1 required understanding of the target words, but no direct questions were asked about their meaning. ...learners may have remained satisfied with superficial understanding of these words, reflected in one click on translation or explanation in L2, or they may even have tried to guess some words without looking them up as long as they felt they provided a correct answer to the comprehension questions.
This article describes the development and validation of a test of vocabulary size and strength. The first part of the article sets out the theoretical rationale for the test, and describes how the ...size and strength constructs have been conceptualized and operationalised. The second part of the article focuses on the process of test validation, which involved the testing of the hypotheses implicit in the test design, using both unidimensional and multifaceted Rasch analyses. Possible applications for the test include determining the status of a learner's vocabulary development as well as screening and placement. A model for administering the test in computer adaptive mode is also proposed. The study has implications both for the design and delivery of this test as well as for theories of vocabulary acquisition. Author abstract
The study investigates the effect of explicit contrastive analysis and translation activities on the incidental acquisition of single words and collocations. We compared three high school groups of ...learners of the same L1 and comparable L2 (English) proficiency. Each group represented one instructional condition: meaning focused instruction (MFI), non-contrastive form-focused instruction (FFI), and contrastive analysis and translation (CAT). The target items consisted of ten unfamiliar words and ten collocations in L2—English. The MFI group performed content-oriented tasks which did not require attention to the target items. The FFI group performed text-based vocabulary tasks which focused on the target items. The CAT group was assigned text-based translation tasks: from L2 into L1, and from L1 into L2. During the correction stage, the teacher provided a contrastive analysis of the target items and their L1 translation options. Time-on-task was kept constant in the three groups. After completing the tasks, the three groups were tested on the retention of the target items by two tests: active recall and passive recall. A week later, the participants received the same tests. The CAT (contrastive analysis and translation) group significantly outperformed the other two groups on all the tests. These superior results are discussed in light of the ‘noticing’ hypothesis, ‘pushed output’, ‘task-induced involvement load’, and the influence that L1 exerts on the acquisition of L2 vocabulary.
