This paper aims to examine students’ conceptions of Geography and History as school disciplines at different educational stages. The sample, composed by a total of 73 participants from Primary School ...(
n
= 26), Secondary School (
n
= 29) and Higher Education (
n
= 18), completed a lexical availability test in Spanish and English or in Spanish and French. The results show that lexical availability increases as the educational stage increases, although the differences are not significant between all of them. The available lexical items on Geography and History, most of which are not shared between the different stages, are very generalist, showing a rigid and formal view of the disciplines. After the analysis carried out, we consider that lexical availability may constitute a valid tool for accessing students’ conceptions.
Resumen Las investigaciones sobre disponibilidad léxica estudian las palabras que los hablantes almacenan en su mente relacionadas con asuntos y temas de la experiencia inmediata, lo que implica, por ...una parte, que en el léxico aducido predominen los sustantivos concretos y, por otra, que la asociación entre las palabras sea de base designativa. No obstante, para la disponibilidad léxica interesan también palabras y relaciones que se producen en otras categorías gramaticales. En este trabajo se analizan los resultados de las encuestas sobre léxico disponible realizadas en Madrid, en las que se ha incluido un centro de interés enunciado como “Adjetivos”. Esta propuesta supone no solo la búsqueda de palabras pertenecientes a esta categoría léxica, sino sobre todo la actualización de palabras en un centro de interés no ligado a la experiencia directa del hablante, en el cual las asociaciones se producirán mediante conexiones semánticas categoriales. Se podrán observar de este modo, más allá de la productividad de este centro de interés, algunos procesos cognitivos, como la propia concepción de la categoría, y los recursos empleados en el proceso de evocación de unidades léxicas. De todo ello se extraen conclusiones y se hacen propuestas para el tratamiento didáctico del adjetivo. Abstract Research on lexical availability investigates the words that speakers store in the brain related to issues and topics from the immediate experience. This implies, on the one hand, that concrete nouns predominate in the adduced lexicon and, on the other hand, that the relationships between words are of designative base. However, lexical availability is also interested in words and relationships that occur in other word types. In this paper, we analyze the results of the surveys on available lexicon carried out in Madrid, which included a prompt named “Adjectives”. This proposal is interested in the retrieval of words belonging to this word type, but most importantly, it focuses on the retrieval of words from a prompt that is not linked to the speaker’s direct experience, in which the associations are based on categorical semantic connections. Apart from looking at the productivity of this prompt, this will allow us to examine some cognitive processes such as the conception of the category itself and the resources used in the evocation of lexical units. Conclusions are drawn from all this and proposals are made for the teaching of adjectives.
Abstract New forms of reading have emerged recently, and virtual tools and environments have been developed to promote reading. Initial teacher training must be up to date to train good mediators. ...Therefore, this research analyses the presence of digital tools in the concept of reading of future teachers. The data has been collected through a lexical availability test to explore the centre of interest “Reading” and a sociodemographic questionnaire with questions related to reading and knowledge of languages. 520 students from the degrees in Early Childhood and Primary Education at the University of Malaga have participated. Dispogen has been used to process the available lexicon and the SPSS package has been used for the statistical analysis. In addition, clusters have been obtained from the lexicon related to digital tools using the DispoGrafo tool. The results show a motivation to read on social networks and a rootedness of the lexicon referred to digital media: e-book, Kindle, specifying format: PDF, Word, and type of reading: digital review, Academic Google, but they do not demonstrate a lexical domain for the formation of new readers.
Resumo Novas formas de leitura surgiram recentemente, e ferramentas e ambientes virtuais foram desenvolvidos para promover a leitura. A formação inicial de professores deve estar atualizada para formar bons mediadores. Portanto, esta pesquisa analisa a presença de ferramentas digitais na concepção de leitura de futuros professores. Os dados foram recolhidos através de um teste de disponibilidade lexical para explorar o centro de interesse “Leitura” e de um questionário sociodemográfico com questões relacionadas com a leitura e o conhecimento de línguas. Participaram 520 alunos dos cursos de Educação Infantil e Primária da Universidade de Málaga. Dispogen foi usado para processar o léxico disponível e o pacote SPSS foi usado para a análise estatística. Além disso, foram obtidos clusters do léxico relacionado a ferramentas digitais utilizando a ferramenta Dispo- Grafo. Os resultados mostram uma motivação para ler nas redes sociais e um enraizamento do léxico referido aos meios digitais: e-book, Kindle, especificando formato: PDF, Word, e tipo de leitura: resenha digital, Academic Google, mas não demonstram um domínio lexical para a formação de novos leitores.
The present paper offers a study of the influence of age co-occurring with school grade and L2 proficiency on vocabulary production. Previous studies in classroom contexts confirmed that learners’ ...lexical performance changes over time as their knowledge of L2 develops. Specifically, vocabulary becomes wider and more varied with time. In lexical availability studies, in particular, age, school grade, and L2 proficiency have been found to be significant variables. Here, we had 196 EFL learners of two different school grades (with corresponding ages and L2 proficiency levels) complete a lexical availability task: verbal fluency task to look into their vocabulary production and lexicon organization. Responses were analyzed against the framework of graph theory, together with descriptive tests. The results reveal that older learners produce more words, less frequent words, and words belonging to higher proficiency bands; differences between them and younger learners were very small, however. A more interesting result was brought to light by graph metrics, which reveal that learners in both groups used a category-ridden lexicon organization. Older learners display more single connections among peripheral words, giving rise to more disperse semantic networks approaching the structure found in native mental lexicons.
Recientes estudios en disponibilidad gramatical revelan que proporcionar estímulos metagramaticales en lugar de semánticos tiene implicaciones en la recuperación léxica (Tomé Cornejo y Recio, 2022). ...Entre estas, destacan las diferencias en la productividad y la actualización mayoritaria de palabras con determinadas características morfológicas, sintácticas y semánticas, que podrían configurar un prototipo. Con esta base, el presente estudio replica la investigación de estos autores para comprobar la estabilidad de los patrones establecidos al considerar la variable “Titulación”, que constituye un factor influyente en otros estudios con base semántica. Los resultados muestran un mantenimiento de dichos patrones independientemente de la rama del conocimiento, aunque ponen de manifiesto posibles variaciones.
Abstract Categorization and identification of typical exemplars within semantic categories is a universal skill of human cognition which is involved in language development. However, cultural, and ...experiential aspects might influence typicality effects. This paper examines the role of native language and culture on that categorization process and on typicality effects. Towards that objective, we had Spanish native speakers and Spanish FL learners whose mother tongue is Greek complete a category generation word association task. Data were analyzed within a network and graph theory framework as the best fitting for this type of data, bearing in mind previous descriptions of semantic memory. Results showed how, indeed, native speakers and learners of varying proficiency levels differ in their availability and production of typical exemplars, especially in slot-filler categories versus taxonomic categories. Lexical access during category generation might be determined by native language and culture. Additionally, natives’ mental lexicon seems to feature denser connections responsible for more efficient access.