BookofAbstracts
LexicalStudiesResearchNetworkConferences
FebruaryandMarch2015
KazumiAizawa(TokyoDenkiUniversity)
Mindthegaps:Modalsandquasi-modals
Thepurposeofthisstudyis(1)toanalyzethewayofintroducingmodalsandquasi-modals
ingrammar-basedreferencebookspublishedinJapan,and(2)toinvestigatehowaccurately
universitystudentscanusethemindifferentcontexts.Themodals(must,can,will)and
theircounterpartquasi-modals(haveto,beableto,begoingto)werefocuseduponinthis
study.Theresultsshowedthatreferencebookstendtoovergeneralizethedifferentusage
ofmodalsandquasi-modals.Thisfindingmayhelptoexplainwhylearnerscannot
distinguishthemprecisely.Thereappearstobeatrade-offbetweenretentionof(quasi-)
modalsandunderstandingthemaccuratelyandprecisely.
StephenCutler(CardiffUniversityPGR)
Attheriskof(not)repeatingmyself:Investigatingthememorisationofmultiword
utterancesbyJapaneseSpeakersofEnglish
Thememorisationofmultiwordutterancesbylanguagelearnershaspotential
communicativebenefitsinspecificperformancesituationsandalsopossiblyforlearning
languagemoregenerally.However,theusefulnessofsuchmemorisationislikelytodepend
onthetypeandselectionoftheutterancestobememorisedandthepotentialforflexibility
intheiruse.ThispresentationreportsonareplicationofastudybyWrayandFitzgerald
(Fitzpatrick&Wray,2006;Wray&Fitzpatrick,2008,2009)whichinvestigatedthe
memorisationofnativelikemodelutterancesbyL2learnersandtheirsubsequentusein
practiceandrealperformances.Thestudylooksatindividualdifferencesbetween
participantsintheclosenessoftheperformanceutterancestothetargetutterancesandin
theirpropensitytousethem.Italsoinvestigatesthenumberandnatureofdeviationswhich
occurredandtheextenttowhichthesedeviationsare‘nativelike’ornot.Aparticular
hypothesisfromtheoriginalstudy,furtherexploredhere,isthattheproportionofnonnativelikedeviationsmayberelatedtoover-optimisticrisk-takingaswellaspoorattention
focusandlowerproficiency.
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FourteenadultJapanesespeakersofEnglishwererecruitedandidentifiedmessagesthat
theywantedtoconveyinasubsequentconversationswithanativeEnglishspeakerthat
theyhad(initially)notmetbefore.Participantaretoundertaketwoorthreeconversation
cycleseachwitharound10-14nativelikemodelutterancestobememorisedandusedper
cycle.Thestudyiscurrentlyon-goingwithsomecyclesstilltobecompleted.The
presentationwillthereforereportontheset-upofthestudy,themaindifferenceswiththe
originalandsomeinitialobservationsfromthedatacollectedsofar.
Fitzpatrick,T.&A.Wray(2006).Breakingupisnotsohardtodo:individualdifferencesinL2
memorisation.CanadianModernLanguageReview63(1),35–57
Wray,A.andFitzpatrick,T.(2008).Whycan’tyoujustleaveitalone?Deviationsfrommemorised
languageasaguidetonativelikecompetence.InMeunier,F.&Granger,S.(Eds.)Phraseologyin
languagelearningandteaching(pp.123-148),Amsterdam:JohnBenjamins
Wray,A.andFitzpatrick,T.(2009).Pushinglearnerstotheextreme:theartificialuseofprefabricatedmaterialinconversation,InnovationsinLanguageLearningandTeaching,1,1-15
MikeGreen(CardiffUniversityPGR)
Theeffectofassonanceontherecallandretentionofformulaicsequences
Thispresentationwilldescribeanapproximatereplicationofastudyonthemnemonic
effectofphonologicalpatternsincollocationsandcompoundnounphrases.Theoriginal
studycomparedEFLstudents'recallofassonatingandnon-assonatingitemsaftera
dictationactivity.Iwilldescribetheoriginalstudy,theresultsofthereplicationstudyandits
limitations.Futuredirectionswillalsobeexplored.
ChristopherJHall(YorkStJohnUniversity)
Thelemmaaslexicalhub:Parasiticconnectionsinthemultilinguallexicon
InthispresentationIreviewevidencefortheParasiticModeloflexicaldevelopment,a
conceptualframeworkforunderstandingthecognitiveprocessesandrepresentations
involvedintheearlieststagesofwordlearninginasecondorsubsequentlanguage(cf.Hall,
2002;Sills&Hall,2005;Halletal.2009;Hall&Reyes,2009;Ecke,2014).Inthemodel,the
grammaticalframe(or“lemma”)leveloflexicalknowledgeplaysakeyrole,asthedefault
‘hub’aroundwhichlearning(andloss)typicallypivot.Ipresentevidencefromtheanalysis
ofwrittenL2production,patternsofinter-generationalloss,andgrammaticalityjudgement
testsinL2andL3learning.Iconsideralsotheroleofcognateforms,typologicalproximity,
andproficiencylevel.Iconcludewithsomeremarksaboutteachingimplicationsand
ontologicalchallenges.
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Ecke,P.(2014).Parasiticvocabularyacquisition,cross-linguisticinfluence,andlexical
retrievalinmultilinguals.Bilingualism:LanguageandCognition,firstview.
doi:10.1017/S1366728913000722.
Hall,C.J.(2002).Theautomaticcognateformassumption:EvidencefortheParasiticModel
ofvocabularydevelopment.InternationalReviewofAppliedLinguistics,40,69-87.
Hall,C.J.,Newbrand,D.,Ecke,P.,Sperr.U.,Marchand,V.&Hayes,L.(2009).Learners’
implicitassumptionsaboutsyntacticframesinnewL3words:Theroleofcognates,
typologicalproximityandL2status.LanguageLearning,59,1,153-202.
Hall,C.J.&Reyes,A.(2009).Cross-linguisticinfluenceinL2verbframes:theeffectsofword
familiarityandlanguageproficiency.InBenati,A.&Roehr,K.(Ed.),Issuesinsecond
languageproficiency(pp.24-44).London:Continuum.
Sills,R.&Hall,C.J.(2005).Cambiosléxicosenelvéneto:unaperspectivapsicolingüística.
LingüísticaMexicana,II,2,277-293.
AranJones(SSiWCEO)
SaySomethingin(Welsh)
SaySomethinginisanaudio-basedlearningapproachwhichfocusesprincipallyonspoken
production.Itaimstobuildearlyconfidenceinspeakingbypromptingthelearnerto
combinewordsindifferentways,whichappearstoincreasesensitivitytosomeimportant
earlycollocations.Themethodmakesuseofanextensivepatternofspacedrepetitioninan
attempttodriveearlyformationoflongertermmemory.
Aranwillgiveabriefoverviewofsomekeypointsofthemethodandsomeanecdotal
responsesfromlearners,andlookquicklyatsomepossibilitiesandsomechallengesforthe
future.
TadamitsuKamimoto(KumamotoGakuenUniversity)
Title:EFLvocabularydevelopment:Whatwouldhappentowordsoncelearned?
TherehasbeengrowingresearchonL2vocabularyacquisitionbutthereisscantresearchon
lexicalattrition.Researchershaveaccumulatedknowledgeonacquisition,buthowmuchdo
weknowaboutforgetting?Vocabularydevelopmentconsistsofprocessesofgainandloss.
Thereisatwo-monthsummerholidaybetweentwotermsinJapaneseuniversityacademic
calendar.Duringtheperiod,studentsofEnglishhavenocontactwithEnglish.Whatisgoing
tohappentowordstheyhavelearnedwhenstudentscomebackoncampus?Tolearn
aboutforgettingshouldhelpstudentslearnbetter.Researchquestionsare:(1)Howmuch
vocabularydostudentsretainafter2-monthnocontactwithEnglish?(2)Whatis
relationshipbetweenvocabularygainandlossinanEFLsituation?Doesitsupportthe
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regressionhypothesis–theprocessoflanguagelossisamirror-imageoftheprocessof
languageacquisition(cf.deBotandWeltens,1991)?
Duringthefirsttermof15weeks,studentswereinstructedtolearn1,000wordsoflevel5
ofatotalof12levelswithaCALLprogramme(itmayseemextremelydemanding,butas
shownbelow,anaverageof60%ofthemwereknownalreadyinApril).TheCALLtaskis
madeupoffivedrillssuchasmultiple-choicequestionsandamatchingexercise.A
vocabularytestof60itemswasconstructedandgiventhreetimestomeasurevocabulary
developmentasapre-testinApril,asanimmediatepost-testinJuly,andasadelayedposttestinSeptember.Somestudentsfailedtotakeallthethreetests.Theirdatawereremoved
fromthefollowinganalyses.Intheend,thedataof25studentswereanalysed.
Resultsshowedthatmeansofparticipants'vocabularyincreasedfrom59.18%inAprilto
74.80%inJulyanddecreasedto72.28%inSeptember.AdifferencebetweenJulyand
Septemberwasnotstatisticallysignificant.Awithin-subjectanalysisshowedacorrelationof
-.698betweengainandloss,implyingthatstudentshadamarkedinclinationtolosewhat
theygained.Awithin-itemanalysisshowedacorrelationof-.351betweengainandloss,
implyingthatitemsthathavebeengainedarenotnecessarilyforgotten.Furtheranalysesof
8higher-and8lower-proficientstudentsshowedthatthehighergroupsuccessfully
retainedwhatithadgainedinJuly,butthelowergrouplostsomeofgain.
Overallhighretentionafter2-monthsummerwasrathersurprisingbutitshouldbenoted
thattherewasvariationamongstudents.ApartialwrittenproductionexerciseintheCALL
programmemaybealargepartofthereason,helpingstudentsprocesswordsdeeplyand
performbetteronawrittenreceptivetest.Thestudyalsopresentedevidencesupporting
theregressionhypothesisforthesubjects,butnotfortheitems,indicatingthatthereisa
clearneedformuchfurtherworkonEFLlexicalattrition.Vocabularyacquisitionand
attritionresearchshouldbenefiteachother.
KimberlyKlassen(CardiffUniversityPGR)
DopropernounsaffectL2readingcomprehension?
Thispresentationcentersona‘puzzle’thatIhopecanbeunraveledduringthediscussion.
ThepuzzleconcernsdifficultiesthatL2readerssometimeshavewithpropernames.Iwill
brieflyrecaptwocompletedexperiments,alongwiththreeminiinvestigationsdonethis
year.Iwillthenpresentseveralpossiblewaystomoveforwardfordiscussion.
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MichaelMcCarthy(UniversityofNottingham)
Collocationandthelearner:wadingintothedepths
Inthistalk,Iuseevidencefromtheerror-codedsegmentoftheCambridgeLearnerCorpus
toexaminethreepersistentproblemareasunderthegeneralheadingofcollocation:(1)
delexicalverbcollocations(verbssuchasmake,take,getandtheirnominalcomplements),
whereprogressindepthofknowledgecanbeobservedamonglearnersatthedifferent
levelsoftheCEFR,butwhereinterestingproblemsremain,evenatthehighestlevels(2)
binomialordering,whereproblemswiththeorderingoffixedbinomialexpressions(e.g.
safeandsound,peaceandquiet)persistamonglearnersatthevariouslevelsoftheCEFR(3)
tautologicalcollocations,where(near-)synonymouswordsarecollocatedinunexpected
ways(e.g.astenchsmell,urbancities),whichalsopersistatthehigherlevels.Idiscuss
possibleapproachestothesedifferentissuesinteaching.
PaulMeara(CardiffUniversity)
LexicalChoices:anExplorationofAizawa'sProblem
Thispaperdescribessomeofmyrecentworkonminimalvocabularytests.Specificallyit
describesatestofLexicalOriginality–theuniquelexicalchoicesthatpeoplemakewhen
theyusewords.
Thepaperdecribessomeofthethinkingthatwentintodevelopingasimpletestfor
Originalityandsomeoftheissuesthatthistestformatraises.
ThewidercontextofthispaperisasetofquestionsposedbyAizawa:
Wheredogoodideasforresearchcomefrom?
Howdoyouavoiddoingthingsthatareobvious?
Howdoyoudevelopinnovativeideasandmethodsforresearch?
Thepaperisdesignedtostimulateadiscussionaroundthesewiderquestions.
PaulMeara(CardiffUniversity)
TheOtherVocabularyResearch:LifewithoutNation
Mostbibliometricstudiesofvocabularyresearchsuggestthatthefieldisdominatedbya
verylarge,homogeneousclusterofpeoplewhosecentralreferencepointisPaulNation.
However,theseanalysesdon'tpickuponasubstantialbodyofresearchwhichdoesnotcite
Nation'swork.Thisworkistheoreticallymuchmoreeclecticthanthemainstreamresearch
weusuallyciteandtalkabout,andittendstohavearatherdifferentsetofprioritiesfrom
thoseofmainstreamresearch.
Thispapertriestoexplorethis"underground"researchbypresentingastandard
bibliometricanalysisofasetofpapersthatdoNOTincludeNationintheircitations.The
resultingmapspresentasurprisinglydifferentviewofvocabularyresearch.
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JohnP.Racine(CardiffUniversityPGR)
ProceduralPriminginSecondLanguageWordAssociation
Todeterminetheeffectsofprimingonwordassociation(WA)responsestwostudieswere
performed.Theseweredesignedtoexaminetheinfluenceofcueorderandpriortaskson
WAresponsesinEnglishasbothafirstandsecondlanguage.Thepurposeofthesestudies
wastodeterminewhether,andtowhatextent,participantscontinuetorespondin
accordancewiththeirindividualresponseprofilesdespiteprimingmanipulations.Broadly,
theresultsofbothstudiesshowedthattasksundertakenbyrespondentsimmediately
precedingWAtrials,andtheorderinwhichcuesarepresented,dohavesignificanteffects
onresponsepatterns.Resultsarediscussedintermsofsecondlanguageproficiencyand
responseprofilestrength.Methodologicalissuesareexaminedandfutureresearchis
proposed.
CatherineRichards(SwanseaUniversityPGR)
Thedevilinthedetail:thesignificanceoftexttypeinspecialisedcorpora
Inourquesttobetterunderstandthelanguageusedbyprofessionals,andthanksinthe
maintotheavailabilityofuser-friendlycorpussoftware,ithasneverbeenmore
straightforwardtobuildandanalysespecialised,small-scalecorpora.Itissometimesthe
case,however,thatthetexttypeusedindomain-specificcorporaisnotalwaysthemost
suitablefortheresearchobjectiveorindeedappropriateforthepurposestowhichthe
resultsoftheanalysesarethenput.Twospecialisedcorporaofcomparablesizefromthe
fieldofradiographywerebuiltfromdifferenttexttypesandakeywordanalysisranwhich
foundsomesignificantdifferencesbetweenthetwo.Thesedifferencessuggestthat
howeverspecialised,thecategoryof'domain'or'field'canbetoobroadandthatcautionis
advisedwhenmakingclaimsaboutthegeneralisabilityoreventheusefulnessofthedata
withoutconsiderationalsobeingpaidtotexttype.
MatthewRooks(CardiffUniversityPGR)
Self-directedlexicaldevelopmentstrategies:Facilitatingefficientstudentlearning
Self-directedlearningisanimportantaspectoflexicaldevelopment,andlearnerscanoften
benefitfromlearninghowtoidentifyeffectivestrategiesthatsuittheirindividuallearning
styles.Thispresentationwillprovideabriefoverviewofhowthefieldsofautonomous
learningandvocabularyacquisitionintersect,anddiscussresultsofastudythatinvestigated
theeffectsofautonomousvocabularylogsonlexicaldevelopmentoverthecourseofa15weeksemester.Ananalysisofcollecteddataindicatessomepotentialemergingpatterns,
whichmaysuggestthatincreasingstudentautonomyinregardstovocabularylearningmay
resultinmoreefficientlexicaldevelopment.Furtheranalysisrevealsthatspecifictypesof
strategiesusedbythestudy'sparticipantshadlessofaneffectonincreasedvocabulary
gainsthanthenumberofdifferentstrategiesusedandoradaptedthroughoutthestudy.
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Thesefindingscanpotentiallyshedsomelightonhowstrategiescanbeeffectivelytaught
byteacherstogivelanguagelearnersabetterchanceofdiscoveringstrategiesthatfittheir
individuallearningstyles.
PerSnoder(StockholmUniversityPGR)
TeachingCollocation.Reportfromapilotstudy
Thispresentationwillreportapilotstudyrecentlyconductedintwosecondaryschoolsin
Stockholm,Sweden.Theaimofthepilotstudywastotestallthecomponentsof
myquasi-experimentalstudycomparingtwodifferentwaysofteachingcollocationto
intermediatelearnersofL2English.Thismixed-methodsstudyhadapretest-treatmentposttestdesign.Thetreatmentphasesstretchedoverfivelessonsduringwhichthetwo
groupsweretaughtthesamecontent–threetextswith35Englishverb-nouncollocations–
intwodifferentconditions.Intheexperimentalgroup,theparticipantsprocessedthetarget
itemsintentionallyandexplicitly,whichmeantthatthetermcollocationwasdefinedand
puttoextensiveuse.Incontrast,inthecomparisongroupthetextswereprocessedwithan
exclusivefocusonmeaningandproduction,thuswithanincidentalandimplicitapproachto
thetargetitems.Greatcarewastakentomakethetwoconditionsascomparableas
possible,apartfromtheinstructionalapproachtaken.Statisticalanalyseswillbeusedto
comparethescoresontheposttestsforthetwoconditions.Forthequalitativepart,two
typesofverbalcommentarieswereutilizedtoprobemnemonicprocesses.Think-aloud
protocolsdidnotyieldanyusefuldata,butstimulatedrecallprovedtoofferinsightsinto
theseparticipants’mentallives.
JeffStewart(CardiffUniversityPGR)
Amultiple-choicetestof“ActiveRecall”vocabularyknowledge
Paper-basedvocabularytestsemployedinsecondlanguageacquisitionsuchasthe
VocabularyLevelsTestandVocabularySizeTestfrequentlyemploymultiple-choiceand
fixed-optionitemformats,resultingintestsofpassiverecognitionthattestlearner’sability
tomakeaform-meaninglinkwhenpresentedwithoptions.Incontrast,testsofactiverecall
vocabularyknowledge,inwhichlearnersrecallL2wordformwithoutfixedoptionsto
choosefrom,arerarerduetothedifficultyinvolvedinhand-markinganswers.This
presentationwilloverviewanewmultiple-choiceformattestofactiverecallknowledge,in
whichlearnersconfirmtheirknowledgeofanEnglishwordbyselectingitsfirstletter.As
thereare25possibleoptions,oddsofguessingthecorrectanswerbychancearereducedto
0.04.Findingsofthestudyincludethatworddifficultyestimatesandscoresarehighly
correlatedtothoseofconventional,full-wordactiverecalltests(>0.90),andthattest
reliabilityishigheronaformusingtheproposedformatthanonthatofareceptivetestof
thesamewords.
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NaokiSugino(RitsumeikanUniversity),SimonFraser(HiroshimaUniversity),NorikoAotani
(TokaiGakuenUniversity),KojiroShojima(NationalCentreforUniversityEntrance
Examinations),YuyaKoga(WasedaUniversity)
VisualrepresentationofasymmetriesinwordassociationresponsesbyJapaneseEFL
learners
Withtheaimofcontributingtowardsanunderstandingofthenetworkpropertiesof
learners’lexicalknowledge,thisstudyemploysGephitovisualiseinterrelatednessamong
basicEnglishwordsinthelexicon.UsingtheEdinburghAssociativeThesaurus(EAT)asa
source,asetoffivecandidateassociateswasselectedforeachofthirtyverbsconsideredto
besufficientlyfamiliartoJapaneseEFLlearners;forthemostfrequentlyassociatedwordin
eachset,anothersetofcandidateassociateswaschosen,includingtheverbsinthefirstset.
Gephiprovidedanetworkrepresentationofthesewordsonthebasisoftheirfrequenciesin
theEAT,andcoulddepict(a)symmetriesbetweeneachverbanditsmostfrequently
associatedcandidates.Atwo-partwordassociationtest(verbsinPart1;theirmostfrequent
associatesinPart2)wasadministeredto31EFLlearners,oneEnglish-Japanesebilingual,
andonenativespeakerofEnglish.Participantswereinstructedtojudgethestrengthof
relatednessofthetargetwordwitheachofthecandidateassociatesusinga5-pointLikert
scale.Theresultingnetworkstructureswerecomparedwiththenetworkrepresentation
basedonthefrequenciesintheEAT.Thefindingsofthestudywillbediscussedfocusingon
thetypesofassociations,(a)symmetriesbetweenthetargetverbsandtheirassociates,and
otherfeaturesoftheoverallnetworkstructures.Thepresentationwillconcludewitha
discussionofthelimitationspertainingtotheelicitationprocedures.
PeterThwaites(CardiffUniversity,PGR)
What’sbehind“collocational”responsesinWordAssociationTests?
Researchersusingawordassociationtest(WAT)paradigmhavelonguseda“syntagmatic”,
orposition-based,categorytogroupWATresponses,andsupportforthiscategoryisboth
intuitivelylogicalandsupportedbyvarioussourcesofdata.However,recentstudiessuggest
thatthereislittlecorrelationbetweenthistypeofWATresponseandcorpus-based
collocationdata.Sowhattypeofwordknowledgearerespondentsdrawingonwhenthey
producethistypeofresponse?Inthisseminar,Iwillreviewevidencebothforandagainst
thehypothesis(cf.Mollin,2009)thatrespondentsuseonlysemanticknowledgewhen
producingWATresponses,beforesuggestingsomepossiblewaysforward.
HongshanZuo(SichuanUniversity)
FacilitatingL2Learners’RetentionofFormulaicSequencesthroughtheUseofElectronic
Glosses--AStudybasedonaComputerizedReadingTask
FormulaicsequencesaboundinbothspokenandwrittenEnglish,yettheyareparticularly
thornyinsecondlanguagelearningprocess.Amajorreasoncontributingtothedifficultyis
secondlanguagelearners’ignoranceoftheholisticnatureofformulaicsequences.Basedon
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acomputerizedreadingtask,thepresentstudyprobesintotheeffectsofusingelectronic
glossesinChineseEFLlearners’acquisitionofformulaicsequences,examiningtherolesthat
inputenhancement,testannouncementandtasktypemightplayonthenoticingand
acquisitionofthesesequences.Resultsshowthatinputenhancementcouldeffectivelydraw
thelearners’attentiontothetargetformulaicsequencesandwasconducivetolearningof
thesesequences.Thesubjectswhowereforewarnedofanupcomingtestofformulaic
sequencesnotonlynoticedsignificantlymoretargetformulaicsequencesthanthose
subjectswhowerenotforewarnedofthetest,butalsooutperformedintheacquisitionof
thetargetformulaicsequences.Finally,comparedwiththesubjectswhoundertookTrue/
Falsereadingcomprehensiontasks,thesubjectswhocompletedtranslationtasksnoticed
significantlymoretargetformulaicsequencesandscoredsignificantlyhigherinthetestof
formulaicsequences.
KeyWords:formulaicsequences;electronicglosses;inputenhancement;test
announcement;tasktype
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