Transcript Word Associations

Session 6 The Mental Lexicon
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Word association (WA) tests
Comparing the L1 and L2 mental lexicons
Pedagogic implications
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Word association and the mental
lexicon
Cognitive processes -- how words and meanings
are organized mentally (unobservable)
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Word association (WA) tests (observable)
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Word Association Test
Prompt Word
(Word you hear)
Associative word
(The first word that you think of)
Relationship
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Word associations (English)
Prompt Word
Associative word
Relationship
green
water
open
hill
butterfly
truth
powerful
blanket
inclination
hockey
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Word Associations
green
Grass (collocation)
Red (co-ordination)
Color (super-ordination)
water
Drink (collocation)
Melon (compound noun)
Clear (collocation)
open
Close (antonym)
Door (collocation)
inclination
Information (sound – stress pattern)
Intonation
hockey
Jockey (sound - rhyme)
How words are stored in the mental lexicon
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L1 / L2 equivalence (cognates in related languages e.g.
cream in English and crème in French)
Orthographically (words that have similar spelling)
Phonologically (rhyme, alliteration, stress pattern, etc.)
Semantically (synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms e.g. color red)
Collocationally (e.g. make – a wish, catch – a bus)
Morphologically (e.g. defensive-offensive; televisiontelescope)
Encyclopedic associations (based on our knowledge /
experience of the real world)
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Meanings of words
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Meanings of words are often understood in
relation to other words (like a web)
e.g. you understand the meaning of ‘cold’ through
your understanding of ‘hot’
 e.g. you understand the meaning of ‘roses’ through
your understanding of ‘garden’, ‘flowers’ or ‘lilies’
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Word Associations and Language Proficiency
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How words are organised / stored in the brain is
an indicator of language proficiency level
Or how “native-like” you are
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Paradigmatic associations
Always belong to the same word class
 Substitutable in syntactic strings
 More semantics-oriented (synonyms, antonyms, superordinates, or hyponyms)
 E.g. I want to get a doggie for my daughter.
pet
Terrier
cat
wombat
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Syntagmatic associations
Usually belong to a different word class, but sometimes can belong to the same word class
Collocate well with prompt words in a grammatical string
 More grammar-oriented (in a grammatical string)
 E.g. Dogs bark.
E.g. Walk the dog.
E.g. Dog collar
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Phonological associations / Clangs
E.g. dog - fog
E.g. hockey - hockey
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L1 mental lexicon
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Phonological
Syntagmatic Paradigmatic
( developmental process)
( younger learners
older learners)
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Commonness / Homogeneity in the their mental
lexicons (native speakers tend to give the same
word associates – more stable / consistent
associations)
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e.g. blanket: bed, warm, sheet, electric, cover, warmth,
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wool, soft, bath, snow
Mean proportion of NNS and NS
response types for WA (Wolter, 2001)
60
50
40
30
NNS
NS
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10
0
Para
Syntag
Phono
No
response
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L2 mental lexicon similar to
L1 mental lexicon
Earlier studies found NS had more paradigmatic
associations than NNS. But later studies (e.g.
Zareva, 2007) found the same shift in L2
learners, as they get more proficient in the
language, and as they grow older
Phonological
Syntagmatic
Paradigmatic
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Looking at your word associates
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What kinds of associations do you have most
(phonological, syntagmatic, paradigmatic) in
your WA tests?
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Pedagogical Implications
Developmental/ cognitive aspect:
 Younger learners tend to favor syntagmatic
associations: dog-bark
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Older learners tend to favor/ are capable of
handling paradigmatic associations /
semantically-related groups e.g. synonyms,
antonyms, hyponyms: dog-cat or dog-pet
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Semantic sets –
Synonyms & Antonyms
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Semantic sets –
Superordinates and Hyponyms
???
Lion
Tiger
Horse
Sports
???
???
???
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Semantic sets –
Superordinates and Hyponyms
Flat
Living room
Bedroom
Fridge
Kitchen
Bathroom
Utensils
Saucepan
Frying pan
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Thematic sets
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Word retention
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teach 8-12 vocabulary items in a 60-minute
lesson (Gairns & Redman, 1986)
The chances of learning and retaining a word
from one exposure is only 5-14% (Nagy, 1997)
5 – 16 times for a word to be learned (Zahar,
Cobb & Spada, 2001)
An important role for recycling (revisiting) of
the vocabulary learnt
Importance of Revision
Spaced / Distributed Repetition
Discussion
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Can you suggest some practical ways of
recycling or revising learnt words with students?
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Recycling of vocabulary (1)
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Horst & Meara (1999) – far more vocab is learnt if the same text
is read several times (the first reading focuses on understanding
meaning, while the later readings focus on the forms)
Following a piece of news for several days (word repetitions and
synonyms); encountering the same words in different contexts
Vocabulary quizzes
Different parts of speech (e.g. “shoulder” as a noun, and as a
verb)
Other meanings (polysemy) of a word (e.g. “head as a body part,
the school head, the department head, head of a queue)
Replacing general words by specific words (e.g. nice – attractive,
elegant, terrific)
Recycling of vocabulary (2)
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Look through the words recorded in your vocabulary
notebook or cards or mobile devices regularly, and test
yourself (e.g. by covering up the word or the meaning)
Try to use the words you learnt before, e.g. by writing
sentences or paragraphs using these words
Use mobile online apps which have the ‘favourite’ and
‘history’ (for recycling) features, e.g. rMerriam-Webster
(English to English)
Ask a friend to test you / practise using words you
learnt before with a friend
Using https://quizlet.com/
Quizlet.com
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For example, an architecture Quizlet site created
by Louisa and shared with her students:
https://quizlet.com/join/F7p7UXfPU
Teacher can create a class for students to join
and share the same vocab set
create sets (grouping vocab according to topic)
 get auto-definitions + pronunciation + images
 flashcards, tests & games
 downloadable as an Apps on smartphones or on
computers
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Reading
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Read the first 2 pages
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Nation, P. (2000). Learning vocabulary in lexical sets:
Dangers and guidelines. TESOL journal, 9(2), 6-10.
What, as Nation explains, are the similarities and
the differences in the methodology & results in
the three studies he reviews?
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Similarities in Research Methods
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Use pairs of 2 non-words
E.g. “Shamit” means “fast”
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“Ravos” means “rapid”
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Some pairs are related words and some pairs
are unrelated words
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Similarities in findings
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Very closely related words, such as synonyms
and antonyms (i.e. words that can substitute for
one another in a sentence; in paradigmatic
relationships) are more difficult to learn when
learnt together than unrelated words.
Words that are in syntagmatic relationships (i.e.
form a grammatical string) are easier to learn.
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Differences in findings
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Higa (1963):
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coordinates are easier to learn (e.g. apple, pear) than totally unrelated
words
BUT
 Tinkham (1993, 1997) + Waring (1997):
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Totally unrelated words are easier to learn than coordinates
Possible reason:
 Higa (1963) used 2 coordinates only (e.g. apple, pear)
 Tinkham (1993, 1997) and Waring (1997) used 6 coordinates (e.g. apple, pear,
nectarine, peach, apricot, plum)
 Other possible reasons? Immediate post test or delayed vocab test?
 Part of speech of the words?
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Pedagogical implications
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Do not present 2 closely related words together in
initial learning e.g. rapid and fast / hot and cold
Put them together only when one word is already
well learnt by the learner.
Thematic lexical sets work better with younger
learners than semantic sets, because a thematic set
consists of words of different parts of speech.
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Assignment
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Deadline: March 17
Hard copy to Cecilia; Soft copy via www.turnitin.com (Turnitin
instructions from Cecilia by email)
All students have been given the cover sheet
Assignments must be within the word limit: 2500 words
excluding the reference list (+/-10% of the prescribed length).
Assignments that are too long or too short should not be read
and should be assigned a Fail grade. See page 7 of the Student
Handbook.
Assessment criteria on Course Website
Assignments that plagiarize are assigned a zero grade. Please
paraphrase cited information in your own words and
acknowledge the sources using the APA style.
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