Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
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Conference Handbook
Wednesday 18 Friday 20 December 2013
Rutherford House,
Victoria University of Wellington,
New Zealand
www.vocab.org.nz
Welcome
Many thanks to the following organisations for their generous support of our conference. We encourage all delegates to
support them, now and in the future.
We are very glad you could join us for this special pre-Christmas conference here at Victoria University of Wellington.
Were looking forward to three full days of time together to talk about all kinds of vocabulary research and pedagogy,
amongst other things.
If you are a visitor to our capital city, we hope you take some time to look around Wellington. Ask us if youd like some
suggestions on things to do and see here that you might not be able to do anywhere else. It wouldnt be an Aotearoa/
New Zealand experience without a walk by the water, an ice cream or two, fish and chips, some good wine and beer,
and other local delights. A little tip from us about Wellington leave your umbrella at home.
Conference Partner
Were grateful for the support of our sponsors. We couldnt have had the conference without Paardekooper and
Associates.
Thanks again for making this first Vocab@Vic conference come to life.
The Vocab@Vic Conference Planning Committee
Major Sponsors
Vocab@Vic 2013 Conference Planning Committee
Back row: Averil Coxhead, Anna Siyanova, Stuart Webb, Peter Gu, Irina Elgort
Front row: Paul Nation, Frank Boers
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Sheppard, C.
Vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension: A meta-analysis
Opportunity to move to the other room
Zhong, H.F.
Aizawa, K. & Iso, T.
The dynamic interface between receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge
Better predictor of reading comprehension: Lexical coverage or vocabulary size?
Opportunity to move to the other room
Sugino, N., Fraser, S. & Aoani, N.
Quero, B.
Capturing and representing asymmetries in Japanese EFL learners mental lexicon
Lexical text coverage of medical texts written in English
Opportunity to move to the other room
Akbari, N,
Dang, Y. & Webb, S.
Comparing the trends of development in L2 and L1 mental lexicon, associations, vocabulary size, and reaction time
The lexical profile of academic spoken English
Lunch, Mezzanine Floor
RHLT2
RHLT3
Hulstijn, J.
The notion of shared vocabulary: Size and theoretical relevance
Opportunity to move to the other room
Racine, J.
Qian, D. & Lin, L.
Priming and profiles in first and second language word association
Power of the Vocabulary Levels Test for predicting writing proficiency
Opportunity to move to the other room
Daulton, F.
Gonzalez, M.
The heated exchange of (loan) words between Japan and America
The relationship between vocabulary size and diversity in L2 writing
Opportunity to move to the other room
Jiang, N., Guo, T. & Li, M.
White, R.
The translation frequency effect in L2 word recognition
The developing literate lexicon in L1 secondary school academic writing
Opportunity to move to the other room
Horst, M. & White, J.
Pinchbeck, G.
She loves me/she adores me: Cognates and reading comprehension
Vocabulary profiling of Canadian High School Diploma exam expository writing
Afternoon tea, Mezzanine Floor
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Newton, J.
Nomura, M.
L2 vocabulary teaching: What do teachers actually do?
Lexical diversity in Japanese EFL learners spoken and written production
Opportunity to move to the other room
Hestetraeet, T.I.
Hsu, W.
Teacher perceptions of vocabulary teaching and learning
Frequent multi-word sequences in English-medium textbooks of engineering core courses
Opportunity to move to the other room
Mizumoto, A., Yamanishi, H. & Urano, K.
Anthony, L.
Incorporating a self-regulated learning approach into vocabulary learning courses
A novel approach to medical program assessment using vocabulary profiling
Opportunity to move to the other room
Manalo, M. & Henning, M.
Ker, A.
Why students make little effort in learning L2 vocabulary
Ultra-dark matter: How lexical superlatives supplement their grammatical equivalents
Welcome Reception, Mezzanine Floor Sponsored by Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences
The Vocab@Vic Conference Planning Committee express their thanks and appreciation to the following organisations
for their contribution to the conference.
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Schmitt, N.
Size and depth of vocabulary: A review of the research
Opportunity to move to the other room
Elgort, I.
L2 vocabulary learning at different proficiencies: Do the rich really get richer?
Stand 1 - Cambridge
University Press
We invite you to explore the sponsor exhibits and learn about new products and services and perhaps new
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innovations.
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Abstracts
Aizawa, Kazumi (Tokyo Denki University, aizawa@cck.dendai.ac.jp), Iso, Tatsuo (Reitaku University, tiso@reitaku-u.ac.jp)
Traditionally, medical programs have been divided into two distinct stages. In the pre-clinical stage, students would study
subjects in biological and natural sciences in a traditional classroom environment. This would be followed by a clinical stage,
often attached to a working hospital, where students would learn general medicine and surgery and begin to specialize. In
recent years, however, these traditional programs have been criticized for overloading students with content and separating
medicine knowledge from medical practice both temporally as well as geographically. (McKimm, 2010). Recently, many
universities have begun adopting an integrated program design, in which the pre-clinical and clinical stages are less distinct
(vertically integration) and knowledge and skills across traditional content areas are grouped together into themes or panels
(horizontally integration). However, these vertically and horizontally integrated programs pose a new challenge for medical
program administrators, i.e., ensuring that important content is not overlooked or taught repeatedly across themes. In this
paper, we propose that vocabulary profiling of medical terminology can allow administrators to identify which key items
are under-emphasized or overemphasized in medical programs. The first step in this approach is to identify the vocabulary
associated with key concepts, diseases, signs, and symptoms of a particular theme. Using the example of dermatology, we
show how this vocabulary can be extracted from medical textbooks and course materials. We then show how vocabulary
profiling can be applied in the evaluation of a medical program in Hong Kong, before discussing some of the limitations of the
approach.
This study investigates which is the better predictor for reading comprehension, text coverage or vocabulary size. Two reading
texts (400 words length) with ten multiple questions were prepared for this study. Participants were fifty-two Japanese
learners of English at an engineering university. By using JACET 8000, beyond-2000 frequency band words used in each text
and their word tokens were analyzed and made into a list. The actual text coverage was calculated by taking the number of
unknown words in the list from the results of the self-report and multiplying it by the number of occurrences of such words
in the passages. As for vocabulary size, learners were asked to take the VLT Flash to estimate their vocabulary size. This online
vocabulary test was established by the authors to estimate the vocabulary size of the learner based upon the JACET 8000.
By using these data, learners vocabulary size and their text coverage of the texts were calculated. They finally read two texts
and answered twenty reading comprehension questions. The resulting correlation coefficients were .54 (p < .05) for reading
comprehension and text coverage and .46 (p < .05) for reading comprehension and vocabulary size. This showed that the
correlation between reading comprehension and text coverage did not differ much from that of reading comprehension and
vocabulary sizes. However, it was suggested that knowledge of passage-specific vocabulary, as opposed to general vocabulary,
may be a better indicator of successful reading comprehension.
Wednesday 18 December, 11:20 - 11:40am, Room: RHLT3, paper
Akbari, Neda (University of Canberra, Neda.Akbari@canberra.edu.au)
Comparing the trends of development in L2 and L1 mental lexicon, associations, vocabulary size, and reaction time
Words are an important component of language in second language (L2) learning since words carry meaning, and the ability
to communicate occurs through the meaning of words. This study investigated the trend of development in the L2 mental
lexicon (ML) from the three dimensions of associations, vocabulary size, and reaction time. The main purposes of this study
were to determine whether the L2 ML had a similar trend of development to the first language (L1) ML if the L2 was learned in
similar circumstances to the L1, and whether the L2 ML could resemble the L1 ML at some age. The immigrant students aged
6-17 undertaking mainstream education in the L2 (English) participated in this study. A Word Association Task and a yes/no
Lexical Decision Task were utilised in order to elicit associations and measure vocabulary size and reaction time respectively.
The findings of this study revealed a relatively similar trend of development for the L2 and L1 ML with small differences
between them. The findings also demonstrated large similarities between the L2 and L1 ML of students aged 15-17. The
findings were discussed in the broader context of childrens cognitive and linguistic development. The impacts of age and
environment for language learning were also discussed.
Wednesday 18 December, 12:10 - 12:30pm, Room: RHLT2, paper
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Boers, Frank (Victoria University of Wellington, Frank.Boers@vuw.ac.nz), Siyanova-Chanturia, Anna (Victoria University of
Wellington, Anna.Siyanova@vuw.ac.nz), Warren, Paul (Victoria University of Wellington, Paul.Warren@vuw.ac.nz)
Does adding pictures to glosses promote uptake of new words?
Marginal glosses are a common means to facilitate learners uptake of words from a text. It has been asserted in several
publications that glosses with a picture added to the verbal clarification of the words meaning are particularly effective in that
regard (Al-Seghayer, 2001; Kost, Foss, & Lenzini, 1999; Yeh & Wang, 2003; Yoshii, 2006; Yoshii & Flaitz, 2002). In the first part of
our presentation we re-assess the evidence presented in those publications. We then report data from new experiments where
we gauged adult L2 learners (total N > 130) recall of the form as well as the meaning of glossed words after conditions with
or without pictures added to the verbal clarifications. None of the experimental trials yielded data that showed an advantage
of having a picture with the gloss. Indeed, that condition consistently generated poorer post-test recall scores for the form of
the words. This suggests that pictures in marginal glosses distract from the form of the words that are clarified in them. That
suggestion is further explored in the third part of our presentation, where we report data from an eye-tracking experiment
(N > 20) in which we compared the amount of attention that readers give to words in glosses with and without incorporation
of pictures.
Friday 20 December, 11:30 - 11:50am, Room: RHLT2, paper
Boutorwick, TJ (Kwansei Gakuin University, tboutorwick@yahoo.com)
The effects of extensive reading on learners lexical richness
This presentation will discuss the results of a case study examining how EFL learners written lexical richness (LR) is affected
by extensive reading. LR, the term for a variety of statistics that attempt to quantify the degree to which a writer is using
a varied and large vocabulary, constitutes an insightful avenue for examining productive vocabulary knowledge in second
language acquisition. Empirically, LR statistics have been found to correlate with other productive vocabulary-assessing
measures including holistic composition profiles and discrete-point vocabulary size tests. However, there are virtually no
studies that have investigated the effects of extensive reading on learners LR, even though research has suggested ER to
be an effective method for improving productive vocabulary knowledge. To address this gap, the current study tracked 13
EFL students LR over 10 weeks for any systematic changes in two commonly-used LR measures: lexical variation and lexical
density. Each week the students read one graded reader. After reading, they were given approximately 30 minutes to compose
a summary/response to the story. Results show unstable fluctuations over the 10 weeks, suggesting a 10-week ER treatment
may be insufficient for notable increases in learners writing quality.
Friday 20 December, 9:50 - 10:10am, Room: RHLT3, paper
Brown, Dale (Osaka University, dbrown@lang.osaka-u.ac.jp)
Three approaches to an operational definition of collocation
Collocations have prompted much discussion in L2 research in recent years, and yet it has proven difficult to pin down a
definition of collocation. This presentation will discuss three approaches to an operational definition of collocation in the
context of the refinement of an instrument designed to elicit the productive collocational knowledge of learners of English.
The instrument, LexCombi (Barfield, 2009), presents learners with 30 noun cues and asks for three collocates in response
to each. The intention is that these responses can then be rated and the quality of learners knowledge of collocations
determined. In order to do this it is thus necessary to judge the acceptability of the learners responses; in other words,
the idea of collocation must be operationalised and strictly defined. This presentation will report on the trialling of three
approaches to operationalising collocation: (1) a dictionary-based approach, in which lists from dictionaries of collocations
have been combined; (2) a corpus-based approach, involving multiple searches of corpora using different criteria; and (3)
a norms-based approach, using the responses of native speakers of English and of advanced L2 users of English to define
acceptable responses. The presenter will discuss the similarities and differences between the lists of acceptable collocations
produced, looking both at where the lists overlap and at how and why differences arise between them, consider the possiblity
of combining the lists in different ways, and reflect on the implications of each approach.
Thursday 19 December, 9:00 - 9:20am, Room: RHLT2, paper
Browne, Dr. Charles (Meiji Gakuin University, browne@gol.com)
A new General Service List: Celebrating 60 years of vocabulary learning
In 1953, Michael West published a list of important vocabulary words known as the General Service List (GSL). Although the
corpus used was small by todays standards (only 2.5 million words) and is of course missing many modern high frequency
words such as email, Internet or cell phone, the list was the remarkable culmination of nearly 2 decades of pre-computer
era corpus research and a series of meetings and discussions with corpus linguists and experienced EFL and ESL teachers
around the world. On the 60th anniversary of the publication of this list, we (Browne, Culligan and Phillips, 2013) would like
to introduce a New General Service List (NGSL). The NGSL is based on a carefully selected 273 million word subsection of the
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more than 1.5 billion word CEC (Cambridge English Corpus) and uses the power of modern computers and corpus analysis
software to help create a list of high-frequency words that provides a higher coverage of texts with fewer words than the
original GSL. Like the GSL before it, this interim list is seen as a starting point for discussion and debate with corpus linguists
and experienced EFL and ESL teachers about what words should be added/deleted - a website dedicated to refining this list
will be introduced at the end of the presentation.
Thursday 19 December, 12:40 - 1:30pm, Room: Mezzanine Floor, poster
Browne, Dr. Charles (Meiji Gakuin University, browne@gol.com)
Introducing the Online Graded Text Editor (OGTE)
This presentation introduces the online, free-to-use, open-source Online Graded Text Editor (OGTE) webpage for writing
and editing graded materials. The tool, created by Drs. Charles Browne and Rob Waring, is part of their free website called
ER-Central.com which pulls together as many relevant resources as possible for those who are interested in online gradedreading and vocabulary learning. Similar in function to the wonderful VocabProfile tool available on Tom Cobbs website, the
OGTE is less focused than VocabProfile on the ANALYSIS of texts and much more focused on helping teachers and authors
to be able to EDIT and WRITE texts. In its current beta form, the OGTE allows users to set the intended difficulty of the text
they want to simplify (or create) from 16 levels of lexical difficutly based on the ERF Scale (Extensive Reading Foundation).
Users then paste their own text into the web page which calculates the frequency and level of each word in the text. For ease
of identification, the web app graphically colors all words that are outside the set level and words not appearing in the word
lists at all. Users edit the text by removing out-of-level words and the web app re-analyses the text automatically. Soon, users
will also be able to select from additional word lists such as the GSL and NGSL, AWL, Business lists, TOEIC, etc. Users can
also set certain words (e.g. proper nouns) to be ignored in the analysis so they do not affect the detailed statistics or analysis
presented.
Thursday 19 December, 1:30 - 1:50pm, Room: RHLT3, paper
Chang, Anna C-S (Hsing-Wu University, annachang@livemail.tw)
Learning Vocabulary from Graded Readers: Text Levels and Learning Rates
This study explores text levels and vocabulary learning rates. Thirty-one students, who had previously read 25 graded readers
up to level two, were asked to read five level one readers and then to read five level three readers in 13 weeks. A total of
126 target words were tested (51 and 75 from levels one and three). Students receptive vocabulary knowledge was tested
through a meaning-matching method. Twenty-one low frequency words from both text levels were further tested with the
contextualized translation method. Students were given a pre-test, post-test, and a three-month delayed post-test. The
results show that with the meaning-matching test method, students vocabulary learning rates were about 83% for level one
texts, and 80% for level three texts, and 95% of the words learned were retained after a three-month period for both text
levels. For the contextualized translation method test, the acquisition rates were 92% and 85% for level one and level three,
respectively, and the retention rates were the same, 94%. The overall results show that students learning rates for reading
level one graded readers were slightly higher than reading level three texts in both test methods. The retention rates however
were similar for both text levels and also for both test methods. The unusually high learning and retention rates surprised the
researcher. After interviews with the participants, the researcher found that continuous reading was the key to their higher
learning rates. The more they read, the easier it was for them to acquire vocabulary knowledge.
Friday 20 December, 10:15 - 10:35am, Room: RHLT3, paper
Cobb, Tom (Universit du Qubec Montral, cobb.tom@sympatico.ca)
A lot of banks: can collocates tell them apart?
The Range or Vocabprofile family of text analysis computer programs (which analyze a text according to the frequency of its
words in a corpus) has had a major impact on ESL reading, materials selection/creation, and testing. In conjunction with a
frequency based vocabulary test, such an analysis can reliably match texts and learners to achieve specific reading goals. Its
power can probably be increased, however, by refining the concepts of frequency and word. Frequency can be cut finer by
considering what is frequent to particular groups of learners, such as L2 words already known in L1. Word can be cut finer by
(1) dissociating different words that happen to share a common word form (bank), and (2) combining different words that in
fact have a single meaning and are processed as a single unit (a lot, in certain contexts). Work on the frequency modification
with regard to French learners will be discussed in the presentation by Horst et al. My talk will look at ways to achieve the
word modification, which involves training computer programs to distinguish contexts rather than items. A first guess how
is to train computers to recognize and assess the collocates of particular words. Can a program use the frequent collocates of
bank and bank, or a lot and a lot, to make such distinctions reliably? With what increase in power of the analysis? Two years
work incorporating the Sharp BNC-based Just-the-Word collocational database within Vocabprofile will be presented, and
proposals for empirical testing with learners.
Thursday 19 December, 10:15 - 10:35am, Room: RHLT2, paper
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What is the role of lexical proficiency in learning new words in a second or foreign language? Is its effect on learning quantitative,
qualitative, or both? Studies in applied linguistics suggest that there is a quantitative effect, with more proficient bilinguals
being able to learn more new words from reading (Pulido, 2007; Horst, Cobb & Meara, 1998). There is also evidence from
psycholinguistic studies that the learning of meaning proceeds differently for less and more proficiency bilinguals (Finkbeiner,
Forster, Nicol, & Nakamura, 2004; Kroll, Michael, Tokowicz, & Dufour, 2002). Recent neurolinguistic studies suggest that there
are qualitative differences in lexical processing, as L2 processing involves more extended activity of the neural system for
less proficient than more proficient bilinguals and native speakers, with brain areas related to cognitive control involved
in the former (Autalebi, 2008). In this presentation, results from two experimental studies will be used to provide evidence
of quantitative and qualitatively differences in the outcomes of intentional and incidental L2 vocabulary learning. In the
first study, deliberate learning using bilingual flashcards resulted in high quality lexical-semantic representations for
higher but not lower proficiency adult German-English bilinguals, even though there were no differences in their ability to
connect meaning and form in a pen and paper test. In the second study, higher proficiency but not lower proficiency adult
L2 participants were able to access abstracted meanings of incidentally learned words in a speeded semantic judgment task.
Implications of these findings for L2 vocabulary learning will be discussed.
This study investigated (a) the lexical demands of academic spoken English and (b) the coverage of the Academic Word List
(AWL) in academic spoken English. The researchers analyzed the vocabulary in 160 lectures and 39 seminars from four
disciplinary sub-corpora of the British Academic Spoken English (BASE) corpus: Arts and Humanities, Life and Medical
Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences. The results showed that knowledge of the most frequent 4,000 word families
plus proper nouns and marginal words provided 96.05% coverage, and knowledge of the most frequent 8,000 word families
plus proper nouns and marginal words provided 98.00% coverage of academic spoken English.
The vocabulary size necessary to reach 95% coverage of each sub-corpus ranged from 3,000 to 5,000 word families plus proper
nouns and marginal words and 5,000 to 13,000 word families plus proper nouns and marginal words to reach 98% coverage.
The AWL accounted for 4.41% coverage of academic spoken English. Its coverage in each sub-corpus ranged from 3.82% to
5.21%. With the help of the AWL, learners with knowledge of proper nouns and marginal words will need a vocabulary of 3,000
and 8,000 word families to reach 95% and 98% coverage of academic spoken English, respectively.
Wednesday 18 December, 12:10 - 12:30pm, Room: RHLT3, paper
In Japan, English borrowing is the juggernaut of lexical growth. Each day, English (and pseudo-English) words are unilaterally
adopted by various individuals such as students, academics, bureaucrats and marketers. Sometimes these loanwords reach
the lexical mainstream, often through dissemination by the mass media. Along with this lexical flood have come nearly half
of the top-3000 word families of the British National Corpus (BNC), and the resulting cognates facilitate various aspects of
vocabulary acquisition: aural recognition and pronunciation; spelling; listening comprehension; retention of spoken and
written input; and recognition and recall at especially advanced levels of vocabulary. Naturally the Japanese greatly depend on
these cognates in their English production, and they are open to information on loanwords efficacy. Unfortunately teachers
and academics in Japan either ignore these cognates or acknowledge them disparagingly. Meanwhile, in contrast to the flood
of English words in Japanese, there are relatively few Japanese words in English, and their uses are circumscribed, typically
filling lexical gaps intrinsically related to Japan and therefore of narrow use. Yet Japanese is considered a major source of
loanwords, and these borrowings play a prominent role, clustering in culturally salient areas highly relevant to sophisticated
individuals, as can been in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA).
What is the status quo of vocabulary knowledge (VK) and vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) of Chinese non-English major
students at tertiary level? What is the role played by individual and overall variables (e.g. gender, discipline, proficiency level,
vocabulary learning strategy use) to a comprehensive exploration of the flora and fauna of the landscape of their VK? What
are the Chinese EFL students perception of their VK and VLSs, and how do they think VLSs affect their VK accumulation? This
session purports to illuminate their VK construction mechanism in relation to the aforementioned variables. Based upon
Cochrans (1977) formula for sample size, this paper intends to invite a total of 360 second-year and third-year non-English
majors from three Chinese universities of different areas. The computational tool Coh-Metrix will be adopted to analyze the
essays written by them using lexical indices related to depth, breadth and accessibility to core lexical items, with Vocabulary
Size Test (VST), Word Associates Test (WAT) being carried out along, in order to arrive at an in-depth understanding of their
depth and breadth of VK. In addition, a VLS questionnaire will also be implemented. To confirm the quantitative results of the
study, a follow-up qualitative semi-structured interview will be administered for purpose of triangulation. A fuller picture
of the VK and VLSs of Chinese EFL leaners at tertiary level will be made possible through the findings, which will inform
curriculum developers and other stakeholders and shed light on both vocabulary teaching and learning.
Thursday 19 December, 12:40 - 1:30pm, Room: Mezzanine Floor, poster
Folse, Keith (University of Central Florida, keith.folse@gmail.com)
Vocabulary or grammar: Whats being taught in Spanish 101?
Research has clearly established the need for learning a tremendous number of vocabulary items, and foreign language
learners acknowledge the severe lexical gap they face. Given the preponderance of evidence supporting increased emphasis
on increasing students lexicons, we would expect that foreign language courses would emphasize vocabulary. In stark contrast
to these research findings and related learner needs, however, many if not most language courses still focus on grammar over
vocabulary. Based on the design of a study of the extent to which vocabulary was taught in an academic prep intensive English
program, this paper presents findings of a preliminary investigation into what is actually taught in first-year Spanish classes
at a large university in the U.S. While we in TESOL focus on English, there are many more students of Spanish as a foreign
language in the United States than there are ESL learners.
Friday 20 December, 1:55 - 2:15 pm, Room: RHLT3, paper
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Franken, Margaret (The University of Waikato, franken@waikato.ac.nz), Wu, Shaoqun (University of Waikato, shaoqun@
waikato.ac.nz)
The questions of learners use of a corpus-based system for collocation learning
The last decade has seen significant possibilities through technological tools (including the web, digital library software) to
expose students to large amounts of language data that is searchable and browseable for vocabulary, collocations, and lexical
sequences. This affordance is beyond what Johns (1990), an early proponent of data driven learning, probably envisioned
when he advocated for students to become language research workers. But in fact, we know little about students use of such
technological tools. In this presentation, we discuss the perennial questions: How do we know students are using them? How
can we know how theyre using them? How can we tell if their use makes a difference? We share the challenges and limitations
that we as researchers have experienced in our development and evaluation of a self-access, data-driven, and corpus-based
system for collocation learning, called FLAX (Flexible Language Acquisition). The paper evaluates whether the questions
above have been, or can be, adequately addressed in our own studies, and those of other researchers working in this tradition.
In addition, I collected information (through semi-structured interviews) about the participants age, length of residence
in NZ, their use of L1, their attitude toward L1 maintenance, and other factors that are believed to influence development
and attrition of vocabulary knowledge. In my presentation I report and discuss the extent to which each of these factors is
correlated with the participants scores on the two vocabulary tests in my study.
Non-presenting authors: Walter Davies, Hiroshima University; Keiso Tatsukawa, Hiroshima University
Corpus design and the creation of medical English wordlists
We report on the initial stage of a collaborative research project between the Institute for Foreign Language Research and
Education and the Faculty of Medicine at Hiroshima University, Japan. Our ultimate aim is to provide university learners of
medical English with the means, via a highly specialised corpus and wordlists, to efficiently acquire the most useful lexis
and phraseological/rhetorical patterns of their discipline. We expect these lists to provide the basis of a highly relevant and
practical English syllabus, leading eventually to the creation of a set of lexically-based materials. To compile such a specialised
corpus, selecting the most appropriate texts is of primary importance. However, achieving this is usually far from easy for the
non-specialist English teacher, who will often rely on informed guesswork, particularly in a difficult, multidisciplinary field
like medicine. Although we have had some previous success in compiling wordlists which provide good coverage of medical
texts, the corpus from which they were derived may not have included the subjects and text types most relevant to our
students. To address this limitation, we conducted interviews and surveys enabling us to build up an accurate picture of
learners requirements. We ascertained 1) the various, and wide-ranging, medical sub-disciplines encountered in the different
years of university study; 2) the precise contents of the medical syllabus and the materials used; and 3) the key medical texts
and seminal research articles in each of the major areas. We show how this information informed the design stage of our
medical English corpus.
Although vocabulary has long been an important criterion for assessing second language (L2) writing proficiency, recent
research on academic discourse has positioned word study as a leading method to improve learner writing. As a result, teachers
must make decisions on which words warrant instructional time and how to help learners deploy these words effectively
in production. While there has been a growing trend in research investigating word lists, comparatively fewer studies have
examined how words are actually used to achieve writing quality. Thus, the present paper reports the findings of a quantitative
study that examined the extent to which vocabulary size and lexical diversity contributed to writing scores on 172 native and
advanced non-native English speakers academic essays. Results revealed that lexical diversity had a significantly greater
impact on writing score than vocabulary size in both native and non-native speaker essays. Nevertheless, vocabulary size
did initially facilitate writing scores at the lower score levels; however, it was lexical diversity that promoted an essay into
the higher score range. Additional findings demonstrated that vocabulary size had only a moderate relationship to lexical
diversity. Outcomes from this study suggest that variation of mid-range vocabulary may play a more important role in writing
proficiency than the use of infrequent terms that signal a larger productive lexicon. Furthermore, the results indicate that it
is not enough to simply teach vocabulary words in the L2 composition classroom, but to also guide learners in how to employ
these words in a varied manner within their writing.
Wednesday 18 December, 2:20 - 2:40pm, Room: RHLT3, paper
Fujieda, Miho (Kyoto College of Medical Science, mfujieda@kyoto-msc.jp), Suzuki, Hiroko (Tokai University, hirosuzu@
tokai-u.jp), Koyama, Yukie (Nagoya Institute of Technology, koyama@nitech.ac.jp)
Creating corpus-informed word lists for a college radiology ESP program
In this age of English as a global lingua franca, a key role of post-secondary education in an EFL context is supporting students
to fully participate as bilingual specialists in professional discourse communities (Fukui et al., 2009). To this end, college
English instructors are responsible for designing curricula and providing materials that anticipate students future careers.
If English for specific purposes (ESP) materials introduced as primary sources of language input are selected or developed
according to students English proficiency rather than their knowledge of the content, English reading texts will fall short of
providing fundamental profession-specific vocabulary. A variety of English for academic purposes (EAP) and ESP word lists
have been generated in the past through a range of methods (Coxhead, 2000; Wang, Liang, & Ge, 2008; Ward, 2009). The present
study goes further emphasizing the vocabulary students need exposure to, specifically corpus-informed graded ESP word
lists in the field of radiology. Three specialized corpora were compiled from sources targeting audiences with different levels of
specialized knowledge: 1) patient education information for ordinary people, 2) texts from introductory university textbooks,
and 3) research journal articles. From each corpus, key words were extracted based on frequency, range, and keyness. These
three word lists were compared and analyzed in terms of semantic relationships and degrees of overlap in order to reflect the
paths of learners specialized content knowledge. Pedagogical implications of the lists as a tool for developing ESP reading
materials will be discussed.
Thursday 19 December, 11:55 - 12:15pm, Room: RHLT3, paper
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Vocabulary assessment commonly focuses either on breadth estimates (Nation, 1990) or depth assessment for a few items
(Wesche & Paribakht, 1996). The checklist test (Meara & Buxton, 1987) relies on self-assessment for large numbers of words,
but there are concerns about its reliability. This presentation introduces Bricklayer, a computer game which modifies selfassessment by spot-checking learners self-report. Learners must rank their knowledge for a list of words. Performance results
in a game score. Unlike traditional tests in which each item is measured individually, words are ranked in relation to each
other, making the results highly contextualized. Intermediate ESL learners (N = 28) were assessed twice on each of 72 words. A
subsequent multiple-choice test elicited actual word knowledge. A logistic regression model was built using the participants
overall word rankings in Bricklayer, each users specific word rankings, and the users overall ability level based on game scores.
The models predictive accuracy was comparable to a checklist assessment (61% accuracy for known words; 73% accuracy for
unknown words). However, accuracy for unknown words increased to 87% when considering only low scoring games and
accuracy for known words increased to 71% for high scoring games. These results suggest that, given Bricklayers sensitivity to
the overall context, it is well suited to assessing large numbers of words in a computer adaptive environment in which the user
is given word lists based on previous performance. The presentation will discuss pedagogical implications and also explore
Bricklayers sensitivity to partial semantic knowledge.
Friday 20 December, 4:00 - 4:20pm, Room: RHLT2, paper
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Lwin, Soe Marlar (National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, smarlar.lwin@nie.edu.sg)
Comparatives and superlatives in English are identified most closely with inflected and phrasal forms of adjectives (e.g. better,
more important, greatest, most common). Biber et al. (1999) found that in a corpus consisting of news, academic prose, fiction
and conversation, comparative forms of adjectives were twice as common as superlative ones. Given the human predilection
for expressing ourselves in superlative terms, such a high ratio appears surprising. The paper will begin by revisiting the
nature of comparison. A taxonomy will be presented which expands the semantic range of how comparison is traditionally
understood to include categories like non-scalar (same / different) comparison (Ker, 2006). A conceptual framework for the
case of superlative meanings building on Huddleston & Pullums (2002) distinction between absolute and relative superlatives
will also be established. Against this background, findings from the ICE-NZ corpus will be reported which demonstrate the
important though under-appreciated role lexis plays in comparison in general. Further concordance data from ICE-NZ will
then be used to demonstrate that lexical superlatives provide a varied and frequently-used alternative to their inflectional
and phrasal equivalents. If the frequency of lexical superlatives is taken into account, the gap between comparative and
superlative adjective forms which Biber et al. pointed out narrows significantly hence the analogy with dark matter.
Implications of these findings for the teaching of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) will be explored. Some key semantic
features of lexical superlatives will be explained, together with patterns of collocation and colligation which are relevant to
their use.
This study investigates how verbal and non-verbal features of storytelling interaction could facilitate young childrens
understanding of the meanings of spoken vocabulary items. Many studies have been done on parent-child interactions
during shared storybook reading to examine their benefits on childrens vocabulary development. Few studies have examined
the interactional strategies used by trained storytellers whose storytelling is not typically accompanied by a book but only by
their well-coordinated gestures, elaborate facial expressions and voice modulation. Applying a multimodal spoken discourse
analysis, this study qualitatively examines the verbal, vocal and visual features used by three trained storytellers during their
storytelling sessions for young children. The results show that besides verbal features, such as scaffolding through questioning
or providing a synonym, the storytellers used specific types of gestures, facial expressions and voice modulation to help
children in making inferences about unfamiliar words in relation to the plot and characters. Inviting and allowing children
to become involved in the storytelling process by acting out the meanings or representations of certain words was another
common interactional strategy used by the three storytellers. The childrens verbal and non-verbal responses shows evidence
of how these interactional strategies have possibly facilitated their understanding of the meanings of several vocabulary
items. The study offers implications for leveraging on the multimodal meaning-making potential of storytelling interaction
while providing young children exposure to spoken vocabulary which has important links to their language development.
Friday 20 December, 9:25 - 9:45am, Room: RHLT3, paper
Manalo, Emmanuel (Waseda University, emmanuel.manalo@gmail.com), Henning, Marcus (The University of Auckland,
m.henning@auckland.ac.nz)
The use of L2 collocations is problematic for learners regardless of years of instruction they received, their native language,
or the task they have to perform (Alterberg & Granger, 2001; Granger, 1998; Hasselgren, 1994; Howarth, 1996; Liu, 1999;
Kaszubski, 2000; Nesselhauf, 2005; Schmitt, 2004). The use of L1 collocations, on the other hand, seems to be less immune to
attrition than other language features (Laufer, 2003; Pavlenko, 2010). I report on two studies, one of L2 acquisition, the other
of L1 attrition. The first study compared highly advanced L2 users and native speakers on five areas of lexical proficiency:
richness and variation in writing, vocabulary size, collocation knowledge and use. The number of L2 users who performed like
native speakers was lowest on collocation use and collocation knowledge test. The second study compared Russian- speaking
immigrants in Israel who remained monolingual, i.e. did not acquire Hebrew (L2) with immigrants who acquired Hebrew and
with Russian speaking controls in Russia. Four areas of L1 were examined: lexical retrieval, production of irregular verbs,
production of the future tense of regular verbs and correctness judgment of collocations. Attrition of collocations was found
in the results of both immigrant groups: those who learnt Hebrew and those who remained monolingual. I will relate the
results to the issues of input, instruction, direct and indirect cross linguistic influence in order to explain why collocations,
more than other language features, are difficult to acquire and easy to attrite.
The influence of cognitive cost on students selection and use of learning strategies has not been adequately investigated
in previous research. In this study, we examined whether students make adequate effort in learning second language (L2)
vocabulary words, and considered possible reasons for the amount of effort they use. The participants were 84 Japanese
undergraduate university students taking a compulsory course in English. The course required learning of words from
Coxheads (2000) academic words list; the students received bi-weekly tests on selected words. We examined the students
performance in two consecutive tests, and their responses to surveys about the learning strategies they used. The results
showed that on average the students employed a strategy requiring low effort, and half of the strategies were of a shallow
processing type involving only repetition and rote memorization. Sixty-two per cent of the students indicated that they could
think of a more effective strategy. However, in the second test, only 22% of those students reported using the more effective
strategy, while 71% of the total reported using the exact same strategy as in the first test. An examination of the relationships
between the types and difficulty levels of the strategies employed, and the students scores in the tests, suggest that more
effort did not necessarily equate to the use of deeper processing strategies; nor did it result in better outcomes in the tests.
These disconnections between effort, strategy type, and test outcomes likely explain the low cognitive effort the students
were making in learning.
The role of receptive morphological knowledge in partial word written form production has not received proper attention in
second language vocabulary research. Addressing this issue, the current paper examined 54 Taiwanese university students
existing receptive morphological knowledge, as measured by the tests of word class and word segmentation, and their
productive vocabulary knowledge. Preliminary results indicated: (1) the participants receptive morphological knowledge was
significantly positive moderately correlated with their productive word knowledge; (2) repeated measures (within-subjects)
analysis of variance showed that more completed words were produced when the word length ranges from 6-letters to
8-letters, and more partial words were produced for the lengths from 9-letters to 12-letters; and (3) non-parametric Friedman
test revealed that the participants produced longer partial words for each word length category. These findings led to further
investigation for understanding the pattern of partial word written form and its relationship between the students existing
morphological knowledge. The results from further investigation of the students partial word production revealed that the
students produced longer letter-strings for partial words based on their knowledge of affixes and knowledge of word class.
These farther results lend support to the contribution of receptive morphological knowledge to partial word production.
Implications for integrating morphological knowledge into productive vocabulary teaching and learning are provided.
Domain-specific words such as academic words (Coxhead, 2000) are often extracted for efficient vocabulary learning in a
genre. Text coverage has been used for evaluating these groups of words (Coxhead, 2000; Hyland & Tse, 2007); however, it
is not appropriate for comparing the efficiency between grouped words when the numbers of words are different between
the groups. To solve this problem, this study developed an index titled Text Covering Efficiency (TCE) which is the mean text
coverage per unit number of words of each group of words. The validity of TCE was tested by applying it to Japanese Common
Academic Words (Matsushita, 2011), Japanese Literary Words (Matsushita, 2012) and other types of grouped words. The result
shows that TCE clearly indicates the efficiency in gaining text coverage, and thus it is useful for deciding a more efficient
learning/teaching order of words. In addition, TCE is a robust index by which different lexical features in different genres can
be clarified as well. For example, such an analysis allows you to say things like, Learning the intermediate Japanese Common
Academic Words is 6.2 times more efficient in covering Japanese social science texts than learning other words at the same
level, and 8.3 times more efficient than learning the advanced common academic words. TCE enables us to compare many
different types of grouped words in many different genres. Therefore, it makes easier to decide what words should be learned
first to read texts in a genre and to examine the lexical features of texts in different genres.
Thursday 19 December, 2:20 - 2:40pm, Room: RHLT3, paper
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Rasch validated (Beglar, 2010); the Vocabulary Size Test (VST) (Nation& Beglar, 2007) is an increasingly popular measure of
decontextualized written receptive vocabulary size. While Beglar (2010) indicates that the VST has high internal reliability, the
overestimating of learners vocabulary sizes due to cognates and guessing remain issues. This paper reports on results from
4,831 Japanese university student VST tests. The students were grouped by year, major and hensachi (national ability test
results). In the study, we found the VSTs reliability to be high (Chronbachs alpha = .92). Mean VST scores decline progressively
from 1st through 4th year students. English majors demonstrated greater lexical knowledge than science majors, who in turn
out-performed arts majors. Unexpected patterns were found in the knowledge students demonstrated: greater knowledge
of less frequent 1000-word bands than more frequent word bands, and variations of up to 60% in correct responses between
consecutive items. Rasch analysis indicates that guessing is inflating participants scores. Significant correlations were found
between VST scores and hensachi scores, TOEIC scores and TOFEL scores. In line with Okamotos (2007) and Cobb & Horsts
(1999) research in Japan and Hong Kong respectively, the data collected in this study posits that Japanese English education
is facilitating lexical attrition. The VST effectively separates participants in line with their lexical ability, however assigning a
written receptive vocabulary size through the VST remains problematic. Thus, the VST and other vocabulary size instruments
would benefit from further editing, being based on less formal corpora, being more sensitive, and not containing more
cognates/loan words than the L1 within the range of vocabulary being tested.
Despite the sizable body of recent research on L2 vocabulary teaching and learning (e.g., Nation 2001, 2008) and the range
of publications advising teachers on effective vocabulary teaching strategies (e.g., Nation and Gu, 2007; Schmitt, 2000), there
is a distinct lack of research on how teachers actually address vocabulary in their classroom practice. This paper reports on
a study that addresses this gap through an extensive survey-based investigation into the vocabulary-related practices of
teachers in a variety of settings (EFL and ESL, high schools, universities and private language schools) and national contexts.
The paper reports on main findings from the analysis of survey responses and looks at how the data corresponds to principles
and advice for vocabulary teaching found in the research literature.
Wednesday 18 December, 4:00 - 4:20pm, Room: RHLT2, paper
Nomura, Mariko (Kanda University of International Studies, m.nomura311@gmail.com)
Lexical diversity in Japanese EFL learners spoken and written production
This study investigates the lexical richness of Japanese EFL learners spoken and written production from the perspective of
lexical diversity. Previous vocabulary research has suggested that a value called D (or Diversity) is a good measure of lexical
diversity even for short texts, not being influenced by text length (e.g., Durn, Malvern, Richards & Chipere, 2004). Previous
studies have tested the validity of D with respect to the lexical diversity of Japanese EFL learners production by using spoken
or written data alone. For instance, Koizumi (2007) showed that D was a valid index of lexical diversity for spoken data
produced by Japanese secondary school students. Little is known as to how valid D values are for both spoken and written
texts from the same learners at the secondary school level. The present study used spoken and written texts on two different
topics produced by 42 Japanese secondary school students who had three levels of EIKEN certification (Grades 3, Pre-2 and
2). EIKEN is Japans most widely used English language testing program which measures English proficiency. D values for the
paired data were calculated using Meara and Miralpeixs (2007) D_Tools program. The results showed that learners written
texts were more lexically diverse than their spoken texts: the mean D score was about 20 higher in the written texts. More
proficient learners also used more lexically diverse language than less proficient learners. In this study, D proved to be valid
for both modes of short texts produced by Japanese secondary school students.
Wednesday 18 December, 4:00 - 4:20pm, Room: RHLT3, paper
Parent, Kevin (Korea Maritime University, ksparent1@gmail.com)
Polysemy and the language learner
This presentation discusses the concepts of polysemy and homonymy, and the problems they pose to language learners.
It reports on a study conducted with learners encountering high frequency words employing rare meanings (the culinary
meaning of cure, the sea-inlet meaning of sound, etc.) which shows a strong tendency for learners to cling to the familiar
meaning even when it results in sentences we might expect would be rejected. Also discussed are whether all meanings of
a polyseme be taught at once when the word is introduced or if this increases the learning burden. We will also examine the
most frequent words with multiple but unrelated meanings and how this should influence the construction of word lists. If, for
example, the homonym miss is two different words (one a title and the other a verb and its related noun), should its inclusion
on high frequency word lists be adjusted?
Friday 20 December, 3:35 - 3:55pm, Room: RHLT3, paper
Pinchbeck, Geoffrey (University of Calgary, ggpinchb@ucalgary.ca)
Vocabulary profiling of Canadian High School Diploma exam expository writing
This presentation will examine the relationship between vocabulary use and academic success in mainstream grade 12 English
Language Arts (ELA) classrooms. Canadian urban centres are undergoing a rapid demographic shift, one result of which has
been a call for academic language to be given a more prominent role in public educational planning across the curricula.
Working towards the development of an academic lexical syllabus component within the mainstream K-12 secondary
curricular framework, we hope to refine the construct of general academic language within Canadian secondary education
settings (as opposed to post-secondary settings, e.g. Coxhead, 2000). We are in the process of compiling a >2,000,000-word,
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grade-12-student written corpus from a large random sample of essays from a provincial diploma ELA exam. Lexical indexes
such as frequency and diversity data and vocabulary profiles then will be generated by aligning essay vocabulary with reference
corpora of adult British5 and American7 English as well as an American K-12 textbook and reader corpus. Vocabulary profiles
will then be compared to the following associated data: 1) official provincial exam essay scores (holistic rubric), 2) writing
error data using a detailed coded rubric, and 3) student high-school transcripts. Using a combination of discriminant and
regression analytical approaches, we plan to identify a domain of mid-frequency vocabulary that explains unique variance
of both essay quality and general academic success. We present how this research might be used to develop tools to monitor
English academic literacy development for diagnostic purposes and to inform a strategic K-12 academic language pedagogy.
Wednesday 18 December, 3:10 - 3:30pm, Room: RHLT3, paper
Qian, David (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, David.Qian@polyu.edu.hk), Lin, Linda (The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, linda.lin@Polyu.edu.hk)
Power of the Vocabulary Levels Test for predicting writing proficiency
The Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) has played a useful role in predicting various aspects of EFL learners proficiency (Laufer,1997;
Qian, 1999, 2002; Staehr, 2008). Staehr, for example, identifies a strong correlation between learners scores from the VLT and
those from an English proficiency test. Little research, however, has hitherto extended to comparisons between the VLTs
predicative power and that of high-stakes proficiency tests, for example, Use of English (UE) and the National Matriculation
English Test (NMET), two English language tests in the university entrance examinations in Hong Kong and China respectively.
This paper presents an empirical study exploring the extent to which the VLT can predict one aspect of EFL learners language
proficiency, namely, writing. Two groups of first-year degree students in a major university in Hong Kong, 67 from Hong Kong
and 83 from mainland China, participated in the study. The participants were asked to take the VLT and a writing test. Scores
from these tests were then compared with their scores from UE and the NMET. It was found that VLTs predictive power for
assessing writing performance was considerably lower than that of UE, a well-established proficiency test, but significantly
higher than that of the NMET, also a long-established high-stakes test. An analysis of lexical richness (lexical profile, lexical
sophistication and lexical variation) in the writing of these two groups of learners added more empirical evidence to this
finding. Results of the study also suggest that the 5000 vocabulary level is an important threshold for the writing of EFL
students at the tertiary level. References Laufer, B. (1997). The lexical plight in second language reading: words you dont know,
words you think you know and words you cant guess. In J. Coady & T. Huckin (Eds.) Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition:
a Rationale for Pedagogy (pp. 20-34). Cambridge University Press. Qian, D. D. (2002). Investigating the relationship between
vocabulary knowledge and academic reading performance: An assessment perspective. Language Learning. 52(3), 513-536
Qian, D. D. (1999). Assessing the roles of depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension. Canadian
Modern Language Review, 56(2), 282-307. Staehr, L. S. (2008). Vocabulary size and the skills of listening, reading and writing.
Language Learning Journal, 36(2), 139-152.
Ruegg, Rachael (Akita International University, rachaelruegg@gmail.com), Brown, Cherie (Akita International University,
Japan, cbrown@aiu.ac.jp)
Digging Deep: Analysing task potential to increase vocabulary retention
Learning and retaining vocabulary are inherent requirements in the acquisition of any language. Teachers and learners are
rightly concerned with identifying and maximizing the potential effectiveness of learning tasks, in order to enhance the
possibility of learning success. In the process of incidental vocabulary acquisition, the extent to which tasks require depth of
processing, termed task-induced involvement by Laufer and Hulstijn (2001), and the potential effects of this on subsequent
vocabulary retention, deserve greater attention. Laufer and Hulstijn (2001) claim that when need, search and evaluation
are required in order to complete a task, learners engage with words more deeply, thus optimizing potential for successful
vocabulary retention. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the extent to which tasks, in commonly used reading textbooks
and integrated skills course books, induce deep involvement with vocabulary, thus facilitating vocabulary retention. The
tasks in 10 reading textbooks and 10 integrated skills course books were analysed in terms of the three elements identified
by Laufer and Hulstijn (2001). The study found that the tasks in many commonly used textbooks offered too much vocabulary
support to learners, thereby avoiding the need for deep involvement with the vocabulary and potentially limiting vocabulary
retention. The research method and findings will be discussed in detail and practical suggestions for more effective tasks will
be given, in order to facilitate more successful vocabulary retention.
Friday 20 December, 2:20 - 2:40pm, Room: RHLT3, paper
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Sheppard, Chris (Waseda University, chris@waseda.jp), Ueno, Yoshio (Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, yueno@waseda.jp)
In the field of EAP the acquisition of the technical vocabulary of a subject is generally consigned to the mainstream classroom
with little research on how well such vocabulary can be acquired in those classrooms. This paper will report on a corpus study
which examined the percentage, number and frequency of occurrence of technical vocabulary (both individual words and
fixed phrases) in theology books at Masters level in order to examine the extent to which the texts provided the lexical input
necessary to aid in incidental learning of that vocabulary in a mainstream classroom over a semester by L2 students. The
reading material for the semester was used to form the corpus. From a corpus of 256,238 word tokens the study found that
technical words and fixed phrases made up 9.8% of the corpus. While the percentage of technical words and phrases was not
high there was a large number (1005) to meet in one semester and their frequency of occurrence was low. 25.5% occurred
eight or more times, while only 16.9% occurred 15 or more times. It was concluded that this would make the incidental
acquisition of such vocabulary difficult. In addition non-technical low frequency vocabulary formed another 5.73% of the
corpus. Therefore if L2 students did not know the technical vocabulary of their discipline and were unfamiliar with the LF
vocabulary, the percentage of unknown vocabulary in their texts would be too high to facilitate much incidental vocabulary
acquisition. These and other findings will be discussed.
In a context where a large number of participants (12,000-13,000) take a pen and paper test and results are required within a few
days, the usual fill-in-the-blank format of question which tests productive vocabulary is not practicable and other approaches
must be found. This paper reports research which validates one such alternative approach, i.e., multiple-choice testing of
productive vocabulary. A disadvantage of standard multiple-choice vocabulary test items is that, along with distractors, they
require the correct answer to be supplied and, as a result, they are unable to measure productive knowledge. One solution to
this problem is to provide testees with a code where each letter of the alphabet can be matched to a number. In order to select
a correct answer, the testee needs to produce the word first, transform each letter of the word into a number according to the
given code, and then match this with the correct option. Two studies were conducted in order to examine the validity of this
style of multiple-choice test. The first study included an item analysis of 20 items used in entrance examinations over four
years of testing and reports the results in terms of the internal reliability and the construct validity of the testing. The second
study, using a much smaller sample size, reports the content validity and face validity of the test. The general reliability and
validity of testing productive vocabulary using the code format are discussed and suggestions are made for further revisions.
Stengers, Helene (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, helene.stengers@gmail.com), Eyckmans, June (Universiteit Gent, june.
eyckmans@ugent.be), Deconinck, Julie (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, julie.deconinck@vub.ac.be)
Vocabulary knowledge has long been acknowledged as an important part of the reading process. This paper reports the results
of a meta-analysis conducted on research investigating the extent to which vocabulary knowledge influences comprehension
in both first and second language (L1 and L2) reading. 30 studies containing 59 data sets were located through an extensive
search of the literature and were entered into a correlational meta-analysis (Hunter and Schmidt, 2004). A cohort of 8973
participants was involved. The results found the sample-size-weighted population correlation to be = .69, s = .057 after
accounting for sampling error and other measurement artifacts. Further analysis demonstrated that the mean correlation
does not differ depending on the language. However, it was determined that age as a factor does have an effect on the
correlations, and that it behaves differently depending on the language. For L1 there appears to be a linear decrease, with
higher correlations found for studies conducted with primary school aged participants, and significantly lower correlations
with tertiary aged and adult participants. L2 demonstrates a different pattern. Studies reporting correlations with primary
and secondary school aged participants showed the same pattern as in L1 studies. However, studies investigating tertiary
aged and adult participants reported a significant increase, with adults showing the strongest (= .86, s = .044). Two competing
explanations for these results are discussed. The analysis also determined that a large percentage of the variance in the
correlations is yet unaccounted for, indicating that further research needs to be conducted.
This paper describes an experiment that was set up to measure the relative mnemonic effects of enhanced attention to form
versus attention to meaning during the acquisition of L2 figurative idioms. Intermediate L2 English students were presented
with online exercises on a set of 25 English idioms that they were unfamiliar with. In the first series of exercises, all participants
were invited to elaborate on the meaning of the idioms. Afterwards, half of the participants were requested to copy the
idioms, whereas the other group of participants was asked to rate the usefulness of the idioms, an activity relying mainly
on semantically-oriented processing. Recall was measured after the treatment by means of a gap-fill exercise in which each
idiom was presented in context with a keyword missing. The results of the experiment are discussed in light of the levels-ofprocessing theory (Craik & Lockhart 1972), the transfer-appropriate -processing theory (TAP)(Morris et al. 1977) and Barcrofts
transfer-of-processing-resources-allocation (TOPRA) model for lexical learning (2002). We also show that cognitive-style
variables may enhance or constrain the proposed mnemonic effects. Barcroft, J. (2002). Semantic and Structural Elaboration
in L2 Lexical Acquisition. Language Learning, 52 (2), 323-363. Craik, F.I.M., & Lockhart, R.S. (1972). Levels of processing. A
framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11, 671-684. Morris, C.D., Bransford, J.D., &
Franks, J.J. (1977). Levels of processing versus transfer appropriate processing. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,
16, 519-533.
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The relevance of formulaic language for foreign language teaching and learning stems from not only its pervasiveness in
everyday language, but also its status as a perennial source of confusion. Corpus linguistic studies provide quantitative data
that indicates a large portion of language involves the use of formulaic sequences. Whereas some estimates calculate that
over 50% of language use is formulaic, other studies speculate that nearly four formulaic expressions are produced every
minute of spoken discourse. Although many types of multiword units fall under the category of formulaic language, this
presentation focuses on phrasal verbs because while they are considered to be the most frequently occurring formulaic
string, only a handful of studies have investigated ways to enhance methods of teaching and learning phrasal verbs. This
quasi-experimental study applied a cognitive linguistic approach to raising learners awareness of the underlying semantic
contribution of the adverbial particles to the meaning of the phrasal verbs. This approach was compared to a traditional
method encouraging rote-memorization. The results show that participants employing a rote-memorization strategy scored
significantly lower than the cognitive linguistic group. On a 3-week delayed post-test, the cognitive linguistic groups scores
were higher than the traditional group. The results show promise that aspects of a cognitive linguistic approach are able to
contribute to EFL learners comprehension of verb-particle constructions.
Knowledge of formulaic language helps second language English speakers to anticipate, process, and produce language
more fluently. Lexical bundles are the most common type of formulaic language, therefore helping second language learners
of English to acquire receptive and productive knowledge of lexical bundles is desirable. Liu (2012) suggested presenting
lexical bundles with schematic linguistic representation for acquisition, but this method had not been tested empirically.
Therefore, the purpose of this study was to empirically test this instruction method. The investigation was carried out using
three university groups of Japanese first language speakers with comparable proficiency in English as a foreign language.
Pre-tests determined nine target items, which were then presented to learners within two purpose made texts along with
Japanese translation. Each group was treated to a different instruction method: bare noticing of the lexical bundles within
the text, noticing the lexical bundles with schematic linguistic representation and as a comparison method, using the texts
to answer meaning focused questions. The immediate post-test results showed that the noticing with schematic linguistic
representation group had acquired significantly more productive knowledge of the target lexical bundles than the comparison
groups. However, delayed post-tests showed no significant difference across the instruction methods. The methodology and
results will be presented and discussed in light of the involvement load hypothesis, classroom application and future research
directions.
The vocabulary knowledge gap in primary schools: Professional development for teachers
Primary school teachers are well aware of the impact of students vocabulary knowledge on how well they can comprehend and
express in all areas of the curriculum. However, most admit to having limited in-depth knowledge about vocabulary generally,
and about vocabulary assessment and how to gain traction on expanding students vocabulary knowledge and capabilities.
This paper will describe the professional development (PD) model being used in some Auckland primary schools to address
the vocabulary knowledge gap of teachers, where the theory-practice interface is core. It will discuss highest impact, schoolwide vocabulary focuses and the effects these are having on the teachers vocabulary knowledge and practices, and most
importantly, on the students acquisition of and attention to vocabulary. The PD model includes iterative cycles of enactment,
deconstruction, reflection and identification of next steps. The effectiveness of this approach will be discussed and enactment
examples will be shown.
In EFL and ESL teaching, language instructors make use of the appeal that popular music holds and use pop songs, at least
occasionally, as teaching material inside the classroom. A frequent purpose of using songs is to introduce new or practice
previously introduced vocabulary. In an international teacher survey with over 500 participants in 40 countries (author, in
preparation), teachers repeatedly stated that music appears to be an aid to memorising. In this paper I explore the question
whether songs have a mnemonic effect that can be used to aid vocabulary learning. I present an intervention study on the
retention of verbatim text and vocabulary when presented in a song as compared to in a poem (no melody) or prose text (no
melody, no rhyme, no metre). Participants were intermediate and advanced EFL learners in Belgium, Serbia and Germany
(N > 150). They listened to and read a text in song, poem or prose format and engaged in classroom activities related to
the text. Recall of verbatim text and vocabulary was assessed immediately and one week later using a number of tests,
including verbatim text recall, text recognition and tests of receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge. The experiment
was designed to reflect classroom reality. To ensure a high degree of ecological validity, both treatment and material were
informed by the above-mentioned teacher survey as well as by a corpus study on the lexical profile of songs used for English
teaching (Tegge, in preparation).
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Webb, Stuart (Victoria University of Wellington, stuart.webb@vuw.ac.nz), Boers, Frank (Victoria University of Wellington,
frank.boers@vuw.ac.nz)
Do textual enhancement techniques increase incidental learning of collocation?
When collocations are repeatedly encountered in a single text, incidental learning of these items is relatively small (Webb,
Newton, & Chang, 2013). With insufficient classroom time to teach the thousands of single word items, time to explicitly focus
on collocations is lacking. A useful avenue for research is thus finding ways to increase incidental learning of collocation.
Textual enhancement techniques such as glossing, and bolding target vocabulary can increase vocabulary learning (Peters,
2012; Rott, 2007). The present study looks at how incidental learning of collocation through reading might be increased using
textual enhancement techniques. 187 Japanese university students learning English as a foreign language simultaneously
read and listened to one of four versions of a modified graded reader that included five encounters with a set of 18 target
collocations. In version 1 the text was unenhanced. In version 2, the target collocations were bolded in each occurrence. In
version 3, the first occurrence of the target collocations was glossed, and in the fourth version the first and fifth occurrences
of the collocations were glossed. The study used a pretest/posttest design. Two tests were used to measure learning. One test
measured knowledge of the written form of the collocations, and the other measured knowledge of form-meaning connection.
The results indicated that (a) all three enhanced texts contributed to significantly higher scores on the test of written form
than the unenhanced text, and (b) the two glossed texts contributed to greater knowledge of form-meaning connection than
the bolded and the unenhanced versions.
Thursday 19 December, 3:35 - 3:55pm, Room: RHLT2, paper
White, Rebecca (Victoria University of Wellington, rebecca.white@vuw.ac.nz)
The developing literate lexicon in L1 secondary school academic writing
One of the major developments in later language acquisition is the attainment of the literate lexicon (the vocabulary
used in scholarly texts). Carrying implications for academic success and social status, development of the literate lexicon
typically begins at adolescence, a time when individuals are cognitively ready and well-placed in a lexically rich schooling
environment. While research has focused on acquisition of the core lexicon (the vocabulary first acquired for initial language
learning purposes), less is known about how the literate lexicon grows during adolescence. This presentation looks at one
aspect of the development of the literate lexicon: the level of low-frequency words used in writing, as seen through lexical
sophistication levels in secondary school essays. As part of a larger study looking at lexical richness features in adolescent
written texts, lexical sophistication measures were applied to the writing samples collected from English classes at three
different secondary school year levels (years 9, 11, 13). The analysis, looking at differences in word use across year levels,
offers an interesting and complex picture of the state of the literate lexicon during the secondary school years. This study
contributes to the growing field of later language acquisition research and discusses the New Zealand-based findings in the
context of international studies. From a pedagogical perspective, claims made about links between lexical sophistication and
educational achievement highlight the value of understanding the developing literate lexicon among New Zealand secondary
school students.
Wednesday 18 December, 2:45 - 3:05pm, Room: RHLT3, paper
White, Joanna (Concordia University, jwhite@education.concordia.ca), presented by Horst, Marlise (Concordia University,
marlise@education.concordia.ca)
Non-presenting author: Tom Cobb, Universite du Quebec a Montreal
She loves me/she adores me: Cognates and reading comprehension
French-speaking learners of English have a potentially important advantage when it comes to comprehending English texts
-- provided they can see the connection between contrary and contrairement, and recognize the many other good friends
available in English. Our analyses of French-English cognates on the BNC lists of 10,000 frequent word families shows that
helpful cognates far outweigh false friends. But do learners recognize these helpful cognate connections and importantly, are
they able to make use of them? To answer these questions, we developed a cognate recognition test and administered it to 350
learners of English in French-medium secondary schools. The first part of the test focused on single words. Here performance
on cognates was higher than on comparable non-cognates, and words like origin (French origine) were translated more
accurately than words where the formal resemblance across the two languages is less obvious (e.g. slave/esclave). So while
the learners recognized many easy cognates, we conclude there is scope for training in recognition strategies. As for the use
question, learners performance on a second task requiring them to read and translate two short texts one that was cognate
rich and another that was cognate-impoverished -- did not consistently show the expected comprehension advantage for the
cognate-rich passages. This may be explained by a preponderance of very frequent non-cognate words (e.g. love vs. cognate
adore) in the cognate-low texts. In the presentation, we explore uses of a new software tool (VPCognate) in overcoming this
problem and report findings of a follow-up investigation.
Wednesday 18 December, 3:10 - 3:30pm, Room: RHLT2, paper
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Yuen, Brenda (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, lcbrenda@ust.hk)
Non-presenting author: Juliane Martini, Concordia University and Universit du Qubec Montreal
This study is to investigate the construct validity of the English Language Proficiency Assessment (ELPA) Vocabulary Test,
which is developed by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to assess the written receptive and productive
vocabulary knowledge of the most frequent 3000-word, 5,000-word and 10,000-word and academic word lists. Data for this
study, from the administration of the test which consists of both multiple-choice and gap-fill questions to 1,805 first-year
undergraduate students , were analysed by using the Rasch model to compare the difficulty of test items with student ability,
identify misfitting items who fail to act as an accurate measure of this construct and evaluate how well this assessment
differentiates student ability into statistically distinct strata. Results from item reliability, person reliability, person-item
map, person fit and item fit of Rasch modelling indicated that this test can be an effective assessment tool to be used with
test takers with widely differing levels of written receptive and productive lexical knowledge. This study also provides useful
implications for the design, development and evaluation of a vocabulary assessment tool for tracking test takers lexical
acquisition over long periods of time.
It is of great importance to obtain good collocation knowledge for fluent and appropriate language use; many words are used
in a limited set of collocations and knowing these is part of what is involved in knowing the words. The author of the present
paper, by working on the special collocation problems experienced by Chinese English learners, tries to study the interaction
between collocation and metaphor from cognitive perspective. Finally, she proposes the motivation-oriented principle,
semantic-oriented principle, pragmatics-oriented principle and culture-oriented principle to incorporate cognitive factors
to collocation teaching.
This paper reviews the literature of popular schools of language learning strategy and provides a status quo of Chinese EFL
learners English study at a tertiary institution. The purpose of the study is to find out: What strategies do target EFL learners
use more frequently in terms of English vocabulary learning? Regarding language learning strategy teaching in class, do
target EFL learners really understand strategies that they have been taught? The Oxford second language learning strategy
inventory was used to survey students most frequently used strategies. The results were analyzed and then a semi-structured
interview was designed based on the results. Altogether 110 students participated the survey. The students were freshmen
and sophomores with an English score ranging from 60-100(out of a total score of 150) in Chinese Entrance Examination.
Findings indicate that learning strategies employed varies as learners English proficiency differ. An explicit instruction of
learning strategy is beneficial to subjects understanding of English learning; however, real strategy understanding and
employment is also restricted to subjects language proficiency. And regardless of the differences between individual subjects
English proficiency, the employment of paralinguistic-related strategies and social strategies are relatively low in learners
use, and subjects English proficiency is usually directly proportional to their employment of affective strategies.
Many studies have stressed the importance of technical vocabulary in specialised texts and the difficulty students face when
learning the technical terms in order to acquire the subject knowledge. Learning strategies suggested by researchers include
looking up common collocations and paying attention to the use of the words whenever possible. This paper presents the
design and evaluation of the Wikcab system that aims to help students learn technical vocabulary productively and effectively.
Wikcab takes domain specific texts, automatically identifies and highlights terms that have an article in Wikipedia so that
students can see the Wikipedia definition of the terms, reviews related terms and expands their knowledge by reading the
Wikipedia articles. To help students build up collocation knowledge, Wikcab provides access to a massive collocation database
that is also extracted from the Wikipedia. Using the identified terms, definitions, collocations and the texts, teachers can also
create a wide variety of learning activities to increase the opportunity for students to encounter and practice the domainspecific technical words. Evaluation of the effectiveness of system in terms of better understanding of the technical vocabulary
and related concepts is still ongoing. Preliminary results from incorporating Wikcab into two introductory programming
courses have suggested that the students were motivated to learn and the system helped strengthen longer retention of the
technical vocabulary than by simply reading the glossaries in the textbook.
The present study looks at the internal structure of vocabulary knowledge along the receptive and productive continuum
under a multi-aspect framework informed by Nation (2001) and Coxhead (2011, 2012). It examines receptive knowledge
of meaning, form, morphology, collocation and association and explores their relationship with productive vocabulary
knowledge over time with a multi-task approach. Participants were 620 Year 8 EFL learners from two secondary schools in
China. They completed two sets of five different tests capturing five different receptive aspects and productive use of 26 target
words with a four-month interval. Correlation and regression analysis was used to quantify the contribution of each receptive
aspect to productive word use, and to show the changes in their contribution to productive word use over time. Results
support the claim that meaning and form are two fundamental aspects for productive word use, and as productive vocabulary
knowledge develops, increases the importance of receptive depth aspects association and collocation. The findings offer a
new perspective on the construct of vocabulary knowledge that the relationship between receptive and productive vocabulary
knowledge is dynamic; and suggests that the receptive knowledge learners draw upon in their word use varies depending on
their level of productive vocabulary knowledge. Implications for vocabulary teaching and learning are discussed in terms of
cost-effective time allocation for each aspect in the classroom instruction.
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Map Key
16 2
Restaurants
Shopping
For full details about each map location, visit the conference
notice board on the mezzanine floor
Supermarket
Cafe
Wine bar/pub
Things to see:
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa -http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/pages/default.aspx
Museum of City and Sea - http://www.cablecarmuseum.co.nz/museum-of-wellington-city-and-sea/
Getting around Wellington - http://www.metlink.org.nz/using-journey-planner/
NEW
EDITION
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8
9 10
11
Project Funding
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www.akoaotearoa.ac.nz
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www.cambridge.org/elt/cal
Vocab@Vic
Rutherford House
Vocab@Vic Conference Venue
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McDonalds
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Wine Loft
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Caf Astoria
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Mojo Coffee
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Wagamama
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