Insights into Non-native Vocabulary Teaching and Learning

Rubén Chacón-Beltrán, Christian Abello-Contesse, María del Mar Torreblanca-López, Rubén Chacón-Beltrán, Christian Abello-Contesse, María del Mar Torreblanca-López

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781847694805
• Topic: Lingue e linguistica
• Subtopic: Didattica nell'ambito linguistico e artistico

In a field like L2 vocabulary teaching and learning where interest and research studies are burgeoning, this book offers a useful collection of papers that contains new ways of investigating vocabulary development, techniques for vocabulary teaching such as the Focus on Form hypothesis, word associations, and the use of concordance data. In addition, it tackles recent areas of analysis such as the treatment of vocabulary in teaching materials—an area of almost complete neglect in the literature. The book is divided into three parts. Part one provides the overview and deals with the development of a model for vocabulary teaching and learning. Part two focuses on empirical studies on lexical processing in English and Spanish. Part three centers on materials design for vocabulary teaching and learning. The advances made in this book will certainly be of interest to researchers, teachers, and graduate students working on this very active field of inquiry.

Contributors

Editors

Rubén Chacón-Beltrán is currently Assistant Professor at the UNED (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia), Madrid, Spain, where he teaches undergraduate courses in English as a foreign language, English sociolinguistics and bilingualism, and a graduate course in vocabulary teaching and learning. He holds a PhD in English Applied Linguistics and has taught in various universities in Spain.

Christián Abello-Contesse is currently Associate Professor at the University of Seville, Spain, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in foreign-language teaching methodology, second language acquisition, and bilingualism. He has published journal articles and book chapters on issues in language learning and teaching. He holds degrees in education, English, Spanish and applied linguistics, and has taught English and Spanish as foreign/second languages at several universities in Chile, Spain and the United States.

M. Mar Torreblanca-López is currently Associate Professor at the University of Seville, Spain, where she teaches undergraduate courses in English as a foreign language and discourse analysis and graduate courses in pragmatics and discourse analysis. She holds a PhD in English language and linguistics and has taught in various universities around the world including Spain, the United States and Argentina.

Authors

Rachel Allan has worked as an English language teacher, and more recently, as a teacher trainer, in Asia and Europe for many years; she also holds a CELTA and H.Dip. TEFL. Research for the Masters in Applied Linguistics further developed her long-held interest in vocabulary acquisition, and the research reported here was carried out as part of her current work on the Daedalus Vocabulary Acquisition Project at the Applied Language Centre, University College Dublin, a University-funded project investigating the effects of different approaches to vocabulary learning.

Carmen Pérez Basanta is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics (University of Granada, Spain). She is the coordinator of a R&D project entitled: ‘ADELEX: Assessing and Developing Lexical Competence through New Technologies’. She has been awarded the ‘European Label for Innovation’ and also ‘The International Award for Excellence’ for the paper ‘Using Techonology for Preservice Second Language Teacher Education Through WebCT’ (International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society 2: 101–117, 2007). Her main interests are vocabulary acquisition, CALL, testing and corpus linguistics.

Tal Caspi completed her MA in Applied Linguistics in Groningen in 2005 and is currently working on her PhD involving a longitudinal investigation of development and variation in non-native English writing and lexicon, using a dynamic systems perspective. She compiled a large item database for testing vocabulary knowledge development, and initiated five ongoing case studies that combine vocabulary testing with multiple indexes of writing complexity and accuracy.

Diana Frantzen is an Associate Professor of Spanish and the Director of the Spanish Language Program in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also a core member of UW-Madison’s interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition and served as its co-director (2006–2009). She has published articles on issues in FL lexical and grammatical acquisition and teaching, error correction, culture and FL anxiety. Her textbook, Lazos: Gramática y vocabulario a través de la literatura (Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2009), is an intermediate/advanced college Spanish text which combines a selection of 15 Hispanic short stories and an intensive review of selected Spanish grammar and lexical topics. Much of her recent research focuses on linguistic analysis of literature.

Nicola Hopkins is a tutor in the Centre for Applied Language Studies at Swansea University. She has used her expertise in foreign language software and programmes to design and create the software package which allows estimates of phonological vocabulary knowledge to be made.

Batia Laufer (PhD, University of Edinburgh) is Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Haifa, Israel. Her research interests are in second language acquisition, particularly vocabulary acquisition, lexicography, cross linguistic influence, reading and testing. She has published several books and numerous articles in various professional journals, and lectured on these subjects extensively in and outside of Israel.

Jim Lawley is a graduate of Oxford University (Modern Languages). He holds an MA in Applied English Linguistics from Birmingham University and a doctorate from the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Spain. He has taught at the UNED since 1996 where he is now a tenured lecturer, teaching English for undergraduate courses, and corpus linguistics and materials design on the UNED’s Master en Lingüística Inglesa Aplicada. He specializes in course and syllabus design and is the author and coauthor of books published by HarperCollins, Thomas Nelson, Pearson and Richmond.

María Dolores López-Jiménez is Assistant Professor at Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Spain, where she teaches undergraduate courses in English as a foreign language. She holds degrees in education, English, Spanish and applied linguistics and has taught English and Spanish as foreign/second languages in Spain and the United States. Her current research focuses on L2 vocabulary teaching.

Teresa López-Soto is currently a Tenure Professor and Researcher at the English Language Department, University of Seville, Spain. Her main areas of research are related to the teaching and learning of EFL and Speech Technologies. In the former area, Dr López-Soto has investigated mainly on the phonological acquisition of EFL and on the integration of listening and vocabulary learning to facilitate the improvement of both skills on a parallel basis. Dr López-Soto has also a deep interest in integrating technologies in the classroom and pays special attention to the spoken input in her English teaching practice.

Wander Lowie studied English and Speech Science at the University of Amsterdam, specializing in second language acquisition. He finished his PhD on the acquisition of L2 morphology in Groningen in 1998 and has worked on the acquisition of phonology and on the multilingual mental lexicon since then. Over the past five years he has focused on L2 developmental processes from a dynamic systems perspective. In 2005 he co-authored a Routledge textbook on Second Language Acquisition with Marjolijn Verspoor and Kees de Bot and has recently published in Language Learning, The International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Bilingualism and the Modern Language Journal.

James Milton worked formerly as head of English in both Tudun Wada Teachers College, Nigeria and the University of Sebha, Libya and has been head of Applied Linguistics at Swansea University since 1986. In addition to research in vocabulary learning and testing, he also publishes ELT learning materials with Express Publishing.

T. Sima Paribakht is Professor at the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute of the University of Ottawa. She is currently the Director of the Academic Programs of the Institute. Dr Paribakht’s main areas of research interest include second language acquisition, more specifically L2 vocabulary acquisition, teaching and testing, as well as L2 communication strategies, L2 program development and L2 teaching methodology. She has authored and edited several books and has published a number of book chapters and articles in these areas.

Norbert Schmitt is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Nottingham. He is interested in all aspects of second language vocabulary studies. He has published widely in this area, including the books Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition, and Pedagogy, Vocabulary in Language Teaching and Formulaic Sequences, as well as articles in Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Language Learning, Applied Linguistics, TESOL Quarterly, System and Language Testing. His forthcoming publications include an overview of instructed second language vocabulary learning in Language Teaching Research, and a vocabulary research manual with Palgrave Press.

Zorana Vasiljevic (PhD, University of Queensland) is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Language and Literature of Bunkyo University, Japan, where she teaches undergraduate courses in English as a foreign language, L2 teaching methodology and material development. Her research interests include L2 vocabulary acquisition, discourse analysis and EFL methodologies.

Jo Wade has worked at Swansea University since 1993 and is currently head of EFL in the English Language Teaching Unit. She has also worked extensively overseas and spent eight years teaching in Japan, Hungary, Turkey and Barbados. She completed her masters in TEFL in 2006 with a dissertation investigating the relationship between orthographic and phonological vocabulary knowledge.

Chapter 1
Vocabulary Teaching and Learning: Introduction and Overview

RUBÉN CHACÓN-BELTRÁN, CHRISTIÁN ABELLO-CONTESSE and M. MAR TORREBLANCA-LÓPEZ

Introduction

Traditionally, research in language teaching and learning methods devoted less attention to vocabulary than to other aspects of language as a communication system. Other language elements took precedence, and vocabulary tended to be presented in a way that favored the introduction of grammatical elements (O’Dell, 1997). There was a general consent that grammar should be taught and that in due time learners would ‘acquire’ the vocabulary necessary to deal with specific communicative situations through their exposure to the target language. In addition, under the influence of structuralism, L2 teaching approaches and methods often preferred to conceive language as a ‘closed’ and manageable system with a limited number of communication options to be taught, that is, a series of grammar rules rather than an ‘open’ and unlimited subsystem, such as vocabulary. Grammar teaching tended to receive more attention than processes related to vocabulary teaching (O’Dell, 1997; Pérez Basanta, 1996; Wotjak, 1999; Zimmerman, 1997). Vocabulary is sometimes not so easily controlled by the language teacher who may have more difficulty dealing with it than with grammar rules. During the 1980s, however, interest in vocabulary teaching and learning grew, and during the 1990s, a great deal of attention was given to vocabulary as a key component in L2 learning for successful communication. Laufer (1986) pointed out:

Until very recently vocabulary has suffered from step-child status in language acquisition research. The reasons for this plight might have been the linguists’ preference for closed systems describable by rules, the reaction of psycholinguists against the associative and the stimulus–response theories of learning and the interest of the methodologists in the beginning stages of language learning. (Laufer, 1986: 73)

In fact, the treatment of vocabulary as a ‘second class’ issue that learners will deal with in due course is not justifiable. Vermeer (1992) and Laufer (1998) emphasized the importance of the lexical component in order to acquire full competence in various registers and contexts. Vermeer (1992) pointed out that the main concern, if a high level of proficiency in the L2 is to be acquired, should be vocabulary, and Laufer (1998) affirmed that the main difference between language learners and native speakers of the target language was precisely their lexical competence.

Some studies comparing native and non-native speaker interaction (Braidi, 2002; Burt, 1975; Khalil, 1985; Sheorey, 1986; Tomiyana, 1980) show that vocabulary knowledge and use play an important role in successful communication and that it is one of the domains where non-native speakers can equal native speakers and, on some occasions, surpass them.

Toward a Model of Lexical Acquisition in an L2

The lack of a general theory explaining the processes involved in lexical acquisition – and later vocabulary retrieval in both its receptive and productive dimensions – seems to be one of the common concerns in language teaching and learning. In Paul Nation’s words:

There isn’t an overall theory of how vocabulary is acquired. Our knowledge has mainly been built up from fragmentary studies, and at the moment we have only the broadest idea of how acquisition might occur. We certainly have no knowledge of the acquisition stages that particular words might move through. (Schmitt, 1995: 5) (emphasis added).

Several attempts have been made – without much success – to provide a theory or model that can explain vocabulary learning. However, the acquisition of the lexicon involves highly complex neurobiological processes that are still to be described and require the coordinated work of linguists, SLA researchers, psychologists and neurobiologists. This whole process becomes even more complex if we think of distinctions between young or adult learners and monolingual or bilingual subjects. The fragmentary nature of the studies that were carried out up to the mid-1990s (Schmitt, 1995) as well as the complexity of the systems SLA researchers are trying to decode – human language ability and the functioning of the human brain – make it extremely difficult to provide conclusive evidence of underlying lexical processing in our brains. Unfortunately this situation has not changed much over the last decade. In this respect, Meara argued that:

The L2 research literature contains lots of examples of what might be broadly described as descriptive research on vocabulary acquisition, but very few examples of explanatory, model-based research, which attempts to account for this learning. (Meara, 1997: 109)

Meara (1990, 1997) proposed a multidimensional model in which vocabulary acquisition is to be understood as a cumulative activity, that is ‘unknown words’ would be those that lack any connection to the language learner’s lexicon, whereas ‘known words’ would have different connections both in number and nature. Thus, degrees of depth of knowledge would be determined by the quantity and type of connections of a given word to others, and this should have an impact on lexical availability both in receptive and productive terms.

Singleton (1999) offered some guidelines for future research in the field of lexical acquisition and he postulated that a coherent model of lexical acquisition should emerge from a coherent model of lexical learning based on linguistic theory, computational linguistics, psycholinguistics, second language teaching and language assessment. In fact, lexis seems to be at crossroads of the aforementioned disciplines and a good model should also embrace both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. Singleton (1999) added that most research conducted in the area of the lexical component included cross-sectional studies and that more longitudinal, or at least long-term, studies were needed.

Another aspect to be taken into consideration when developing a theory for lexical acquisition and mental processing is that it probably involves different operations both in L1 and L2, so L1 lexical processing does not necessarily match L2 lexical processing. Conceptualization, that is the creation of new concepts, is one of the main developments in child lexical acquisition whereas in non-native language acquisition, the relabeling of already known concepts and words seems to be the most common procedure, and as Jiang (2004) indicates, adult L2 learners often rely on their preexisting semantic system. In this latter case, the mother tongue also plays an important role as cognate languages are presumably easier to acquire even if deceptive cognate words come up (Chacón Beltrán, 2001).

Implicit and Explicit Vocabulary Learning

Nick Ellis (1994) distinguished two possibilities in relation to the processing of new vocabulary, the implicit vocabulary learning hypothesis and the explicit vocabulary learning hypothesis. The former would be related to behaviorist approaches and would argue that new vocabulary is acquired without the language learner being aware of it, especially when reading or due to oral input arising during interaction. This hypothesis refers to an unconscious process where the lack of intentionality is the main feature:

An implicit vocabulary learning hypothesis would hold that the meaning of a new word is acquired totally unconsciously as a result of abstraction from repeated exposures in a range of activated contexts. (Ellis, 1994: 219)

The latter hypothesis, meanwhile, would support the relevance of explicit attention to new words by means of a number of conscious and planned strategies:

An explicit vocabulary learning hypothesis would hold that there is some benefit to vocabulary acquisition from the learner noticing novel vocabulary, selectively attending to it, and using a variety of strategies to try to infer its meaning from the context. Furthermore there may also be advantage from applying metacognitive strategies to remember new vocabulary, to consolidate a new understanding by repetition [...]. (Ellis, 1994: 219)

Even if the two hypotheses presented above embody opposing views of vocabulary learning, at the moment most SLA researchers would probably agree that, as far as L2 learners learning vocabulary are concerned, a combination of the two processes is needed (Schmitt, 2000), resulting in a combination of incidental and explicit learning. The latter has always been perceived as a way to enhance and contribute to the learning process, especially in a foreign language context. A great deal of recent research into second language vocabulary teaching and learning has been devoted to the comparison of explicit and implicit approaches to vocabulary learning and the identification of techniques that can favor and enhance the learning process; these trends continue to be explored nowadays.

As a rule, vocabulary teaching and learning research has been especially prolific in two areas: (1) the teaching of vocabulary through extensive reading, that is exposure to contextualized and real samples of the language containing relevant vocabulary; and (2) an approach based on the teaching of vocabulary carefully selected for the language learner according to criteria such as relevance, frequency and usefulness in accomplishing certain tasks.

The implicit approach based on reading has traditionally been one of the main ways to learn languages, especially before the arrival of new technologies, which now offer an array of possibilities for language learning and easy exposure to samples of real language. Learning vocabulary through reading often implies a cognitive process in which hypotheses about the meaning of unknown words are formed and subsequently checked. This is an unconscious and automatic process, which proves to be a very useful strategy if the number of unknown words is not too high. From a pedagogical point of view this strategy for vocabulary learning can be very convenient: the cognitive process of reading is not interrupted as it is not necessary to check the dictionary for the exact meaning. Some empi...

Table of contents

• Coverpage
• Series Editor
• Titlepage
• Copyright
• Contents
• Contributors
• Part 1: Development of a Model for Vocabulary Teaching and Learning
• Part 2: Empirical Studies on Lexical Processing in English and Spanish
• Part 3: Materials Design and Strategies for Vocabulary Teaching and Learning
• References
• Index