1. Factors in second language acquisition: opportunity, exposure, uptake and retention
Rob Waring

2. Essential questions How much language do students need to meet?
What kinds of vocabulary do they need to learn?
How many times do they need to meet words to learn them?
What are the optimal conditions for learning vocabulary?

3. Types of vocabulary
Individual words: book, table, life, chance, walk, airplane… Affixes: used, user, usefulness, user-friendly, disuse… Multi-part words: traffic jam, the day after tomorrow, lunch box… Lexical phrases: by the way, to and fro, a kind of,… Idioms: let the cat out of the bag, raining cats and dogs Sentence heads: Do you mind if I…, If I were you,.. Could you…? Collocations: High season, mild cheese, blonde hair… Colligations: agree to do x, agree on X, rely on someone, have an effect on x, x affects y... Others: SONY, Paul, twenty-seven, etc. , UNESCO…

4. How much to learn: vocabulary
Learners need words to know 98% of the vocabulary in native novels, magazines and most general reading Intermediate learners need at least a vocabulary of 2000 words receptively and 1000 productively to be able to build fluency rapidly Advanced learners will need words An average high frequency word has about 8-15 common collocations There are common phrasal verbs There are common idioms There are hundreds of common sentences heads and formulaic phrases

5. How much to learn: collocations
fast / quick meal train food shower yellow / blonde hair car flower regular / normal guy fries day exercise a round / circle of friends drinks golf wagons hate Types Adverb + Adjective: completely satisfied (NOT downright satisfied) Adjective + Noun: excruciating pain (NOT excruciating joy) Noun + Noun: a surge of anger (NOT a rush of anger) Noun + Verb: lions roar (NOT lions shout) Verb + Noun: commit suicide (NOT undertake suicide) Verb + Expression With Preposition: burst into tears (NOT blow up in tears) Verb + Adverb: wave frantically (NOT wave feverishly)

6. How much to learn: Grammar
He walked to the station Did he see the man? Who did he go with? He ate with his mother He didn’t buy anything She wasn’t given anything Were they seen? Why did he mistrust them? You bought it, didn’t you? They were being shown the …. What were you doing when the phone rang? If I were you, I’d… If I won the lottery, I’d … Could I have that? Was he going to be there at 12?

7. How much to learn: grammar
The grammar takes a long time The main tenses have many different forms
I have been given.
You have been given.
He/she/it has been given.
We have been given.
They have been given.
Have I been given?
Have you been given?
Has he/she/it been given?
Have we been given?
Have they been given?
I haven’t been given.
You haven’t been given.
He/she/it hasn’t been given.
We haven’t been given
They haven’t been given.
What have I been given?
What have you been given?
What has he/she/it been given?
What have we been given?
What have they been given?
I have been giving.
You have been giving.
He/she/it has been giving.
We have been giving.
They have been giving.
Have I been giving?
Have you been giving?
Has he/she/it been giving?
Have we been giving?
Have they been giving?
I haven’t been giving.
You haven’t been giving.
He/she/it hasn’t been giving.
We haven’t been giving
They haven’t been giving.
Yes, I have.
No, I haven’t.
Yes, you have.
No, you haven’t.
Yes, he/she/it has.
No, he/she/it hasn’t.
Yes, we have.
No, we haven’t.
Yes, they have.
No, they haven’t
……, have I?
….., haven’t I?
……, have you?
……, haven’t you?
….., has he/he/it?
….., hasn’t he/she/it?
….., have we?
..…, haven’t we?
….., have they?
….., haven’t they?
I have given.
You have given.
He/she/it has given.
We have given.
They have given.
Have I given?
Have you given?
Has he/she/it given?
Have we given?
Have they given?
I haven’t given.
You haven’t given.
He/she/it haven’t given.
We haven’t given
They haven’t given.
What have I given?
What have you given?
What has he/she/it given?
What have we given?
What have they given?

8. Two levels of word knowledge
Initial ‘form-meaning’ level
‘Deeper’ knowledge
Learning how the meaning is connected to its spelling and pronunciation
Learning how the word works in communicative situations and with its co-text
pencil　 = /pensil/ =
WHAT
collocation, colligation, multiple meaning senses and nuances, topic area, register, frequency, spoken or written etc.
Quite easy to learn
Fast (if done well)
Restricted only to the meaning level
HOW
Takes a long time
Requires massive exposure
Can’t realistically be taught – too much to do.
‘Concrete stuff’: Individual words, affixes, lexical phrases, idioms, multi-part words, sentence heads etc.
WHICH
‘Abstract stuff’: collocations, colligations, spoken/written, register etc.

9. Intentional vs. Incidental learning
Intentional learning
Incidental learning
Direct focus on learning when the focus is to learn words
FOCUS
Learning ‘by accident’ - as a result of focusing on something else
wordlists, word cards, vocabulary exercises, dictionary use
E.G.
from reading or listening, watching movies, listening to songs, casual conversation
Can be learnt systematically
Meanings are learnt 16 times faster than with incidental learning
Retention high if learnt well
Decontextualized or ‘local’ learning level
LEARNING
Slow and fragile learning
Input tends to be random and unpredictable, unsystematized
Contextualized (chances for integrative learning)
Best for ‘form-meaning’ level learning
USE
Best for ‘deeper aspects’ of vocabulary learning

10. Terms Opportunity: the chance that students have to meet words
Exposure: the texts/ language that students actually meet
Uptake: the rate at which things are learnt
Retention: the rate at which words are learnt or forgotten

11. Uptake and retention
Intentional learning -fast – (Mukoyama 2005) -retention is good if the quality of learning is good -can’t learn the deeper aspects of vocabulary this way -each collocation is too infrequent -too many to learn -necessarily need to be learnt in context Incidental learning meetings to learn a word’s meaning -knowledge is fragile as the meeting is often fleeting

12. The Forgetting Curve
Number of words
Knowledge

13. No. of words to read to meet it x times
Occurrence rates
No. of words to read to meet it x times
Frequency
Word
No.
% of corpus 1 5 10 20 50
1st BE
10,387
4.989%
100
200
401
1,002
2nd
THE
10,027
4.816% 21
104
208
415
1,038
Top 25
SOME
1,192
0.573%
175
873
1,747
3,493
8,733
Top 50
SENTENCE
606
0.291%
344
1,718
3,436
6,871
17,178
Top 100
OUT
323
0.155%
645
3,223
6,446
12,892
32,230
Top 500
PREDICT
0.024%
4,164
20,820
41,641
83,281
208,203
Top 1000
ORGANIC 18
0.009%
11,567
57,834
115,668
231,337
578,342
Top 1500
TIMETABLE 9
0.004%
23,134
462,673
1,156,683
Top 2000
COMMERCE 4
0.002%
52,051
260,254
520,507
1,041,015
2,602,538
Top 2500
BIOCHEMICAL 2
0.001%
104,102
520,508
2,082,030
5,205,075
Top 3000
REFUND

14. Opportunity In EFL environments: Natural opportunity is low
Natural opportunity takes time, effort and commitment
Opportunities have to be sought
For many, creating language opportunities can only be done realistically through course requirements

15. Exposure
How frequently do learners meet words? How much text do learners meet? What kinds of words do learners typically meet?

16. Exposure
Data from a ‘typical’ 4 skills 5–level course book series for Mexican High Schools (Sequences by Heinle Cengage) -Includes all the units, instructions, exercises, workbook material, supplementary teacher’s material and listening texts -Teachers say students complete about 70% of the material -Only 20% of the class is taught in English -Little homework other than the course book materials are given -Data do not include out of class exposure -Data do not include student to student talk, student writings

17. Exposure Number of words in a typical 5 level course by frequency 50+
30-49
20-29
10-19
5-9
1-4
Total
Function
84671 1k
92390
6465
3986
2021
309
105171 2k
1942
1291
1434
4302
3414
189
12572
Other 42
175
160
2496
2873
179003
7756
5462
6498
3883
2685
205287
Names
2106
616
812
1527
1131
953
7145
41.25%
45.01%
3.15%
1.94%
0.98%
0.15%
0.00%
51.23%
0.95%
0.63%
0.70%
2.10%
1.66%
0.09%
6.12%
0.02%
0.08%
1.22%
1.40%
87.20%
3.78%
2.66%
3.17%
1.89%
1.31%
100.00%

18. Different words (types) in a typical 5 level course by frequency
Exposure
Different words (types) in a typical 5 level course by frequency
50+
30-49
20-29
10-19
5-9
1-4
Total
Function 40 1k
434
167
163
131 42
937 2k 22 35 60
322
506 52
997
Other 2 13 27
1263
1305
456
202
225
466
575
1315
3239
Names 14 16 34
109
177
367
717
1.23%
13.40%
5.16%
5.03%
4.04%
1.30%
0.00%
28.93%
0.68%
1.08%
1.85%
9.94%
15.62%
1.61%
30.78%
0.06%
0.40%
0.83%
38.99%
40.29%
15.31%
6.24%
6.95%
14.39%
17.75%
40.60%
100.00%

19. Uptake
What uptake can we expect from a typical course? How much text do learners meet? -Possibly ,000 words over a typical 5 level course. How frequently do learners meet words? -Function words - very very frequently -De-lexical words - (have, be, do etc.) - very very frequently words (25-27%) are met enough times for acquisition (10-15%) words will be partially known words (over 65-70%) will probably not be learnt

20. Cautions
‘Acquisition’ assumes meeting the words enough times over 3 years is sufficient The data do not include multiple meanings, collocations, idioms, multiple-meaning senses, multi-part words, grammar, etc. The above data are for possible uptake rates from a typical course (individual results will vary) The data are calculated on input frequency (receptive vocabulary) Productive vocabulary size is typically 1/4 to 1/5th of the receptive. We can expect a productive vocabulary of easy-to-access words and another partial-access

21. What to do?
Courses in general tend not to recycle vocabulary enough to allow for deep acquisition Most courses are linear in design – always teaching new things in each unit / lesson Learners need a good balance of intentional vs. incidental learning Start with lots of words, phrases, lexical chunks, sentence heads first. Focus on communicability. Grammar later Continue the coursework to provide the framework and initial knowledge of words, grammar etc. Massive text exposure to build incidental learning

22. Course book plus Extensive Reading
Uptake if they add 1 graded reader per week
50+
30-49
20-29
10-19
5-9
1-4 1k
707 93 44 68 47 32 2k
223
107 90
162
125
168
Other 83
116
309
398
1125
Total
1023
283
250
539
570
1325
3990
17.72%
2.33%
1.10%
1.70%
1.18%
0.80%
5.59%
2.68%
2.26%
4.06%
3.13%
4.21%
2.08%
2.91%
7.74%
9.97%
28.20%
25.64%
7.09%
6.27%
13.51%
14.29%
33.21%
100.00%
Data includes all of sequences plus foundations plus 11Pt and 65 GRs

23. Course book plus Extensive Reading
Significant improvement in vocabulary ( >1600 words) More of the words in their course book reach the ‘acquisition’ level (27% ---> 40%) They will have a better sense of how the vocabulary and grammar fit together They will have a better sense of collocation, and other deeper aspects of vocabulary acquisition.

24. Take home:
We can learn lots of words at the form-meaning level quickly Initial word knowledge decays quickly unless learnt well Deeper aspects of word knowledge grow over time We can expect students exposed to normal levels of input from a course to acquire less than a thousand words receptively and a few hundred productively Adding a Extensive Reading almost doubles their vocabulary learning

25. Thanks for listening
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