1. Use of Word Lists / Vocab Profiler
To design a curriculum – to focus on words that students need most
To decide which texts to use with students
To decide which words in a text would cause difficulty to students
Word lists are useful for efficient, focused learning of words,
BUT beware of a serial effect, and decontextualised learning

2. Session 3 The Mental Lexicon
Word association (WA) tests
Comparing the L1 and L2 mental lexicons
Pedagogic implications
Memory strategies (e.g. the Keyword Technique, mental imaging, creating structure for input)

3. Word Association Test

4. Word associations (English)
Prompt Word
Associative word
Relationship
green
water
open
hill
butterfly
truth
powerful
blanket
inclination
hockey

5. Looking at your word associates
Do you have the same word associates as your neighbours’?
Compared to your neighbours’ responses, do you have similar or different ways of ogranising words in your mental lexicons? (Are associations of L2 speakers different from those of native speakers?)

6. Word association and the mental lexicon
Cognitive processes -- how words and meanings are organized mentally (unobservable)
◄=►
Language associative behavior (observable)

7. Word Associations green Grass (collocation) Red (co-ordination)
Color (super-ordination)
water
Drink (collocation)
Melon (compound noun)
Clear (collocation)
open
Close (antonym)
Door (collocation)
inclination
Information (sound – stress pattern)
Intonation
incline
hockey
Jockey (sound - rhyme)

8. How words are stored in the mental lexicon
L1 / L2 equivalence (cognates in related languages)
Orthographically
Phonologically (rhyme, alliteration, stress pattern, etc.)
Semantically (synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms e.g. color - red)
Collocationally (e.g. make – a wish, catch – a bus)
Morphologically (e.g. defensive-offensive; television-telescope)
Encyclopedic associations (based on our knowledge / experience of the real world)

9. Meanings of words
Meanings of words are often understood in relation to other words (relational/ web)
e.g. you understand the meaning of ‘cold’ through your understanding of ‘hot’
e.g. you understand the meaning of ‘roses’ through your understanding of ‘garden’, ‘flowers’ or ‘lilies’

10. Word Associations and Language Proficiency
How words are organised / stored in the brain is an indicator of language proficiency level
Or how “native-like” you are

11. Paradigmatic associations
Always belong to the same word class
Substitutable in syntactic strings
More semantics-oriented
E.g. I want to get a doggie for my daughter.
pet
Terrier
cat
wombat
Syntagmatic associations
Usually belong to a different word class, but sometimes can belong to the same word class
Collocate well with prompt words in a grammatical string
More grammar-oriented
E.g. Dogs bark.
E.g. Walk the dog.
E.g. Dog collar
Phonological associations / Clangs
E.g. dog - fog
E.g. hockey - hockey

12. L1 mental lexicon
Phonological Syntagmatic Paradigmatic (developmental)
( younger children older children )
Commonness / Homogeneity in the their mental lexicons (tend to give the same word associates)
e.g. blanket: bed, warm, sheet, electric, cover, warmth, wool, soft, bath, snow

13. Mean proportion of NNS and NS response types for WA (Wolter, 2001)

14. L2 mental lexicon similar to L1 mental lexicon
Earlier studies found NS had more paradigmatic associations than NNS. But later studies (e.g. Zareva, 2007) found the same shift in L2 learners, as they get more proficient in the language, and as they grow older
Phonological Syntagmatic Paradigmatic

15. L2 mental lexicon different from L1 mental lexicon
L2 acquisition usually takes place when there is an already existing mental lexicon
Many of the meanings and meaning hierarchies that have already been internalized in the acquisition of the course of L1 development will be re-applicable in learners’ L2
Positive / negative influence from L1 lexicon
Connections between words in mental lexicon of L2 learners are more loosely connected and less consistent than those of the L1 learners

16. Looking at your word associates
What kinds of associations do you have most (phonological, syntagmatic, paradigmatic) in your WA tests?

17. Explaining the discrepancies in results generated by different studies
Design of the WA tests:
Whether the prompt words are high-frequency (familiar) or low-frequency (unfamiliar) words to the learners
Whether the prompt words are presented aurally or visually
Age / proficiency level of the learner

18. Pedagogical Implications
Developmental/ cognitive aspect:
Younger learners tend to favor syntagmatic associations: dog-bark
Older learners tend to favor/ are capable of handling paradigmatic associations / semantically-related groups e.g. synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms: dog-cat or dog-pet

19. Superordinates and Hyponyms

20. Semantically related input

21. Teaching synonyms /antonyms together?

22. Interference effect when learning closely related words (synonyms and antonyms)
Higa (1963) found that pairs of synonyms took longer to learn than pairs of unrelated words.
Higa (1965) reported that the closer the semantic relationship between words, the more difficult it may be to learn the words in a set.
Laufer (1990) reported that synonymy is one of seven interlexical factors that can reduce the chances of vocabulary acquisition.
Suggestion: Do NOT introduce totally novel synonyms or antonyms at the same time.

23. Synonyms
Fervent
Ardent

24. EAC for Econs and Finance students
The match has attracted many enthusiastic supporters of Liverpool.
The match has attracted many fervent supporters of Liverpool.
CN/ ECEN 1904

25. EAC for Econs and Finance students
This technology has been widely applied in Hong Kong.
This technology has been widely deployed in Hong Kong.
CN/ ECEN 1904

26. Slight advantage for thematically related words
Slight advantage for thematically group words (Tinkham, 1993, 1997)

27. Memory Number of items to be presented each time Memory loss
Number of exposures for learning to happen
Recycling (intervals, methods)
Memory strategies (the Keyword technique / mental imaging / creating structure for input)

28. Memory Number of items you can hold in your short-term memory?
How many times do you need to encounter a word before it is learnt?

29. Word retention
teach 8-12 vocabulary items in a 60-minute lesson (Gairns & Redman, 1986)
The chances of learning and retaining a word from one exposure is only 5-14% (Nagy, 1997)
5 – 16 times for a word to be learned (Zahar, Cobb & Spada, 2001)
An important role for recycling (revisiting) of the vocabulary learnt

30. Importance of Revision

31. Spaced / Distributed Repetition

32. Recycling of vocabulary
Horst & Meara (1999) – far more vocab is learnt if the same text is read several times (the first reading focuses on understanding meaning, while the later readings focus on the forms)
Following a piece of news for several days (word repetitions and synonyms); encountering the same words in different contexts
Vocabulary quizzes
Different parts of speech (e.g. “shoulder” as a noun, and as a verb)
Other meanings (polysemy) of a word (e.g. “head as a body part, the school head, the department head, head of a queue)
Replacing general words by specific words (e.g. nice – attractive, elegant, terrific)

33. The “Bathtub” Effect

34. Memory Strategy – Using Mental Images
(Adapted from forthcoming “Loong Y & Chan S W L, A Study of Vocabulary Learning Strategies Adopted by Dentistry Students in Hong Kong In Learning Specialized Dental Vocabulary, September 2012, Asian ESP Journal”)

35. Memory Strategy – The Keyword Technique
Step One: Think of a word that you know that has a similar sound (audionym “Keyword” )
Step Two: Create a mental image to link up the Keyword with the target word
(Adapted from Brahler, C. J. & Walker, D. (2008). Learning scientific and medical terminology with a mnemonic strategy using an illogical association technique. Advances in Physiology Education, 32, Post-session 4 Reading)

36. The “keyword” technique
Japanese word and meaning
English word that has a similar sound
Link and visual image created
kurai (dark)
karada (body)

37. The “keyword” technique
Japanese word and meaning
English word that has a similar sound
Link and visual image created
kurai (dark)
cry
A baby cries when it is dark
karada (body)
colored
a colored body

38. Kurai - Cry
Imagine the visual of a baby crying when it’s dark

39. Karada - colored
a colored body

40. Memory strategy – group words
Which word list is most conducive to word retention?

41. Do you know of any other mnemonics / memory strategies?

42. Reading Post-session 3 reading
Zareva, A. (2007).Structure of the second language mental lexicon: How does it compare to native speakers' lexical organization. Second Language Research, 23(2),

43. Preparation for the next session
Read one of the pre-session articles.
Explain to your group the research methods and key results.

44. Assignment