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Abstract
AbstractRecently, scholars have begun to explore the hypothesis that individual differences in domain-general auditory perception, which has been identified as an anchor of L1 acquisition, could explain some variance in postpubertal L2 learners’ segmental and suprasegmental learning in immersive settings. The current study set out to examine the generalizability of the topic to the acquisition of higher-level linguistic production skills—that is the appropriate use of diverse, rich, and abstract vocabulary. The speech of 100 Polish-English bilinguals was elicited using an interview task, submitted to corpus-/rater-based linguistic analyses, and linked to their ability to discriminate sounds based on individual acoustic dimensions (pitch, duration, and amplitude). According to the results, those who attained more advanced L2 lexical proficiency demonstrated not only more relevant experience (extensive immersion and earlier age of arrival), but also more precise auditory perception ability.
Highlights
Modeling, Assessing, and Developing Spoken L2 Vocabulary ProficiencyWhereas vocabulary is considered to be an integral unit of L2 learning, much of the existing work has been concerned with the assessment and development of receptive vocabulary knowledge
It has been shown (a) that such receptive knowledge can be operationalized as vocabulary size (2-3k frequent word families for beginner L2 speakers; 24k frequent word families for L1 speakers; Webb & Nation, 2017); (b) that L2 speakers’ vocabulary size continues to improve as a function of increased input; (c) that many learners can achieve nativelike vocabulary size as long as they engage in a great deal of L2 immersion experience (Hellman, 2011); and (d) that vocabulary size may be strongly correlated with a wide range of global L2 skills
Given that auditory processing is an important determinant of phonological aspects of L2 speech learning (e.g., Omote et al, 2017), and that the mechanisms underlying the individual differences in L2 lexical production development and attainment have remained open to investigation (Saito, 2015, 2020), the current study explored the relationship between a total of 100 late Polish-English bilinguals’ profiles of auditory processing, biographical backgrounds, and spoken vocabulary proficiency
Summary
Whereas vocabulary is considered to be an integral unit of L2 learning, much of the existing work has been concerned with the assessment and development of receptive vocabulary knowledge It has been shown (a) that such receptive knowledge can be operationalized as vocabulary size (2-3k frequent word families for beginner L2 speakers; 24k frequent word families for L1 speakers; Webb & Nation, 2017); (b) that L2 speakers’ vocabulary size continues to improve as a function of increased input (for a discussion on the number of encounters vs acquisition, see Pellicer-Sánchez, 2016); (c) that many learners can achieve nativelike vocabulary size as long as they engage in a great deal of L2 immersion experience (Hellman, 2011); and (d) that vocabulary size may be strongly correlated with a wide range of global L2 skills (e.g., listening, reading, speaking, and writing; see Schmitt, 2010). With respect to spoken L2 vocabulary, prior studies have indicated that even highly experienced L2 speakers’ productive vocabulary use is subject to a great deal of individual variation, hinting at the possibility that some form of aptitude may play a very critical role in determining the incidence of high-level productive L2 vocabulary attainment (e.g., Hyltenstam, 1988)
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