Meaning Of New Words Research Articles

Elaboration of the method of using etymological analysis at the lessons of ukrainian language in primary school

The effectiveness of experimental methodology of using etymological analysis at the lessons of Ukrainian language in primary school is proved in the article. The problem of the study is urgent and is in pedagogical and methodological grounding of etymological work with a word, the study of origin and development of the words; explanation of origin of the word by its comparison with related words of the same or other languages, consideration of initial form and meaning of the word.The methodical recommendations as to the mastering of stable skills of etymological explanation of the words by the pupils are grounded in experimental study; the criteria of primary school pupils’ erudition in etymology were elaborated. In the study are considered the problems of etymological analysis at the lessons of Ukrainian language in primary school with combination of grammar and orthographic tasks, using of etymology elements as a mean of activation of schoolchildren’s lexicon with the help of lexical-grammar, stylistic and logical exercises and different techniques of explanation of the meanings of new words

Assisstive technology application for enhancing social and language skills of young children with autism

In this paper we present an assistive system designed for supporting young children affected by autism in their process of learning pronunciation and meaning of new words. The system is built-up of a mobile application and objects identifiers which in our case were Estimote Beacon sensors. The system requires active participation of a parent who selects words to learn, records pronunciation of object names, selects illustrations, and activates and turns off the application. The entire process is designed to extend parents’ care and to support autistic children with an instant repetition of pronounced object’s names when those items are met during playing or moving around the house. An experimental part of our project consists of a report where we compare collected results of two autistic children using our application installed on a smart watch and on a smart phone. In both reported cases autistic children made a visible progress in speed of learning new words when compared to an equivalent period of time without assistive application support.

Intrinsic monitoring of learning success facilitates memory encoding via the activation of the SN/VTA-Hippocampal loop.

Humans constantly learn in the absence of explicit rewards. However, the neurobiological mechanisms supporting this type of internally-guided learning (without explicit feedback) are still unclear. Here, participants who completed a task in which no external reward/feedback was provided, exhibited enhanced fMRI-signals within the dopaminergic midbrain, hippocampus, and ventral striatum (the SN/VTA-Hippocampal loop) when successfully grasping the meaning of new-words. Importantly, new-words that were better remembered showed increased activation and enhanced functional connectivity between the midbrain, hippocampus, and ventral striatum. Moreover, enhanced emotion-related physiological measures and subjective pleasantness ratings during encoding were associated with remembered new-words after 24 hr. Furthermore, increased subjective pleasantness ratings were also related to new-words remembered after seven days. These results suggest that intrinsic-potentially reward-related-signals, triggered by self-monitoring of correct performance, can promote the storage of new information into long-term memory through the activation of the SN/VTA-Hippocampal loop, possibly via dopaminergic modulation of the midbrain.

Developing automaticity and speed of lexical access: the effects of incidental and explicit teaching approaches

There is general agreement that speed of lexical access is an essential component for successful communication and fluent language use. In vocabulary acquisition research the majority of studies have focused on the acquisition of the form and meaning of new words but research into the teaching conditions leading to the improvement of speed of lexical access is still scarce. This article reports results of two studies which explored the effectiveness of two vocabulary teaching approaches for the development of speed and automaticity of lexical access by learners of Spanish as a foreign language. Participants in Study 1 were exposed to the target vocabulary in reading passages (incidental approach), while participants in Study 2 were exposed to the target words in explicit vocabulary activities (explicit approach). A pre- and post-treatment lexical decision task assessed participants’ speed of lexical access. Two indicators of improved lexical access were examined: faster reaction times (RTs) and a decrease in the coefficient of variation (CV), i.e., automaticity measure. Results showed that both types of treatment led to faster speed of lexical access, while only the explicit treatment led to automatic processing. The effect of repetition was also explored and results showed that there was no clear, significant effect of the number of repetitions on the development of speed and automaticity of lexical access. Taken together, the type and amount of vocabulary learning activities in these studies give an initial indication of the minimum amount of vocabulary engagement which may lead to significant improvement in learners’ speed and automaticity of lexical access.

The Effect of Inferencing the Meaning of New Words from Context on Vocabulary Retention by Iranian EFL Learners

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of inferencing the meaning of new words from context on vocabulary retention by Iranian EFL learners. The participants were 67 Iranian university students of Tehran Islamic Azad University. They were sophomore English translation students who had enrolled in reading comprehension course in two different classes. To assign homogeneity, all students took language proficiency test. One group was assigned randomly as the control group (CG) & the other as experimental (EG). A pretest was administered to ensure that the new words were unfamiliar to them. During the 6 sessions of treatment, 48 selected items were exposed to the control group in the conventional way. (The vocabularies were taught through giving explanation, definition, synonyms or antonyms). But in the experimental group, the students inferred the meanings from the context and wrote down their inferences. Then, the surprised post-test was administered to both groups to evaluate their vocabulary retention. After applying t-test, the results showed that the experimental group did much better on the final test.

Iranian EFL Learners’ and Teachers’ Beliefs About the Usefulness of Vocabulary Learning Strategies

Vocabulary is an important part of language which is central to all language skills and meaningful communication. One way through which vocabulary learning can be facilitated is by the use of vocabulary learning strategies (VLS). VLSs can empower language learners to be more self-directed, regulated, and autonomous. Also, they can help language learners to discover and consolidate the meaning of the words more effectively. Teachers’ and students’ behavior, functioning, and learning are, however, controlled by their thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions. The present study was an effort to explore the Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners’ and teachers’ beliefs about the usefulness of different types of VLSs. To that end, a VLS questionnaire developed for this purpose was given to 392 EFL teachers and learners. Based on the results of the study, the Iranian EFL learners and teachers believed that strategies such as paying attention to vocabulary forms, functions, and semantic relations; guessing the meaning of new words from the context; and using monolingual dictionaries can be very useful in discovering and consolidating the meaning of new words. They, nevertheless, expressed hesitancy to use L1, bilingual dictionaries, and mnemonic devices. The results of Kruskal–Wallis Test also showed that the preference for a few strategies differed across levels of education.

New Meanings of the International Words of the Administrative Lithuanian Language

The article refers to the data of The Database of New Borrowings, collected in the period of 1998–2010. An attempt is made to analyse the evolvement of new meanings of some international words and to identify the main tendencies. The Lithuanian administrative language is well maintained and innovations occur very seldom; however, if they occur, they tend to rapidly spread to other areas of standard language.After joining the European Union, with an influx of the EU documents translated into the Lithuanian language, the influence of the English language on the Lithuanian administrative language became unquestionable. This is particularly obvious in the international words used in administrative language. First of all, new meanings of international words conveying the original language meaning appear in the translated documents, afterwards the meanings can be found in Lithuanian documents and later may also be found in other language usage areas.The article discusses the new meanings of international adjectives and their suitability for administrative language. The paper also analyses some cases of polysemous nouns, which have preserved in their new international meanings an obvious link to the original meaning of the word. Some new meanings of international words find their place in standard Lithuanian; others are replaced by their Lithuanian equivalents or more traditional international words.

Language Detectives

AbstractUnderstanding, reading, and writing using academic language has increasingly become a focus in our schools. One of the salient features of academic vocabulary is morphological complexity. Many words are considered derivationally morphologically complex, meaning they have roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Affixes can be challenging for students as they attempt to uncover the meanings of new words. This article reviews the characteristics and challenges with derivational suffixes to increase teachers’ understanding, and offers several strategies to engage students in their understanding of suffixes. These strategies are not meant to be isolated lessons but rather ways to incorporate language awareness across content and throughout the school year

The importance of vocabulary in language learning and how to be taught

Vocabulary learning is an essential part in foreign language learning as the meanings of new words are very often emphasized, whether in books or in classrooms. It is also central to language teaching and is of paramount importance to a language learner. Recent research indicate that teaching vocabulary may be problematic because many teachers are not confident about best practice in vocabulary teaching and at times don?t know where to begin to form an instructional emphasis on word learning (Berne & Blachowicz, 2008)In this article, I summarizes important research on the impotence of vocabulary and explaining many techniques used by English teachers when teaching English, as well as my own personal view of these issues.

Decoding the Formation of New Semantics: MVPA Investigation of Rapid Neocortical Plasticity during Associative Encoding through Fast Mapping.

Neocortical structures typically only support slow acquisition of declarative memory; however, learning through fast mapping may facilitate rapid learning-induced cortical plasticity and hippocampal-independent integration of novel associations into existing semantic networks. During fast mapping the meaning of new words and concepts is inferred, and durable novel associations are incidentally formed, a process thought to support early childhood's exuberant learning. The anterior temporal lobe, a cortical semantic memory hub, may critically support such learning. We investigated encoding of semantic associations through fast mapping using fMRI and multivoxel pattern analysis. Subsequent memory performance following fast mapping was more efficiently predicted using anterior temporal lobe than hippocampal voxels, while standard explicit encoding was best predicted by hippocampal activity. Searchlight algorithms revealed additional activity patterns that predicted successful fast mapping semantic learning located in lateral occipitotemporal and parietotemporal neocortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. By contrast, successful explicit encoding could be classified by activity in medial and dorsolateral prefrontal and parahippocampal cortices. We propose that fast mapping promotes incidental rapid integration of new associations into existing neocortical semantic networks by activating related, nonoverlapping conceptual knowledge. In healthy adults, this is better captured by unique anterior and lateral temporal lobe activity patterns, while hippocampal involvement is less predictive of this kind of learning.

The use of first language scaffolding to teach English as a foreign language to pre-school children during dramatic play in West Sumatera, Indonesia

The Indonesian community generally perceives that English language teaching should require phonology, vocabulary, grammar, discourse, and pragmatics. As a result, this often demands that pre-school teachers use English all the time. Code switching between English, Indonesian, and Minang – the local language of the region – is perceived negatively, and teachers are often criticized for using a multilingual approach that is “part snake and part eel” [sakarek ula sakarek baluik ]. This refers to a negative perception of mixing languages in educational settings. In fact, code switching between Minang (first language), Indonesian (second language), and English (foreign language) is the norm of language use in this part of Indonesia. However, in this community, there is a lack of respect for pre-school teachers' professionalism as well as scepticism towards the effectiveness of a multilingual teaching approach, which is used widely at the pre-school level. Vygotsky [14], the Russian psychologist, presents a different perspective on this phenomenon, noting that children learn languages by playing. Their first language can be the main tool to help them understand new words and utterances in context. By using code switching, teachers help pre-school children to link their prior knowledge and experience to the new forms of expression that enable them to derive the meaning of new words from the social context of language use. For this reason, scaffolding techniques should be used by pre-school teachers, particularly in ways which support children's cognitive development in constructing new meanings based on their first language experience. This paper, based on a research study-in-progress at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, explores patterns of interaction between pre-school teachers and their students as teachers scaffold the development of EFL through dramatic play in West Sumatera, Indonesia. This interaction is systemic in nature and demonstrates consistent patterns of language use. The data described here is derived from a collaborative Action Research project with pre-school teachers in this community. The results are presented in the form of a narrative inquiry. These results challenge local perceptions of teachers' effectiveness in language education. Children, who have been taught English language through scaffolding, demonstrate physical, social, and cognitive development as a result of learning in and through playing in a multilingual context. This shows the positive role of code switching in EFL teaching at pre-school level in West Sumatera, and suggests a need to challenge existing community perceptions, thereby prompting a more serious consideration of this approach to EFL teaching in complex multilingual learning contexts.

Readability for foreign language learning

In this paper, we analyse the differences between L1 acquisition and L2 learning and identify four main aspects: input quality and quantity, mapping processes, cross-lingual influence, and reading experience. As a consequence of these differences, we conclude that L1 readability measures cannot be directly mapped to L2 readability. We propose to calculate L2 readability for various dimensions and for smaller units. It is particularly important to account for the cross-lingual influence from the learner’s L1 and other previously acquired languages and for the learner’s higher experience in reading. In our analysis, we focus on lexical readability as it has been found to be the most influential dimension for L2 reading comprehension. We discuss the features frequency, lexical variation, concreteness, polysemy, and context specificity and analyse their impact on L2 readability. As a new feature specific to L2 readability, we propose the cognateness of words with words in languages the learner already knows. A pilot study confirms our assumption that learners can deduce the meaning of new words by their cognateness to other languages.

The Role of Reward in Word Learning and Its Implications for Language Acquisition

The exact neural processes behind humans' drive to acquire a new language--first as infants and later as second-language learners--are yet to be established. Recent theoretical models have proposed that during human evolution, emerging language-learning mechanisms might have been glued to phylogenetically older subcortical reward systems, reinforcing human motivation to learn a new language. Supporting this hypothesis, our results showed that adult participants exhibited robust fMRI activation in the ventral striatum (VS)--a core region of reward processing--when successfully learning the meaning of new words. This activation was similar to the VS recruitment elicited using an independent reward task. Moreover, the VS showed enhanced functional and structural connectivity with neocortical language areas during successful word learning. Together, our results provide evidence for the neural substrate of reward and motivation during word learning. We suggest that this strong functional and anatomical coupling between neocortical language regions and the subcortical reward system provided a crucial advantage in humans that eventually enabled our lineage to successfully acquire linguistic skills.

Incremental learning of difficult words in story contexts: the role of spelling and pronouncing new vocabulary

In this exploratory study we examine the value of exposure to the spelling and pronunciation of word forms when introducing the meanings of new and difficult vocabulary words. Kindergarten English learners were randomly assigned to one of two types of storybook reading delivered by tutors. Students in both treatments listened to short stories containing novel target words. In both groups, students were told the meanings of the difficult words when they first appeared in the stories. However, in one of the groups (Definitions-Plus), students were also shown the printed words when they first appeared in the stories, and were asked to pronounce and spell the words aloud. Vocabulary learning was assessed with three researcher-designed measures including receptive vocabulary, vocabulary definitions, and spelling. Results showed that both groups made significant gains on all three measures, with average gains of 8, 4, and 3 %, respectively. Moreover, the Definitions-Plus group had significantly greater spelling gains (d = .57), and exhibited similar, albeit nonsignificant, trends on vocabulary gains (ds = .30 and .41 for receptive and definitional vocabulary, respectively). Results extend previous studies’ results to younger English learner students on general benefits of novel word exposure in story contexts, and specific benefits for spelling and pronunciation practice in learning new words.

Students’ First Language Skills After Six Years in Bilingual Education

The longitudinal study investigated the effects of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) on the development of children’s literacy skills during their first six school years. In the three CLIL classes students studied, from the very beginning of the first grade, different school subjects in Finnish and in English. Three other classes were used as a control group. The students in those classes studied all school subjects in Finnish and started to learn English as a second language in third grade. At the beginning of the first grade, the level of school readiness was significantly higher in the bilingual classes than in the monolingual classes. At the end of the first grade, there was no significant difference in the literacy skills of the two groups, but after two study years, the reading and writing skills of the test group were significantly better than those of the control group. After four school years it was obvious that the children’s creative writing skills had also benefited from bilingual teaching. The students in the CLIL classes had learned to pay attention to languages, as well to their mother tongue as to other languages. Moreover, they had more positive attitudes towards reading, writing and foreign language learning. Especially the boys’ attitudes proved to be more positive in the CLIL classes than in the other classes. In addition, they enjoyed studying English and also studying through it. The students’ spelling skills and ability to understand different texts were measured during the last month of their sixth school year. The measurements showed that the students in the CLIL classes had achieved significantly better first language spelling and reading skills than the students in the other classes. They made significantly less spelling errors and understood significantly better fiction, non-fiction, and newspaper texts. Furthermore, they showed more proficiency in deriving the meaning of new words from the written context than the other students. They succeeded significantly better in finding the most important facts of the non-fiction text and summarising the text than their peers in the other classes. It is worth mentioning that especially the boys seemed to have benefited from bilingual education: in the other classes the girls’ skills were significantly better than the boys’ but this was not the case in the CLIL classes. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n22p72

Contextual learning of L2 word meanings: second language proficiency modulates behavioural and event-related brain potential (ERP) indicators of learning

New word learning occurs incidentally through exposure to language. Hypothesising that effectiveness of contextual word learning in a second language (L2) depends on the quality of existing lexical semantic knowledge, we tested more and less proficient adult bilinguals in an incidental word learning task. One day after being exposed to rare words in an L2 (English) reading task, the bilinguals read sentences with the newly learned words in the sentence-final position, followed by related or unrelated meaning probes. Both proficiency groups showed some learning through faster responses on related trials and a frontal N400 effect observed during probe word reading. However, word learning was more robust for the higher proficiency group, who showed a larger semantic relatedness effect in unfamiliar contexts and a canonical N400 (central–parietal). The results suggest that the ability to learn the meanings of new words from a context depends on the L2 lexical semantic knowledge of the reader.

Orthographic Mapping in the Acquisition of Sight Word Reading, Spelling Memory, and Vocabulary Learning

Orthographic mapping (OM) involves the formation of letter-sound connections to bond the spellings, pronunciations, and meanings of specific words in memory. It explains how children learn to read words by sight, to spell words from memory, and to acquire vocabulary words from print. This development is portrayed by Ehri (2005a) as a sequence of overlapping phases, each characterized by the predominant type of connection linking spellings of words to their pronunciations in memory. During development, the connections improve in quality and word-learning value, from visual nonalphabetic, to partial alphabetic, to full grapho-phonemic, to consolidated grapho-syllabic and grapho-morphemic. OM is enabled by phonemic awareness and grapheme-phoneme knowledge. Recent findings indicate that OM to support sight word reading is facilitated when beginners are taught about articulatory features of phonemes and when grapheme-phoneme relations are taught with letter-embedded picture mnemonics. Vocabulary learning is facilitated when spellings accompany pronunciations and meanings of new words to activate OM. Teaching students the strategy of pronouncing novel words aloud as they read text silently activates OM and helps them build their vocabularies. Because spelling-sound connections are retained in memory, they impact the processing of phonological constituents and phonological memory for words.

Teaching and Learning English-as-a-Second / Foreign Language through Mother Tongue: A Field Study

The underlying study aims to investigate and analyze the actual reasons, attitudes, and purposes behind the use of the mother tongue (Arabic) in teaching English-as-a-second language to Arab students attending English courses as a university compulsory requirement for the study of English language and literature at Jordanian private and government-aided universities. To achieve this goal, the researcher analyzed data he collected from classroom observation at three different private universities. In addition, the writer analyzes results of responses to questionnaires distributed to 120 students and 12 teachers learning and teaching English at three universities – 40 students and 4 teachers from each university.The results obtained show that almost all the respondents expressed the need for the use of Arabic in the English classroom because, according to them, it helps students understand the meaning of new or difficult words, explain complex syntactic rules, and save time. The study also shows that not allowing students to use their mother tongue will result in prohibiting them to have some opportunities to learn English better.

Structure Reviewing versus Discussing Your Feelings with Someone Else Vocabulary Learning Strategies: Which Strategy Serves Better

AbstractThe aim of this study was to compare the effect of Structure Reviewing as a direct vocabulary learning strategy versus Discussing Your Feeling with Someone Else as an indirect vocabulary learning strategy on reading comprehension skill of Iranian students. To fulfill the purpose of the study, a vocabulary test was administrated to one hundred male and female EFL university students. Ultimately, fifty students were selected and assigned into two groups. The first group (A) was taught vocabulary through Structure Reviewing and the second group (B) received instruction on Discussing Your Feeling with Someone Else vocabulary learning strategy. The data analysis conducted through Independent samples t-test statistics revealed that there was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of their vocabulary learning. Results showed that Structure Reviewing strategy can lead to higher achievement of vocabulary storage in reading comprehension of Iranian EFL undergraduate students.Keywords: Vocabulary Learning Strategy, Structure Reviewing, Discussing Your Feeling with Someone Else1. IntroductionThroughout the previous decades, several studies conducted by different researchers have given special attention to the importance of vocabulary learning for second language learners (Richards, 1980, Allen, 1983; Laufer, 1986; Nation, 1990). However, nowadays, the importance of vocabulary acquisition and its effect in learning a second or foreign language has become more and more in the focal of attention. Many studies have revealed that the English language proficiency of second language learners in great amount correlates with their vocabulary learning (Gu & Johnson, 1996; Kojic-Sabo & Lightbown, 1999). Hence, learning a second language largely means learning its vocabulary (Gass, 1999) as vocabulary skills make a significant contribution to almost all aspects of second language proficiency.Also numerous scholars and vocabulary researchers agree that vocabulary acquisition is a very important element of enhancing reading comprehension skill (McKeown, et al., 1983; Nagy & Anderson, 1984; Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998 Blachowicz & Ogle, 2001). Furthermore, by applying a systematic and principled approach to teaching and learning vocabulary, learners see vocabulary as a key factor in language learning and reading (Beck, McKeown, and Kucan, 2002; Bormuth, 1966; Davis, 1968). Recent findings also have indicated that vocabulary knowledge is vital to reading comprehension and proficiency, to which it is closely linked (Tozcu & Coady, 2004).Vocabulary learning strategy is a subcategory of language learning strategies (LLS) (Oxford, 1990, p. 8), vocabulary learning strategy organizes knowledge about what learners do to find out the meaning of new words, retain them in their memory for a long time, recall them when needed in comprehension, and also apply them in language production (Catalan 2003, cited in Ruutmets, 2005). Teaching language learning strategies is beneficial to both English teachers and learners. LLS improve both the learning product and process because it motivates learners and enhances their awareness of how to learn successfully (Rasekh & Ranjbari, 2003). It helps teachers to become more aware of their learners' needs and modify their teaching styles according to their learners' strategies (Oxford, Crookall, et al, 1990), and to direct their teaching efforts (Kinoshita, 2003). Griffiths (2006) points out, that recently the importance of teaching vocabulary has been acknowledged.Oxford (1996) has argued that a greater emphasis should be placed on identifying effective language learning strategies and on teaching students how to use them successfully. Many scholars have reported the differences between successful and less successful learners based on the language learning strategies they use (Naiman, Frohlich, Stern, & Todesco, 1996; Vandergrift, 1997; Chamot & El- Dinary, 1999). …

Electrophysiological evidence for the action of a center-surround mechanism on semantic processing in the left hemisphere.

Physiological evidence was sought for a center-surround attentional mechanism (CSM), which has been proposed to assist in the retrieval of weakly activated items from semantic memory. The CSM operates by facilitating strongly related items in the “center” of the weakly activated area of semantic memory, and inhibiting less strongly related items in its “surround”. In this study weak activation was created by having subjects acquire the meanings of new words to a recall criterion of only 50%. Subjects who attained this approximate criterion level of performance were subsequently included in a semantic priming task, during which ERPs were recorded. Primes were newly learned rare words, and targets were either synonyms, non-synonymously related words, or unrelated words. All stimuli were presented to the RVF/LH (right visual field/left hemisphere) or the LVF/RH (left visual field/right hemisphere). Under RVF/LH stimulation the newly learned word primes produced facilitation on N400 for synonym targets, and inhibition for related targets. No differences were observed under LVF/RH stimulation. The LH thus, supports a CSM, whereby a synonym in the “center” of attention, focused on the newly learned word, is facilitated, whereas a related word in the “surround” is inhibited. The data are consistent with the view of this laboratory that semantic memory is subserved by a spreading activation system in the LH. Also consistent with our view, there was no evidence of spreading activation in the RH. The findings are discussed in the context of additional recent theories of semantic memory. Finally, the adult right hemisphere may require more learning than the LH in order to demonstrate evidence of meaning acquisition.