Partial Word Knowledge Research Articles

An Investigation into the Roles of Guessing and Partial Knowledge in the Vocabulary Size Test

Although an accurate measure of vocabulary size is integral to understanding the proficiency of language learners, the validity of multiple-choice (M/C) vocabulary tests to determine this has been questioned due to users guessing correct answers which inflates scores. In this paper the nature of guessing and partial knowledge used when taking the Vocabulary Size Test (VST) is examined. The analysis evaluates the thought processes of test takers through think-aloud protocols and self-reports. This provides a taxonomy of seven types of guesses used by learners while taking the VST and measures the frequency of their occurrence. Based on qualitative coding, guesses are investigated to determine if they exhibit partial word knowledge which is relevant to the test construct. The findings suggest that both guesses resulting from the use of partial knowledge and random guesses are included in estimates and this has a detrimental effect on test accuracy. The paper concludes that the VST does not provide an accurate measure of the vocabulary necessary for reading due to guessing and the meaning-recognition format. It also suggests that the role of partial knowledge should be considered when producing more sophisticated vocabulary tests in the future.

Word Knowledge Dimensions in L2 Lexical Inference: Testing Vocabulary Knowledge and Partial Word Knowledge.

This study explored the role of word knowledge dimensions in second language (L2) word-meaning inference. College-level L2 learners (N = 121) participated in this study and completed a series of word knowledge tests including vocabulary size, word associates, morpheme-form knowledge, morpheme-meaning knowledge, morpheme discrimination, and morpheme recognition. Two modules of lexical inferencing tasks (pseudoword inference and real-word inference) were also administered to the participants. Through multivariate path analysis, the findings demonstrated that word-knowledge dimensions made a collective contribution to L2 lexical inference after text comprehension ability was controlled for. More critically, the study found that word associates and morpheme-form knowledge had the strongest predicting power among all word-knowledge components. Theoretical justifications were provided to discuss the mechanism of word knowledge and lexical inference. In addition, applied implications were discussed to shed light on L2 vocabulary instruction and learning.

Scaffolding attention and partial word learning through interactive coviewing of educational media: An eye-tracking study with low-income preschoolers.

This study was designed to examine the effects of coviewing on low-income children’s attention to and understanding of novel words in educational media. In addition, we sought to understand coviewing’s contribution to children’s receptive and expressive word learning when some target words were repeated more or less frequently. Using a within-subjects design, 83 preschoolers viewed 2 educational media stories, 1 with an adult coviewer, and the other without, in a counterbalanced approach. Eye-tracking technology recorded children’s attention throughout viewing; pre- and posttests examined children’s gains in receptive and expressive word identification. Results indicated that children’s attention to target words was greater in the coviewing condition but appeared to contribute to expressive word learning only of lower repetition words. Attention mediated the relationship between coviewing and low-repetition word learning for expressive, but not receptive, vocabulary. Regardless of condition, children learned more words when they were repeated more frequently. This study provides further evidence that low-income children can pick up at least partial word knowledge on their own, particularly when words are repeated frequently. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Assessing a continuum of lexical–semantic knowledge in the second year of life: A multimodal approach

Behavioral dissociations in young children’s visual and haptic responses have been taken as evidence that word knowledge is not all-or-none but instead exists on a continuum from absence of knowledge, to partial knowledge, to robust knowledge. This longitudinal study tested a group of 16- to 18-month-olds, 6months after their initial visit, to replicate results of partial understanding as shown by visual–haptic dissociations and to determine whether partial knowledge of word–referent relations can be leveraged for future word recognition. Results show that, like 16-month-olds, 22-month-olds demonstrate behavioral dissociations exhibited by rapid visual reaction times to a named referent but incorrect haptic responses. Furthermore, results suggest that partial word knowledge at one time predicts the degree to which that word will be understood in the future.

Assessing the Effects of Word Exposure Frequency on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition from Reading and Listening

AbstractThis study investigated the effects of the frequency at which English as a foreign language (EFL) students were exposed to words from the input modes of reading and listening. Accordingly, 15 words of three frequency groups were selected. A total of 60 Chinese EFL students were recruited. The four test types of recall of form, recognition of form, recall of meaning, and recognition of meaning were administered to measure participants’ ability in building a form-meaning link. Immediate posttests were administered for assessing vocabulary development, and delayed posttests were administered two weeks later for assessing retention. The results revealed that new words could be learned incidentally in both modes, but more word knowledge was gained in reading. The effect of word exposure frequency on incidental vocabulary gains was significant for the four test types in both of the two modes. Since only partial word knowledge was acquired by both modes, it appeared that for the two modes to be a valuable source for incidental vocabulary learning, not only word exposure frequency, but also elaborate word processing is needed. Relevant implications for teaching and learning vocabulary are discussed.

Semantic-syntactic partial word knowledge growth through reading.

Incidental reading provides a powerful opportunity for partial word knowledge growth in the school-age years. The extent to which children of differing language abilities can use reading experiences to glean partial knowledge of words is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to compare semantic-syntactic partial word knowledge growth of children with higher language skills (HL group; overall language standard scores of 85 or higher) to that of children with relatively lower language skills (LL group; overall receptive or expressive standard score below 85). Thirty-two children, 16 per group, silently read stories containing unfamiliar nouns and verbs 3 times over a 1-week period. Semantic-syntactic partial word knowledge growth was assessed after each reading and 2-3 days later to assess retention. Over time, both groups showed significant partial word knowledge growth, with the HL group showing significantly more growth. In addition, both groups retained knowledge several days later. Regardless of language skill level, children benefit from multiple exposures to unfamiliar words in reading in their development and retention of semantic-syntactic partial word knowledge growth.

Partial word knowledge in the absence of recall

Attributes of words can be known even when the words are not currently retrievable. Although repeatedly demonstrated for semantic and contextual dimensions, the evidence is ambiguous for structural characteristics. The present research demonstrates significant above-chance first-letter knowledge across four ordinal levels of retrieval confidence for nonretrieved words--tip of the tongue (TOT), high familiar, low familiar, unfamiliar. Contrary to prior research, there was minimal evidence for syllable number knowledge, even at highest confidence levels. Initial letter recognition in the absence of retrieval resembles the recognition without identification in episodic memory (Cleary, Current Directions in Psychological Science 17: 353-357, 2008), and such implicit familiarity may contribute more generally to confidence assessments of word knowledge in both semantic and episodic memory domains. Furthermore, this outcome suggests that word feature priming in the form of partial phonological activation may occur to some extent for all words during a retrieval attempt, and even for ones that are judged to be unknown.

Partial word knowledge: Frontier words in the L2 mental lexicon

Abstract The study set out to examine the partial word knowledge of native speakers, L2 advanced, and intermediate learners of English with regard to four word features from Richards' (1976) taxonomy of aspects describing what knowing a word entails. To capture partial familiarity, the participants completed in writing a test containing low and mid frequency content words, accompanied by a word knowledge scale. The analysis showed that there were three distinctive patterns of partially familiar vocabulary but their distribution across the three groups was quite different, which indicated that partial knowledge was linked to different word features across the three proficiency groups. It was also of interest to explore whether the participants maintained similar associative connections for their frontier words and whether a word association task would capture partial familiarity. Overall, participants' associative domains for frontier words did not reveal any consistent associative behavior that would distinguish between proficiency groups.

Orthographic Word Knowledge Growth in School-Age Children

Natural reading experiences provide an opportunity for the development of orthographic word knowledge as well as other forms of partial word knowledge. The purpose of this study was to compare the orthographic word knowledge growth of school-age children with relatively low language skills (LL group) to that of age- and gender-matched peers with high language skills (HL group). Thirty-two children, 16 per group, read stories containing rare words 3 times, 2-3 days apart. Posttesting, completed at the end of each session, required participants to indicate recognition of the rare words encountered in the stories while not indicating recognition of orthographically similar nonwords. Over time, both groups showed significant growth in recognition of the orthographic forms of the rare words. However, the groups differed in the extent to which they indicated that the orthographically similar nonwords were words, with the LL group indicating that significantly more of the nonwords were words. Results provide some preliminary evidence that children with relatively weaker language skills are able to develop orthographic knowledge of unfamiliar words through reading experiences, but their orthographic representations may not be as well defined as those of children with stronger language skills.

Associations Between Syntax and the Lexicon Among Children With or Without ASD and Language Impairment

Five groups of children defined by presence or absence of syntactic deficits and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) took vocabulary tests and provided sentences, definitions, and word associations. Children with ASD who were free of syntactic deficits demonstrated age-appropriate word knowledge. Children with ASD plus concomitant syntactic language impairments (ASDLI) performed similarly to peers with specific language impairment (SLI) and both demonstrated sparse lexicons characterized by partial word knowledge and immature knowledge of word-to-word relationships. This behavioral overlap speaks to the robustness of the syntax-lexicon interface and points to a similarity in the ASDLI and SLI phenotypes.

Oral Definitions of Newly Learned Words

This study examined and compared patterns of errors in the oral definitions of newly learned words. Fifteen 9- to 11-year-old children with language learning disability (LLD) and 15 typically developing age-matched peers inferred the meanings of 20 nonsense words from four novel reading passages. After reading, children provided oral definitions for target words. Oral definition errors were categorized and proportions were computed. Results indicated that the LLD and typical groups showed similar error proportions in indeterminate ( p = .055), false ( p = .506), and semantic ( p = .370) categories. Different error proportions were found for phonological ( p = .048), sentence ( p = .031), substitution ( p = .001), and syntactic ( p = .023) categories. Similar patterns of errors were found for frontier and unknown words for the LLD group. These patterns provided evidence that children with LLD have difficulty gaining partial word knowledge during reading tasks.

The Single Exposure

A critical aspect of the assessment of children's word learning processes is the examination of word knowledge growth over time. The purpose of this study was to examine the types of partial word knowledge (PWK) growth that occurred from 1 exposure to unfamiliar words in text, taking into account the roles of part of speech and individual language skills. Sixth-grade children with normal language read stories containing unfamiliar nouns and verbs. The children then completed 2 tasks to assess PWK. Results were that at least 1 type of PWK developed: knowledge that a word exists as a lexical entry in the language. Part of speech appeared to play a role; significant PWK at posttest was apparent for verbs but not for nouns. Children's language skills did not appear to impact the amount of PWK demonstrated at posttest.

The Acquisition of Colloquial Terms by Western Australian Primary School Children from Non-English-speaking Backgrounds

This paper reports on language variation research carried out in Western Australian primary schools. It addresses differences in the acquisition of vocabulary, in particular the acquisition of colloquial Australian English vocabulary by students from English-speaking backgrounds (ESB) and from a range of non-English-speaking backgrounds (NESB). The data show differences which are attributable to a lack of familiarity with terms and the objects that they represent, which promoted strategies such as generic terms of circumlocution and which may have resulted from partial word knowledge. Other differences were attributable to cultural influences and were evident in varied patterns of word usage among the different non-English-speaking background groups. The findings of this paper suggest the importance of knowing a word not only in its semantic sense but also in its pragmatic and sociolinguistic sense.

A narwhal is an animal: partial word knowledge biases adults' decisions.

Adults' accuracy on a sentence verification task was measured to assess reliable biases in their responses as a function of their level of knowledge about the target words, as well as adults' ability to reject incorrect ontological category membership for their partially known words. Three levels of word knowledge (known, frontier, and unknown) were assessed in two experiments. Results indicated that participants were conservative decision-makers about sentences using the vocabulary words and that the conservative bias increased in strength as their level of knowledge about the target word increased. When biased guessing was discouraged, results indicated that participants were able to accurately identify both correct and incorrect sentences using targets at all three levels of knowledge, including their partially known words, but were least reliable at rejecting false sentences using unknown targets. Implications for the role of "knowing not" in adults' vocabulary acquisition are discussed.

Incidental Word Learning While Reading: A Meta-Analysis

A meta.analysis of 20 experiments examining incidental word learning during normal reading shows that students learn around 15% of the unknown words they encounter. A test of homogeneity indicates that study outcomes diverge, although their heterogeneity is relatively small (19%). An exploratory multi-level analysis of the variability in the results suggests that several factors affect the probability of learning an unknown word while reading: pretest sensitization, students' grade level, students' level of reading ability, the sensitivity of assessment methods to partial word knowledge, and the amount of text surrounding the target words. A model that contains students' grade level and assessment methods' sensitivity to partial word knowledge predicts 66% of the systematic variance in the effect sizes. Implications for research and instruction are discussed.

Incidental Word Learning while Reading: A Meta-Analysis

A meta.analysis of 20 experiments examining incidental word learning during normal reading shows that students learn around 15% of the unknown words they encounter. A test of homogeneity indicates that study outcomes diverge, although their heterogeneity is relatively small (19%). An exploratory multi-level analysis of the variability in the results suggests that several factors affect the probability of learning an unknown word while reading: pretest sensitization, students' grade level, students' level of reading ability, the sensitivity of assessment methods to partial word knowledge, and the amount of text surrounding the target words. A model that contains students' grade level and assessment methods' sensitivity to partial word knowledge predicts 66% of the systematic variance in the effect sizes. Implications for research and instruction are discussed.

Partial Word Knowledge and Vocabulary Growth during Reading Comprehension

The experiment investigated the development of vocabulary knowledge in elementary school children as a function of story reading for partially known and unknown words. Fourth graders participated in a vocabulary checklist in which they provided definitions or sentences for words they knew (known words) and checked off words they did not know the meaning of but were familiar with (partially known words). Children then read stories containing some of these words. The remaining words served as a control. Vocabulary growth was small but even for both partially known and unknown words. However, the characteristics of the words being learned themselves (particularly, part of speech and concreteness) were more important in determining this growth than aspects of the texts.

Partial knowledge in vocabulary acquisition: General constraints and specific detail.

The authors investigated the relationship of partial word knowledge and instruction by asking subjects to choose, from a pair of sentences, the correct use of a target word that they had or had not looked up in a dictionary. When the correct sentence of the pair could be chosen on the basis of general semantic constraints, subjects performed well even for words they had dented were part of their language, and instruction had no effect. Studying dictionary definitions did, however, increase the amount of specific, detailed information available in memory. Researchers have speculated on the role of partial word knowledge in the area of reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition and on the exact characteristics of words (e.g., Beck, McKeown, & Omanson, 1987; Dale, 1965; Loewenthal, 1971; Loewenthal & Gibbs, 1974; Trembly, 1966). Three general levels of word knowledge can be identified: One may know nothing at all about the word's meaning; one may have complete knowledge of the word's meaning; or knowledge may fall between these two extremes. Different researchers have operationalized these levels of word knowledge in different ways, especially the intermediate level of familiarity where some, but not complete, knowledge is assumed. Like Loewenthal (1971), we identified words about which the reader has no knowledge as unknown*' words. According to Dale (1965), these are words to which the reader responds, never saw the word before.* At the other extreme, words that constitute the expressive vocabulary were classified as known words (Dale, 1965; Loewenthal, 1971). In addition to these two extremes of word knowledge, there is a somewhat nebulous intermediate level that has been defined in a variety of ways. One of the clearest conceptualizations of this level is given by Dale (1965) and again by Trembly (1966). Dale characterized this level by the statement, know there is such a word, but I don't know what it means. Such words have been encountered in some form, most likely in the context of reading or listening. Trembly labeled this type as words because they exist at the frontier of the learner's knowledge. We have adopted Trembly's nomenclature in our discussion of this intermediate level of word knowledge. Hence, our study focuses on three levels of word knowledge: unknown, frontier, and known.