Vocabulary List Research Articles

Handle it in-house?

Abstract Vocabulary lists of high-frequency lexical items are an important resource in language education and a key product of corpus research. However, no single vocabulary list will be useful for every learning context, with the appropriateness of such lists affected by the corpora on which they are based. This paper investigates the impact of corpus selection on one measure of lexical sophistication, Advanced Guiraud, focusing on two frequency lists originating from an in-house learner corpus (PELIC) and a global learner corpus (Cambridge Learner Corpus). This analysis shows that frequency lists derived from both types of learner corpus can effectively serve as the basis for measuring the development of lexical sophistication, regardless of the specific program of the learners. Therefore, publicly available learner corpus frequency lists can be a reliable resource for stakeholders interested in the lexical gains of language learners.

Out-of-the-classroom learning of English vocabulary by EFL learners: investigating the effectiveness of mobile assisted learning with digital flashcards

The importance of vocabulary knowledge as one of the most challenging aspects of foreign language learning has been widely acknowledged. In order to facilitate learning vocabulary items in English by language learners, mobile assisted vocabulary learning attracted considerable attention in recent years. Nevertheless, the application of mobile devices for learning the most frequently used vocabulary items in core vocabulary lists received far less attention. To address this gap, the current study investigated the contribution of a digital flashcard application (i.e. NGSL builder) designed for smartphone devices in out-of-the-classroom learning of essential vocabulary in English among EFL learners. The participants were 86 university students in experimental and control groups. In addition to formal language education during a semester, the experimental group used the mobile application for studying vocabulary items outside the classroom, while the control group used traditional materials (i.e. word list) to study the same content. The participants’ vocabulary knowledge was measured in three times (pre, post, and delayed posttest), and the results revealed that the use of mobile applications contributed significantly to vocabulary knowledge development, and those in the experimental group outperformed their counterparts in the control group. The findings also provided empirical evidence for the long-term impacts of mobile-assisted vocabulary learning. The study highlights the significance of mobile technologies in helping L2 learners to acquire essential vocabulary in English and discusses the pedagogical implications of these findings.

Synonymy as the semantic framework for disambiguation of meaning in the translation from English into Xitsonga

Translators are expected to master diction, lexicon and syntax, as these vary between languages. Translating from English into Xitsonga is often a daunting task, as choosing the right word can be complex. Most lexical items in Xitsonga carry semantic and connotational nuance, making the selection of one synonym over another problematic. This article explores how L1 Xitsonga speakers can select synonyms with precision during translation into English. The article analyses how a translation product is organised in a manner that deals with synonyms appropriately and meaningfully to its target readers. It employs a qualitative research method underpinned by the theory of lexical semantics, and is more broadly situated in the field of Descriptive Translation Studies. It concludes that mastery of synonymy cannot be attained through vocabulary lists alone, but also requires the translator’s knowledge of the cultures in play.

Exercices de vocabulaire A1 et A2 par Anne Akyüz

Reviewed by: Exercices de vocabulaire A1 et A2 par Anne Akyüz Olivia Amzallag Akyüz , Anne, Bernadette Bazelle-Shahmaei, Joëlle Bonenfant, et Marie-FranÇoise Orne-Gliemann. Exercices de vocabulaire A1 et A2. Hachette, 2019. ISBN 978-2-01-401642-0. Pp. 159. The A1 level of Exercices de vocabulaire assumes no prior knowledge of the French language. The text then moves into the A2 level, as a continuation of the basic language program. Exercices de vocabulaire presents vocabulary divided into thematic topics such as travel, banking, clothing, and leisure activities. Each topic is supported with retention and practice exercises, for both listening and writing. This program provides transcriptions of the audio files and corrections for each exercise, followed by an assessment pertaining to the material learned. Materials are recycled throughout the program. For example, vocabulary associated with the topic of family is presented early in the A1 section and revisited at the beginning of the A2 exercises, with some additional adjectives. This allows students to make connections from one part of the course to another and helps maintain retention of the original set of vocabulary, while expanding their L2 French lexicon. A variety of practice exercises are used, including but not limited to crossword puzzles, matching activities, word scrambles and fill-in-the-blanks. These activities are designed to provide varied engagement with the material for each chapter. Vocabulary is not typically presented contextually, but rather in a list format. This text does not feature authentic reading materials, nor does it use reading passages as tools for vocabulary building. Students could create their own writing passages using the vocabulary list as a writing activity and share with partners or groups as a reading comprehension and discussion follow-up. The authors focus on the writing and retention practice activities, while tailoring tasks to the topic and to students' needs. The prescribed exercises are well illustrated with graphics and pictures, which are designed for practicing individual words and related sentences. This exercise book relies heavily on basic present-tense verbs to frame the vocabulary introduced in the A1 level. However, passé composé and future proche tenses are included in the A2 to frame the vocabulary lists. This text could accompany a more grammar-focused book or course to enrich students' vocabulary building or to provide support exercises for units from another program. [End Page 272] Olivia Amzallag University of Delaware Copyright © 2022 American Association of Teachers of French

La fabuleuse aventure des Bleus par Dominique Georges

Reviewed by: La fabuleuse aventure des Bleus par Dominique Georges Jessica L. Sturm Georges, Dominique. La fabuleuse aventure des Bleus. CLÉ International, 2019. ISBN 978-209-031717-6. Pp. 64. Teaching language through a specific context or cultural lens is an excellent way to get students engaged with the material, since it creates natural occasions for communication in the L2. La fabuleuse aventure des Bleus provides both a context for the presentation of new vocabulary and a cultural lens for students to compare French soccer, or sports in general, to their own country's focus on sports. With the immense worldwide popularity of soccer, and the sport's growing popularity in the United States, many students at the elementary, secondary, or university/college level would enjoy reading the story of the 2018 Men's World Cup Champions, les Bleus. Sports as a cultural lens is quite promising in the French language classroom. First, it is quite easy to draw parallels between the United States and France, in how their citizens practice and consume (watch) sports. Second, as teachers it is to our benefit to expand students' vision of French culture beyond food, fashion, art, architecture, etc. This book facilitates that expansion by recounting the team's path to the 2018 Men's World Cup while including mini-biographies of several players. Third, social issues such as immigration have a definite place in any discussion of sport. Talking and writing about soccer in the Francophone world and immigrant players in France is an approachable way to address a complicated topic in class. In addition, La fabuleuse aventure des Bleus is a highly accessible reading text, designed for the A2 level and accompanied by both a series of helpful footnotes and a soccer vocabulary list at the end. Students who are soccer fans or players will be able to intuit much of the vocabulary from reading in context, but the provided list will aid any with technical soccer terms. This book also contains a series of reading comprehension questions for each chapter, generally true/false, fill-in-the-blank, or multiplechoice. Beyond the reading activities and questions, this book can serve as a jumping-off point for class discussions, writing assignments, and making comparisons and connections between soccer or sporting culture in general in the students' community and in France. After reading this A2-level text on French soccer, students may feel better able to read authentic texts in French or Francophone newspapers on soccer. Another direction to take from this text is to investigate soccer in other Francophone countries, or to discuss immigration in the context of sports teams. Beyond being an appealing text on its own, La fabuleuse aventure des Bleus creates opportunities to explore numerous issues in France and the Francophone world, providing students with something to talk and write about, as well as a fascinating lens by which to examine the target culture(s) in French class. [End Page 275] Jessica L. Sturm Purdue University (IN) Copyright © 2022 American Association of Teachers of French

Phonological Features of Manobo Spoken in Davao Occidental

The study provides a description of the phonological features projected in Manobo, which is spoken in Jose Abad Santos, Davao Occidental, as an effort to monitor the status and vitality of the language. In eliciting the segmental and suprasegmental features, the respondents translated the questionnaire, a pre-determined word list of Cebuano vocabularies and sentences, and it was documented through audio-recording. The transcribed words were rated through International Phonetic Alphabet symbols. For the suprasegmental features, those focused on length, stress, and intonation in statement form and in answering WH/Yes-No questions. The study identified a total of 42 phonemic units in the Manobo language’s phonetic code: nine (9) vocoids, four (4) vocoid chains, 15 contoids, and four (4) contoid-clusters, and 10 supra-segmental phonemes. Also, factors such as age somewhat affect their phonological features. Native speakers were observed borrowing words from the dominant languages –Bisaya, Tagalog, and English, clipping some of the native words and code-switching to other languages when speaking. Manobo language is still used in home and community; however, it is not being sustained in the formal institution. Finally, the paper echoes the call for future studies of Manobo morphophonemic features of various Manobo speakers.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication in the Context of Dramatic Storytelling: A Single-Case Study of a Pre-schooler With a Cochlear Implant

This single-case study of a pre-schooler with a cochlear implant aimed to integrate an Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention with dramatic storytelling activities to improve Jenny’s receptive and expressive language ability and communication skills as a means to address her communication needs. The researcher developed a functional communication image-text vocabulary list of 50 items with five categories: people, social interactions, animals, colors, and frequently used verbs. The intervention was conducted during the regular school day in the corner of a regular classroom 3 days a week for 6 weeks. This study demonstrated that AAC developed during dramatic storytelling activities helped Jenny to improve the effectiveness of functional communication vocabulary learning and increase the frequency of oral language communication. Group dramatic storytelling provides opportunities for learning through peer imitation during naturally occurring activities as well as ones for intentional and systematic AAC instruction during activities.

Technical vocabulary in languages for special purposes: The corpus-based Russian economics word list

In this article, we address the topic of language for specific purposes (LSP) through the creation and validation of a technical, corpus-based word list in Russian. We build on an existing body of research on developing lists of specialized vocabulary in English as a second language (ESL). We introduce some methodological innovations in compiling a list of Russian vocabulary for students with a professional interest in economics. This study illustrates that a corpus-based list of specialized vocabulary, which includes 507 lemmas united in 324 word families, can provide a hypothetical shortcut to the increased coverage of discipline-specific texts compared with the coverage achieved using the next 1,000-word frequency increment of general vocabulary. Therefore, such a list could facilitate LSP mastery at lower levels of proficiency, which yields important pedagogical implications for the foreign language classroom. The methodology could potentially be used to compile similar lists in other languages.

Revisiting Intermediate-high Cold Reading Curriculum on Design and Practice

The phrase “cold reading” originates from marketing psychology, but for teaching Chinese as a second language, it refers to one of many strategies in the reading curriculum. Schema theory tells us those good readers are adept at comprehending interactions between bottom-up and top-down processes (Rumelhart, 1980). According to Liu Songhao et al. (2015), there is a close correlation between reading level and teaching strategy. Research on reading education for Chinese as a second language has largely focused on how educators should teach, but little discussion can be found with regards to how a student engages with reading material. Although the breadth of Chinese vocabulary likely differs from English, it remains clear that non-native readers are limited by their language level and must strive harder to develop the skill and psychological ability to adapt to challenges. In cold reading courses, the student becomes the lead actor, while the teacher adopts a supportive role.BR ICLP(NTU) started up the cold reading curriculum in 2016 for a new trial. However, as opposed to “hot reading”, unlike courses designed for common reading, classes dedicated to cold reading lack translations or vocabulary lists. Students are only provided texts in class, most of which come from authentic first-hand sources. The goal is to help students escape their psychological reliance on the classroom and to develop the ability to approach material they might encounter in daily life. Since students cannot prepare for cold reading courses in advance and lack supplemental material while in class, it better reflects real-life circumstances and forces students to draw upon their foundation of linguistic and background knowledge to guess or infer meaning.BR Through this method, students are expected to build a preliminary cognitive model of the text, which is then analyzed level-by-level in tandem with the teacher’s instruction to either confirm or adjust the student’s mental connotations, eventually resulting in comprehension. The support of the teacher’s knowledge and the initiation of the student’s metacognitive processes also play important roles. A few appropriate tests after an independent skimming reading can evaluate a learner’s level of comprehension and can help clarify problem areas. At the same time, students can also improve their listening, speaking and writing abilities through class discussion and homework assignments. After-class review and making their own vocabulary list can further solidify learning gains and become the knowledge foundation for the next cold reading assignment (Chen Hsiangyu, 2017).BR Base on the discussion of cold reading theory, curriculum design, and practice, this article aims at examining 1) Reading and cognitive theory, 2) Theories on teaching and learning Chinese reading for non-native students, 3) Approaches to the cold reading curriculum, 4) Limitations of and reflections on cold reading courses, and 5) Aspects of further research.

어휘장이론을 활용한 초성 게임 한국어 어휘 교육 방안

Objectives This study aims to present teaching materials that can be used in the field of actual Korean vocabulary education by applying a new teaching method called initial consonant game focusing on the vocabulary of designated topics. Also, this is meaningful in that it prepared a vocabulary list classified based on vocabulary field theory and connected it to an effective vocabulary review education method using this game in the actual education field.
 Methods First of all, a beginner vocabulary list was organized around the vocabulary related to ‘Buying things’, and divided into part of speech; nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and rearranged into each and related vocabulary.
 Results Although I tried to use teaching methods such as blended learning in an online class environment, the contents were minimized due to limited space, Therefore, video teaching materials were even produced by making and recording initial consonant games with PPT.
 Conclusions In this way, If you educate the vocabulary list classified based on the vocabulary field using the initial consonant game, interesting learning effects can be expected as teaching materials for vocabulary review.

Comparative analysis of the 2022 DfE GCSE Subject Content for French, German and Spanish and its implications for schools

ABSTRACT In the high-stakes accountability English educational system, decisions made by government and agencies about curriculum, pedagogy and assessment drive school planning and actions. This paper analyses the drivers for the recent change to French German and Spanish GCSEs and highlights particular areas of the new specification which may damage the experience of language learners in the secondary school environment. After describing the context for the revisions we question why GCSE subject content has been revised when there is no evidence that a revision would improve uptake or grades. Our detailed comparison of the 2015 and 2022 subject content shows how the emphasis has shifted considerably from the requirement to demonstrate skills needed in realistic, authentic contexts, to demonstrating productive knowledge of a tightly prescribed list of vocabulary, grammar and phonics. We then identify the likely impact on schools of the new subject content. While the ostensible justification of change is to make more accessible and motivating, our view is that it will demotivate and will not reward broader skills which the whole spectrum of ability could demonstrate. We conclude by suggesting the real reason for the changes is part of a concerted government policy to reorientate the teaching of languages.

다의어 학술기본어휘의 전문의미 탐색과 교육적 고찰

The purpose of this study is to identify the polysemous characteristics of academic vocabulary, examine its meaning, and derive relevant educational implications. To this end, 232 academic vocabularies were selected based on Hwang Sung-eun(2017), and the vocabulary list including the basic meanings and specialized meanings for each vocabulary was prepared. As a result, it was confirmed that the academic vocabulary with one or more specialized meanings in addition to the basic meanings accounted for a majority: 88%. Since then, an expert investigation was conducted on 163 specialized meanings in seven academic fields with high frequency, and the meaning of 134 final academic vocabularies was analyzed. The analysis confirmed that having a specialized meaning in addition to the basic meaning can be managed with in Korean language education for academic purposes before entering the major. Specifically, the results suggested that if the distance between the basic meaning and the specialized meaning is close, they can be taught and learned simultaneously as per the academic field, if not, caution must be exercised when inferring the specialized meaning from the basic meaning. This study is meaningful in that it has expanded the existing discussion related to academic vocabulary to incorporate a broader perspective. (Kyung Hee University)

A Basic Study on the Development of Essential Korean Academic Vocabulary Collection Using Meta-metering

In this study, a basic discussion was conducted on the development of the “Essential Korean Academic Vocabulary Collection” necessary for teaching and learning major academic vocabulary that foreign students must know for academic performance before entering their major. Since there was no official academic vocabulary list, six appropriate academic vocabulary lists were meta-metered to secure sufficient vocabulary, and the source redundancy and grade information of each vocabulary were scored and evaluated. A total of 4,475 vocabulary words were listed and documented by meta-metering, and the importance was evaluated with 1,154 vocabulary roots excluding 971 sources per person. As a result of the evaluation, 550 of 1,154 roots with 50 or more points were selected as the main heading, and roots with 40 or more points were suggested to be additionally collected as needed if possible. Next, a discussion was conducted on the microstructure setting and technical method of the essential academic vocabulary collection. It was suggested that the microstructure of the collection could be largely composed of a heading presentation part, as well as a word family and usage presentation part. This study is meaningful in that it drew a blueprint for the development of a vocabulary collection that can use academic vocabulary for actual teaching and learning based on existing research for the selection of academic vocabulary. In particular, it is meaningful in that it has dealt with the areas that should be considered when it comes to actual development, and has also increased the possibility of this by analyzing and proposing plans from various angles.

Vocabulary Repetition Following Multisensory Instruction Is Ineffective on L2 Sentence Comprehension: Evidence From the N400.

Putting the principles of multisensory teaching into practice, this study investigated the effect of audio-visual vocabulary repetition on L2 sentence comprehension. Forty participants were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. A sensory-based model of instruction (i.e., emotioncy) was used to teach a list of unfamiliar vocabularies to the two groups. Following the instruction, the experimental group repeated the instructed words twice, while the control group received no vocabulary repetition. Afterward, their electrophysiological neural activities were recorded through electroencephalography while doing a sentence acceptability judgment task with 216 sentences under acceptable (correct) and unacceptable (pragmatically violated) conditions. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and a Bayesian repeated-measures ANOVA were used to compare the behavioral and neurocognitive responses [N400 as the main language-related event-related brain potential (ERP) effect] of the two groups. The results showed no significant N400 amplitude difference in favor of any of the groups. The findings corroborated the ineffectiveness of two repetitions preceded by multisensory instruction on L2 sentence comprehension.

Reexamining Our Approach to Conjunctions and Adverbs in the Beginning French Classroom

While the importance of vocabulary for developing speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills is well known, our choice of which vocabulary to teach (and when) follows few pedagogically sound principles. This article compares the most frequent conjunctions and adverbs in French with those featured on vocabulary lists in six popular beginning-level college textbooks in the United States. It demonstrates that textbooks neglect to provide explicit coverage and practice of these crucial building blocks for organized speech and writing, and provides suggestions for ways to include them much earlier, paving the way for greater use as proficiency increases.

Vernacular Stems and Loan Vocabulary in Burushaski: A Cultural Contact with Sanskrit as Expressed by the Names of Head Parts

Burushaski (Bur) is amongst the languages that has left huge deposits of cultural data with distinctive layers, marking the periods from history. The conception is that, that each layer in Bur distinctively preserve the remote development of vocabulary and loan inspirations from the cultures in contact. This paper aims to unfold these linguistic stratums under two major objectives. Firstly, it attempts to explore the primary layer of vocabulary, on which the Bur words are based in Names of Head Parts (NHP), developed from various stems. Secondly, it tries to find the loan vocabularies in this set of data, with historical references, inspired Bur during the past cultural contacts, mainly with Sanskrit. The following point seeks to understand the degree of impact under the cultural superiority of Gandhāri Prakrit and Sanskrit during the classical period, and with the Old Indian (OInd) or Indo-European (IE) languages. This cultural exchange is appearing to be started from the early second century AD in this mountain area of present Gilgit-Baltistan, as discussed in relation to geography and history in the opening of this paper. Following this, an attempt to present the previous investigations is offered. This is continued by the core data of NHP, exploring the distinctive primary layer, different from the super deposited stratum of loan vocabulary. This data is examined based on their decomposition revealing the words’ stems and the sentence structure. This helps us to develop a list of vocabulary of IE origin in the names of head parts, also known from previous studies. However, this study reveals that major vocabulary is based on the vernacular stems and minor on loan vocabulary, not distressing the primary stratum of sentence structure. Thus, the loan vocabulary had adjusted differently in Bur, and continued to survive for a longer period.

СТВОРЕННЯ ВЛАСНИХ ЛІНГВІСТИЧНИХ КОРПУСІВ

The problem of creation of own corpora of parallel texts of large volumes is investigated in the article. The technique and criteria of construction of parallel linguistic corpora are offered. As a result of our research, we created a combined corpus of 3,850,000 pairs of sentences or 65 million words of the English part, which is 10 % of the known COCA corpus or GRAC corpus. Methods for downloading material for the corpus based on the frequency list, terminological dictionaries, as well as frequency lists of words of previously self-created corpora proved to be effective. Theoretical investigations and practical researches for normalization of the corpus are carried out. The type / token ratio, the automatic readability index ARI, the average sentence length ASL, etc. were effective for the study of the corpus. The construction of graphs of the distribution of vocabulary by frequency and length of sentences in the corpus clearly illustrates the results of our research, effectively represents the material. We can also talk about the successful experience of creating narrow specialized terminological corpora as opposed to terminological dictionaries for further research of functional features, sentence models of a particular terminological system. Medical and biological corpora (about 500 thousand pairs of sentences each), as well as a polytechnic corpora for 1.3 million were compiled. A total of eight corpora were compiled, for five of them the total number of characters, words and sentences in the corpus with the corresponding summary table was calculated; the average length of sentences ASL was determined, the automatic readability index ARI were determined, the ratio type/token ratio TTR was calculated. For each corpora frequency lists of vocabulary are made, the total amount of unique vocabulary is calculated and the corresponding logarithmic graphs are constructed; proposed method of analysis of the distribution of vocabulary of the frequency dictionary of the text on the basis of graphs by dividing them into three parts: initial, middle and tail – is considered promising for us.

Academic English verbs across disciplines: A corpus study and its implications

Using Davies's (2008-) Corpus of Contemporary American English's academic English section as data, this study investigates, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the cross-discipline usage patterns of the 554 verbs from Gardner and Davies's (2014) core Academic Vocabulary List (AVL). The results of a series of statistical analyses (e.g., Chi-square and cluster analysis) indicate that 41% of the verbs displayed a low dispersion across the disciplines with some verbs used mostly in a few of the disciplines and that the disciplines' verb usage patterns form distinctive hierarchical clusters. Based on the results, the verbs are organized in three manners (lists), with one containing the normed frequencies of the verbs in each of the nine disciplines, one composed of the verbs ranked in order of their frequencies in each discipline, and one consisting of the verbs organized into three bands based on their dispersion measures (i.e., general academic verbs, borderline general academic verbs, and discipline-specific verbs). Furthermore, qualitative analyses have identified the structural classes of the verbs and uncovered some verbs' cross-register meaning variations. Pedagogical/research implications are also discussed.

Testing the effectiveness of topic models in creating vocabulary lists for dental specialties

Testing the effectiveness of topic models in creating vocabulary lists for dental specialties

Трудное для чтения слово: критерии, типология, корпусная статистика (на материале русской речи носителей китайского языка)

The article is devoted to the description and systematization of words that are difficult for unprepared reading in a non-native language. The material for the analysis included 40 spontaneous reading monologues recorded from 20 informants (10 male and 10 female), native Chinese speakers, with different levels of proficiency in Russian (B2 or C1) and with different psychotypes (extroverts, ambiverts, introverts). Informants were reading two texts: M. Zoshchenko’s narrative story The Fantasy Shirt and a non-narrative excerpt from V. Korolenko’s story The Blind Musician. In the recorded monologues, words with different signs of spontaneity and errors were singled out, and they were then examined in the lexico-phonetic, lexico-grammatical, lexical, and lexico-syntactical aspects. The analysis of the material showed the following features to be the difficulty criteria for the Chinese readers: the length of the word form, the word frequency in Russian, the degree of complexity of the grammatical form, the absence of the word in the basic vocabulary list for the corresponding level of Russian as a foreign language, the presence of stylistic usage labels in dictionary entries for the word, the special attitude of the Chinese to the word, the idiomaticity of the word combination. Based on these criteria, a typology of difficult-to-read words was developed. The paper provides examples showing how foreigners overcome these difficulties (communicative obstacles). It has been found that the most difficult for Chinese are words with a complex grammatical form. When faced with such words, informants often make hesitation pauses, syllabize, cut off and repeat words, sometimes even verbalize their difficulties and doubts with the help of metacommunicative inserts. There were also noted hiccups and speech failures when the informants were reading familiar and easy words, which was due to the general unpreparedness of this type of speech task. The typology obtained can be useful not only in the general analysis of oral speech by specialists studying colloquial language but also in the teaching of reading in a non-native language as part of teaching the Russian language in a foreign, including Chinese-speaking, audience.