Vocabulary Repertoire Research Articles

Reflections from teachers and students on speaking anxiety in an EFL classroom

Abstract This paper reports on part of the research project in which instructor perspectives on the role of anxiety in an EFL speaking classroom and anxiety-coping strategies students employ when speaking English have been investigated. The existence of students’ speaking anxiety was revealed via a teacher interview. A total of 88 students from the intact classes also responded to an interview form for an analysis of anxiety-coping strategies they utilised when speaking English in class. The qualitative data from both instruments was analysed using the content analysis. The findings of the teacher interview data put forward that students of this study have experienced speaking-in-class anxiety. This anxiety may influence their grades, to some extent. Three factors that may hinder students’ development of oral skills emerge, including their lack of self-confidence, having poor English background and having neither intrinsic nor extrinsic motivation to use English. Using the target language as the medium of communication in class is viewed by the teachers as a must in theory, but flexibility is allowed in practice. Moreover, the results of the student interview data show a wide range of strategies employed to deal with anxiety (ie social, affective, meta-cognitive, compensatory, cognitive and memory-related strategies). Social strategies are the most frequently-used techniques. Suggestions for improvement in the overall oral English (ie vocabulary focus, audiovisual focus, self-practice, social focus, auditory focus, meta-cognitive focus, compensatory focus and affective focus) have also been given by the student participants. An increased repertoire of vocabulary is viewed as the most effective tool for such improvement.

Analysis of Variance in Vocabulary Learning Strategies Theory and Practice: A Case Study in Libya

The present study is an outcome of a concern for the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Libyan schools. Learning of a foreign language is invariably linked to learners building a good repertoire of vocabulary of the target language, which takes us to the theory and practice of imparting training in vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) to learners. The researcher observed that there exists a divergence in theoretical knowledge of VLSs and practically training learners in using the strategies in EFL classes in Libyan schools. To empirically examine the situation, a survey was conducted with secondary school English teachers. The study discusses the results of the survey. The results show that teachers of English in secondary school in Libya are either not aware of various vocabulary learning strategies, or if they are, they do not impart training in all VLSs as they do not realize that to achieve good results in language learning, a judicious use of all VLSs is required. Though the study was conducted on a small scale, the results are highly encouraging. Keywords: vocabulary learning strategies, vocabulary learning theory, teaching of vocabulary learning strategies

Determining ESL learners’ vocabulary needs from a textbook corpus: challenges and prospects

Sound vocabulary repertoire is a requisite for reading and all learning. Teaching a language’s vocabulary is a mammoth undertaking, unless particular lexical items are isolated and accorded explicit attention. Words taught explicitly should coincide with learners’ core vocabulary needs. This study generates words reflective of South African Grade 3 learners’ vocabulary needs for transition to Grade 4; a transition replete with challenges. We document challenges besetting the determination of learners’ core vocabulary needs from a textbook corpus. These included words to exclude from the frequency counts, challenges presented by multiword units, the unit of counting for word frequency generation, among others. High frequency words from the Grade 4 textbook corpus were generated and compared against five available word frequency lists as well as across different subject areas. The present study’s adapted unit of counting was applied to the word list with the whole process yielding 212 core words requisite for Grade 3 to 4 transition within the South African context. We advocate infusion of grade-specific core vocabulary lists in curriculum documents based on a robust large-scale word frequency generation process, among other things.

Development and validation of a new Mandarin tone identification test

ObjectivesThe objectives of this study were to develop a new Mandarin tone identification test (MTIT) to assess the Mandarin tone identification ability of children with hearing impairment (HI) and at age around 7 years; and to evaluate the reliability and sensitivity of the MTIT. MethodsThe word materials to be used in the MTIT were developed in Phase I. Monosyllables were chosen to represent the daily repertoire of young children and to avoid the influence of co-articulation and intonation. Each test stimulus set contained four words, with one target, one containing contrastive tone, and two unrelated distracters. All words were depicted using simple pictures, and the test targets in quiet or in noise were presented using recorded stimuli on a custom software. Phase II evaluated the reliability and sensitivity of the MTIT. Participants were 50 normal-hearing native-Mandarin speakers around 7 years of age. ResultsIn Phase I, the MTIT was developed as described above. The final test consists of 51 words that are within the vocabulary repertoire of children aged 7 years. In Phase II, with the Mandarin tone identification scores collected from 50 children, the repeated measure ANOVA showed a significant main effect of S/N on MTIT performance (p<0.001). Pairwise comparisons revealed a significant difference in performance across the five S/N conditions (p<0.01) when S/N varied from −30 to −10dB. Cronbach's alpha at −15dB S/N was 0.66, suggesting satisfactory internal consistency reliability. A paired-samples t-test showed that there was no significant difference between the test–retest scores across the five S/N conditions (p>0.05). ConclusionsCompared with the available Mandarin tone identification tools, MTIT systematically evaluated the tone identification performance in noisy environment for normal hearing children at age around 7 years. Results also showed satisfactory internal consistency reliability, good test–retest reliability and good sensitivity. In the near future, MTIT could be used to evaluate tone perception ability of children with hearing impairment and help to design hearing rehabilitation strategies for this population at the age critical for their language learning.

Prototypical content development and evaluation of the Cognitive English Vocabulary-Learning Program for Korean university students

Many EFL learners seem to believe that they can come to grips with the problem of vocabulary learning with a ‘hit-or-miss’ approach. However, a growing number of recent research reports indicate that they need to learn a repertoire of vocabulary in a systematic way for effective communication. This paper explores the development and evaluation of the Cognitive English Vocabulary-Learning Program (CEVLP) for Korean university students. Drawing on the current research findings of vocabulary acquisition and Michael’s notebook database (NDB) research, it aims to develop a prototype of English vocabulary-learning software to help Korean university students improve their learning of English vocabulary. EFL learners can learn vocabulary both explicitly and implicitly, but they need to be trained to become good vocabulary learners, e.g., by being instructed in useful learning strategies. The paper will describe the development of the NDB using the words chosen from Academic World List as well as the instructional design features of CEVLP that is developed with such cognitive elements as noticing, prediction, modeling, and automatization in order to ensure the effectiveness of English vocabulary learning by Korean university students. In addition, the preliminary results of the program evaluation are reported and discussed.

How we developed Doctors Speak Up: an evidence-based language and communication skills open access resource for International Medical Graduates

Background: Some International Medical Graduates (IMGs) need to develop language and communication skills for patient-centred care but have limited opportunities to do so.Aim: To develop an evidence-based, language and communication skills web resource for IMG doctors and supervisors, focussing on culturally challenging patient interviews.Methods: Forty-eight IMGs participated in four practice OSCEs. We video-recorded the interactions and applied discourse analytic methods to investigate salient language and communication features.Results: The findings from the OSCE workshops showed that many participants demonstrated aspects of patient-centred interviewing but were hindered by limited interactional competence to elicit information and negotiate behaviours as well as a limited repertoire of English grammar, vocabulary, and phonological phrasing for effective interaction. These findings guided the choice of content and pedagogy for the development of the web-based resource Doctors Speak Up.Conclusion: Evaluation and uptake of the Doctors Speak Up website confirm the demand for a resource combining targeted communication skills and language instruction. Over 19 500 users visited the website between March 2012 and November 2013.

VOCABULARY ACQUISITION: PROCESS AND INSTRUCTION

Building meaning from a written text does not depend solely on vocabulary knowledge. Nevertheless, research has shown that less fluent readers need to increase their vocabulary repertoire in order not to impair fluent reading. If the reader fails to bring word meaning to his/her working memory during the process of reading, global coherence may be affected as he/she cannot activate previous knowledge to interact with information from the text. In contexts of foreign language instruction, an intensive vocabulary building practice may help less fluent readers in the process of interpreting texts. In this sense, we bring up a discussion on some concepts related to meaning of “word”, lexical unit, mental lexicon, lexical entry in L1 and L2, lexical competency and automaticity of lexical recognition and production. As contribution to classroom practice, we propose a discussion on vocabulary knowledge and instruction, relating the topic to reading processing according to the Cognitive Psychology memory system.

An analysis of differential response patterns on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-IIIB in struggling adult readers and third-grade children

This study examines the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-IIIB (PPVT-IIIB) performance of 130 adults identified as struggling readers, in comparison to 175 third-grade children. Response patterns to the items on the PPVT-IIIB by these two groups were investigated, focusing on items, semantic categories, and lexical features, including word length, word class, and word frequency. The score distributional properties of the two groups were different, but there were similarities and differences found in different response patterns. Analyses of word length, word class, and word frequency in the two groups’ performance resulted in counterintuitive findings for the adult participants. The struggling adult learners’ vocabulary repertoire might have been shaped by their real-life experiences rather than formal schooling. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Efeito do programa de orientação a pais no desenvolvimento lexical de crianças usuárias de implante coclear

INTRODUÇÃO: Crianças com perda auditiva profunda possuem atraso no repertório vocabular em comparação a crianças ouvintes de mesma idade cronológica. Um dos fatores considerados fundamental durante o processo de desenvolvimento da linguagem é a intervenção da família. OBJETIVO: Propor um programa controlado para orientação a pais de crianças usuárias de implante coclear (CIC) e verificar a efetividade do programa através da variação de desempenho lexical das crianças. MÉTODO: Estudo prospectivo.Participaram da pesquisa oito CIC e suas respectivas famílias as quais foram divididas em dois grupos: GI (com programa de orientação) e GII (sem programa de orientação). O desempenho lexical das crianças foi mensurado através do LAVE (Lista de Avaliação do Vocabulário Expressivo) pré e pós-programa de orientação. O programa de orientação Família Participativa para CIC foi constituído por quatro sessões, de aplicação semanal, com duração de 60 minutos cada. Os temas abordados foram desenvolvimento de habilidades auditivas e linguísticas. RESULTADOS: As ANOVAs intra-grupos não indicaram desempenho significantemente diferenciado no LAVE na comparação pré- e pós programa de orientação em ambos os grupo. ANOVAs entre-grupos não revelaram diferença estatisticamente significante entre os grupos para performance lexical. CONCLUSÃO: Os grupos não se diferenciaram na efetividade do programa como medido pelo LAVE. Tal resultado deve ser um indicador importante de medidas de evolução lexical baseadas somente na percepção familiar. Em estudos futuros devem ser considerados extensão temporal do programa, expansão da amostra, e medidas objetivas do desenvolvimento lexical.

Training students to become successful peer reviewers

Abstract Vague feedback and misinterpretation of writers’ intentions on the reviewers’ part have been found to be two major reasons why most of their comments are disregarded during writers’ revision in one EFL writing class. To resolve this problem, a training was conducted to coach these students to generate more specific comments. Four characteristics of comments that were found to facilitate students’ revisions in previous research were identified and used as guidelines during training: Clarifying writers’ intentions, identifying problems, explaining the nature of problems, and making specific suggestions. Two teacher–student conferences with each reviewer were also held to provide individual assistance. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses of students’ comments after training were conducted. Students were able to generate significantly more comments containing two or three afore-mentioned characteristics and were able to produce more relevant and specific comments on global issues. As reviewers students benefited from this training in skill improvement, confidence build-up, language acquisition and metacognitive strategy use. As writers they were able to approach topics of interest to them from multiple perspectives and to increase their vocabulary repertoire after training.

Vocabulary AcquisDion as a Function DI Proficlencv level and Teaching stratagy

Vocabulary has often been an old age crucial aspect in language teaching and learning. Today's language teachers and researchers ( Nunan: 1991,Gough: 1995, Laufer : 1997 and Chin : 1999) emphasize the need for enlarging the learners' vocabulary repertoire and attempting more prolific teaching strategies as well as helping learners to employ more useful learning strategies so that they can make the newly acquired items part of their active vocabulary.

Male and female sexual vocabulary in different interpersonal contexts

Abstract Previous investigators have demonstrated a wide divergence in a number of linguistic units and patterns of non‐verbal communication between men and women. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the vocabulary usage of men and women when discussing sexual concepts in a variety of interpersonal contexts. Two hundred two subjects at a Midwestern university anonymously reported their preference of sexual terminology for male and female genitalia and the act of copulation when discussing these terms with same sex friends, mixed company, parents, and lovers. The results demonstrate that the interpersonal context and the sex of the speaker often determine both the specific word(s) used and the amount of response variation. Females, more than males, have more stringent limitations on their sexual vocabulary repertoire. The differences between males and females are a function of both the interpersonal context and the specific sexual concept under discussion. The possible relationship between voc...

Language development in the K-3 classroom: Using the referential communication paradigm

The language environment of the early primary grades is examined with respect to the linguistic competencies possessed by five-, six-, and seven-year-old children. The referential communication paradigm is suggested as a useful instructional tool to simulate the functional demands of a communicative exchange and still control for speaker- and task-related variables. A kindergartner's referential communication protocol is examined with respect to such speaker-related variables as cognitive style, mental processing capacity, vocabulary repertoire, cognitive structures for describing stimuli, affective involvement, and task understanding, and to such task-related variables as nature of the topic, mode of stimulus presentation, and form of listener feedback.