Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T20:49:47.317Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The benefits of abstract word training on productive vocabulary knowledge among second language learners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2019

Chaleece W. Sandberg ,
Erin Carpenter ,
Katherine Kerschen ,
Daniela Paolieri  and
Carrie N. Jackson
Chaleece W. Sandberg*
Affiliation:
Penn State University
Erin Carpenter
Affiliation:
Penn State University
Katherine Kerschen
Affiliation:
Penn State University
Daniela Paolieri
Affiliation:
University of Granada
Carrie N. Jackson
Affiliation:
Penn State University
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of an abstract word training paradigm initially developed to treat lexical retrieval deficits in patients with aphasia on second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition. Three English–Spanish L2 learners (Experiment 1) and 10 Spanish–English L2 learners (Experiment 3) were trained on 15 abstract words within a context-category (e.g., restaurant) using a five-step training paradigm based on semantic feature analysis. In addition, 7 English–Spanish L2 learners were trained on either abstract or concrete words within a context-category (Experiment 2). Across all experiments, the majority of participants trained on abstract words showed improved production of the trained abstract words, as measured by a word generation task, as well as improvement on untrained concrete words within the same context-category (i.e., generalization). Participants trained on concrete words (Experiment 2) exhibited much smaller word production gains and no generalization to abstract words. These results parallel previous findings from aphasia research and suggest that this training paradigm can successfully be extended to L2 learning contexts, where it has the potential to be a useful tool in vocabulary instruction. We discuss the findings in terms of models of spreading activation and the underlying conceptual representations of abstract and concrete words in the L2 lexicon.

Keywords

abstract word retrievalsecond language learningvocabulary acquisitionword retrieval training
Type
Original Article
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 40 , Issue 6 , November 2019 , pp. 1331 - 1362
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Altarriba, J., & Basnight-Brown, D. (2012). The acquisition of concrete, abstract, and emotion words in a second language. International Journal of Bilingualism, 16, 446–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barcroft, J. (2004). Second language vocabulary acquisition: A lexical input processing approach. Foreign Language Annals, 37, 200–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beeson, P. M., & Robey, R. R. (2006). Evaluating single-subject treatment research: Lessons learned from the aphasia literature. Neuropsychology Review, 16, 161–169.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beeson, P. M., & Robey, R. R. (2008). Meta-analysis of aphasia treatment outcomes: Examining the evidence . Paper presented at the Clinical Aphasiology Conference, Jackson Hole, WY.Google Scholar
Boyle, M. (2010). Semantic feature analysis treatment for aphasic word retrieval impairments: What’s in a name? Topics in Stroke Rhabilitation, 17, 411–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyle, M., & Coelho, C. A. (1995). Application of semantic feature analysis as a treatment for aphasic dysnomia. American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 4, 94–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brysbaert, M., New, B., & Keuleers, E. (2012). Adding part-of-speech information to the SUBTLEX-US word frequencies. Behavior Research Methods, 44, 991–997. doi:10.3758/s13428-012-0190-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, E. V. (1993). The lexicon in acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. V. (2009). First language acquisition (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coady, J., & Huckin, T. N. (1997). Second language vocabulary acquisition: A rationale for pedagogy. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Coelho, C. A., McHugh, R. E., & Boyle, M. (2000). Semantic feature analysis as a treatment for aphasic dysnomia: A replication. Aphasiology, 14, 133–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, A. M., & Loftus, E. F. (1975). A spreading-activation theory of semantic processing. Psychological Review, 82, 407–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coltheart, M. (1981). The MRC psycholinguistic database. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 33, 497–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornelissen, K., Laine, M., Renvall, K., Saarinen, T., Martin, N., & Salmelin, R. (2004). Learning new names for new objects: Cortical effects as measured by magnetoencephalography. Brain and Language, 89, 617–622.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cuetos, F., & Glez-Nosti, M., & Barbón, A., & Brysbaert, M. (2012). SUBTLEX-ESP: Spanish word frequencies based on film subtitles. Psicológica, 33, 133–143.Google Scholar
de Groot, A. M. (1989). Representational aspects of word imageability and word frequency as assessed through word association. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15, 824–845.Google Scholar
de Groot, A. M. (1992). Bilingual lexical representation: A closer look at conceptual representations. In Frost, R. & Katz, L. (Eds.), Orthography, phonology, morphology, and meaning (pp. 389–412). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Groot, A. M., & Keijzer, R. (2000). What is hard to learn is easy to forget: The roles of word concreteness, cognate status, and word frequency in foreign-language vocabulary learning and forgetting. Language Learning, 50, 1–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De La Fuente, M. J. (2002). Negotiation and oral acquisition of L2 vocabulary: The roles of input and output in the receptive and productive acquisition of words. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24, 81–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farley, A. P., Ramonda, K., & Liu, X. (2012). The concreteness effect and the bilingual lexicon: The impact of visual stimuli attachment on meaning recall of abstract L2 words. Language Teaching Research, 16, 449–466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, P., Lambon Ralph, M. A., & Rogers, T. T. (2013). Semantic diversity: A measure of semantic ambiguity based on variability in the contextual usage of words. Behavior Research Methods, 45, 718–730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jefferies, E., & Lambon Ralph, M. A. (2006). Semantic impairment in stroke aphasia versus semantic dementia: A case-series comparison. Brain, 129, 2132–2147.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jiang, N. (2000). Lexical representation and development in a second language. Applied Linguistics, 21, 47–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, G. V. (1985). Deep dyslexia, imageability, and ease of predication. Brain and Language, 24, 1–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keating, G. D. (2008). Task effectiveness and word learning in a second language: The involvement load hypothesis on trial. Language Teaching Research, 12, 365–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerschen, K., Sandberg, C. W., Carpenter, E., & Jackson, C. N. (2018). The effect of abstract word training on productive L2 vocabulary knowledge: A classroom-based study. Paper presentation at the Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference (GLAC), University Park, PA, 11–12 May 2018.Google Scholar
Kiran, S. (2008). Typicality of inanimate category exemplars in aphasia treatment: Further evidence for semantic complexity. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 51, 1550–1568.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kiran, S., Sandberg, C., & Abbott, K. (2009). Treatment for lexical retrieval using abstract and concrete words in persons with aphasia: Effect of complexity. Aphasiology, 23, 835–853.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kiran, S., & Thompson, C. K. (2003). The role of semantic complexity in treatment of naming deficits: Training semantic categories in fluent aphasia by controlling exemplar typicality. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 46, 608–622.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kratochwill, T. R., Hitchcock, J. H., Horner, R. H., Levin, J. R., Odom, S. L., Rindskopf, D. M., & Shadish, W. R. (2010). Single-case designs technical documentation. What Works Clearinghouse. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/wwc_scd.pdfGoogle Scholar
Kroll, J. F., & Stewart, E. (1994). Category interference in translation and picture naming: Evidence for asymmetric connections between bilingual memory representations. Journal of Memory and Language, 33, 149–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laufer, B. (1998). The development of passive and active vocabulary in a second language: Same or different? Applied Linguistics, 19, 255–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laufer, B., & Goldstein, Z. (2004). Testing vocabulary knowledge: Size, strength, and computer adaptiveness. Language Learning, 54, 399–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laufer, B., & Nation, P. (1999). A vocabulary-size test of controlled productive ability. Language Testing, 16, 33–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, S. H. (2003). ESL learners’ vocabulary use in writing and the effects of explicit vocabulary instruction. System, 31, 537–561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, S. H., & Muncie, J. (2006). From receptive to productive: Improving ESL learners’ use of vocabulary in a postreading composition task. TESOL Quarterly, 40, 295–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, P., Zhang, F., Tsai, E., & Puls, B. (2014). Language history questionnaire (LHQ 2.0): A new dynamic web-based research tool. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17, 673–680.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
López-Barroso, D., & de Diego-Balaguer, R. (2017). Language learning variability within the dorsal and ventral streams as a cue for compensatory mechanisms in aphasia recovery. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11(Article 476), 1–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meara, P. (1980). Vocabulary acquisition: A neglected aspect of language learning. Language Teaching and Linguistics: Abstracts, 13, 221–246.Google Scholar
Meara, P. (1997). Towards a new approach to modelling vocabulary acquisition. In Schmitt, N. & McCarthy, M. (Eds.), Vocabulary: Description, acquisition and pedagogy (pp. 109–121). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Meara, P. (2009). Connected words: Word associations and second language vocabulary acquisition. Amsterdam: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mondria, J. A., & Wiersma, B. (2004). Receptive, productive, and receptive+productive L2 vocabulary learning: What difference does it make? In Bogaards, P. & Laufer, B. (Eds.), Vocabulary in a second language: Selection, acquisition, and testing (pp. 79–100). Amsterdam: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nation, I. S. P. (2013). Learning vocabulary in another language (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newton, P. K., & Barry, C. (1997). Concreteness effects in word production but not word comprehension in deep dyslexia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 14, 481–509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paivio, A. (1971). Imagery and verbal processes. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Google Scholar
Papathanasiou, I., & Coppens, P. (2017). Aphasia and related neurogenic communication disorders (2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.Google Scholar
Pichette, F., De Serres, L., & Lafontaine, M. (2012). Sentence reading and writing for second language vocabulary acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 33, 66–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plaut, D. C., & Shallice, T. (1991). Effects of word abstractness in a connectionist model of deep dyslexia. Paper presented at the 13th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Sandberg, C., & Kiran, S. (2014). How justice can affect jury: Training abstract words promotes generalisation to concrete words in patients with aphasia. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 24, 738–769.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schmitt, N. (2010). Researching vocabulary: A vocabulary research manual. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitt, N. (2014). Size and depth of vocabulary knowledge: What the research shows. Language Learning, 64, 913–951.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwanenflugel, P. J. (1991). Why are abstract concepts hard to understand? In Schwanenflugel, P. J. (Ed.), The psychology of word meanings (pp. 223–250). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Schwanenflugel, P. J., Harnishfeger, K. K., & Stowe, R. W. (1988). Context availability and lexical decisions for abstract and concrete words. Journal of Memory and Language, 27, 499–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwanenflugel, P. J., & Shoben, E. J. (1983). Differential context effects in the comprehension of abstract and concrete verbal materials. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 9, 82–102.Google Scholar
Spätgens, T., & Schoonen, R. (2018). The semantic network, lexical access, and reading comprehension in monolingual and bilingual children: An individual differences study. Applied Psycholinguistics, 39, 225–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sunderman, G., & Kroll, J. F. (2006). First language activation during second language lexical processing: An investigation of lexical form, meaning, and grammatical class. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28, 387–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, C., Shapiro, L., Kiran, S., & Sobecks, J. (2003). The role of syntactic complexity in treatment of sentence deficits in agrammatic aphasia: the complexity account of treatment efficacy (CATE). Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 46, 591–607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Hell, J. G., & Mahn, A. C. (1997). Keyword mnemonics versus rote rehearsal: Learning concrete and abstract foreign words by experienced and inexperienced learners. Language Learning, 47, 507–546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, S. (2005). Receptive and productive vocabulary learning: The effects of reading and writing on word knowledge. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 33–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, S. (2008). Receptive and productive vocabulary sizes of L2 learners. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 30, 79–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wray, A. (2009). Formulaic language in learners and native speakers. Language Teaching, 32, 213–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhao, T., & Macaro, E. (2016). What works better for the learning of concrete and abstract words: Teachers’ L1 use or L2-only explanations? International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 26, 75–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar