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This quantitative study used eye-tracking technology to compare the attentional focus of 32 native English speakers and 26 native Korean speakers at the university level as they read idiomatic and literal phrases within well-formed sentences. Results revealed that native Korean speakers read both literal and idiomatic sentences slower than native English speakers. Additionally, native Korean speakers read idiomatic sentences slower than literal sentences, whereas native English speakers did not show a significant difference. Variables relating to language socialization, language development and idiom knowledge were also investigated to find which variables were correlated with reading measures. Of the variables tested, idiom knowledge was the only one that had significant effect on reading measures. These findings suggest that Korean speakers take longer to process English idioms as lexical units, though idiom familiarity seems to mitigate this effect.

The present study, a quantitative lexical analysis, examines the extent to which vocabulary size and lexical diversity contribute to writing scores on advanced non-native speakers’ and native speakers’ academic compositions. The data consists of essays composed by 104 adult non-native English learners enrolled in advanced second language writing courses and 68 native speaking university students in a first-year composition course. The lexical diversity of the sample essays is quantified by both the Measure of Textual Lexical Diversity (MTLD) and the voc-D while vocabulary size is measured by CELEX word frequency means, three instruments that are available in the computational linguistics program Coh-Metrix 3.0. Writing scores are provided by three independent raters’ evaluations according to the TOEFL iBT Independent Writing Rubric. Results from a binary logistic regression reveal that lexical diversity has a significantly greater impact on writing score than vocabulary size (p < .01). Nevertheless, a series of MANOVAs indicate that vocabulary size initially facilitates writing scores at the lower proficiency levels, but it is an essay’s lexical diversity that promotes it to the higher score levels. Additional findings from the MANOVAs demonstrate that native speakers’ profiles of lexical diversity and size are significantly different from their non-native peers (p < .001). The lexical profiles also differed significantly among the individual score levels of the TOEFL iBT rubric (p < .05). A final outcome from a Pearson’s product moment correlation analysis shows that iii vocabulary size has only a moderate relationship to lexical diversity, suggesting that variation of mid-range vocabulary may be more important to writing proficiency than the use of more sophisticated terms that occur less frequently in natural language. Implications for practice suggest that it is not enough to simply teach vocabulary words in the L2 composition classroom, but also to guide learners in how to employ these words in a varied manner within their writing. Furthermore, the results of this study indicate that teachers should spend more time on helping students use medium frequency words along with synonyms of a similar frequency rather than teaching students infrequent vocabulary, which may appear to sound more advanced.

The order of acquisition of various aspects of word knowledge is underexplored. Thus, this study examined learner performance with a number of aspects of word knowledge in an attempt to see whether they form an implicational scale in terms of an accuracy order. A total of 283 English as a Second Language students were tested on their knowledge of five aspects of word knowledge. Implicational scaling analysis was utilized to determine whether the components were scalable. The findings formed a scalable accuracy order. The accuracy order of the aspects of word knowledge examined in this study from easier to more difficult include: knowledge of the written form based on the spoken form, knowledge of the spoken form based on the written form, knowledge of the written form based on the meaning, knowledge of the spoken form based on the meaning, knowledge of spelling based on the spoken form. These findings suggest a number of implications for vocabulary acquisition as well as vocabulary teaching and learning.

This study analyzes ten beginning-level, Spanish-language graded readers in an attempt to answer the question of how much vocabulary do students need to know before being able to successfully participate in an extensive reading program. The study also analyzes the vocabulary taught in a beginning-level Spanish textbook to determine how well this vocabulary reflects the most common words in Spanish according to a frequency dictionary. It was found that a lexicon of 5,000 words was needed to obtain a sufficient level of comprehension in order for extensive reading to occur and that the textbook examined in this study did not present vocabulary that was extremely reflective of the most common words in the Spanish language.

The English language has established itself as the academic lingua franca of the world. For example, Swedish universities are mainly using English textbooks in their teaching. For students in tertiary education in Sweden, it is thus necessary to have an academic English vocabulary. This study examines the academic word knowledge of 148 students in different disciplines at a Swedish university. The method used was a vocabulary test. The test design was based on the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) and the words were chosen from the Academic Word List (AWL) due to their frequency in academic written texts. There was a rapid decline of the participants' word knowledge the less common the words were according to the AWL. The results indicate that Swedish students’ academic word knowledge in English is generally unsatisfactory, which could make the reading of academic texts troublesome for them.

In früheren Studien zum L2-Wortschatzerwerb wurden die Auswirkungen des visuellen Kontexts auf das Lernen und die Verarbeitung von Wörtern und Kollokationen in der L2 untersucht. Es wurde festgestellt, dass die Erstsprache einen positiven Transfer auf das Lernen einer Zweitsprache hat, wenn die Wörter Ähnlichkeiten aufweisen. Darüber hinaus wurden die Einflüsse der kognitiven Fähigkeiten der Lernenden und ihres Erwerbsalters (AoA) auf das L2-Vokabellernen unter verschiedenen Bedingungen des L2-Vokabellernens festgestellt. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war es, die Auswirkungen des visuellen Kontexts und des Transfers auf das Lernen von L2-Vokabeln weiter zu untersuchen und zu klären, wie die kognitiven Fähigkeiten und das Erwerbsalter diese Auswirkungen in einem bestimmten L2-Lernkontext beeinflussen. Im Detail wurden Effekte der Ereignisdarstellung (d.h. nicht-sprachlicher visueller Kontext) untersucht sowie Transfereffekte aus der Erstsprache in die Zweitsprache im Bezug auf das Lernen von L2-Phrasenwortschatz (d.h. Verb-Nomen-Phrasen) bei erwachsenen Anfängern. Wir führten Kurzzeitexperimente zum L2-Wortschatzerwerb durch, bei denen wir die Reaktionszeiten maßen. Zwei weitere Forschungsfragen untersuchten, ob es Zusammenhänge zwischen der AoA oder den kognitiven Fähigkeiten der Lernenden und ihrem Lernerfolg beim Vokabellernen in einer kurzfristigen L2-Lernumgebung gibt. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass erwachsene L2-Anfänger*innen beim L2-Vokabellernen von visuellen Darstellungen profitierten: Sie waren unter Lernbedingungen mit Ereignissen genauer und schneller als unter Lernbedingungen ohne Ereignisse. Diese Effekte konnten in drei Experimenten nicht nur mit jungen Erwachsenen im Alter von 18 bis 31 Jahren nachgewiesen werden, sondern galten auch für Erwachsene im frühen und späten mittleren Alter von 32 bis 65 Jahren. Die vorangegangene Forschung deutete darauf hin, dass die Ähnlichkeit zwischen L1 und L2 das L2-Lernen beeinflussen könnte, jedoch nicht in diesem spezifischen L2-Lernkontext. Darüber hinaus wurde der AoA der Probanden manipuliert, was dazu führte, dass junge Erwachsene in den kognitiven Tests und bei den L2-Lernaufgaben besser abschnitten als die anderen beiden Gruppen. Basierend auf den Ergebnissen unserer Forschung konnten wir herausfinden, welche Faktoren den Erfolg des L2-Wortschatzerwerbs bei erwachsenen L2-Anfängern stark beeinflussen und dass das Lernen von L2-Phrasenwortschatz mit dargestellten Ereignisfotos angewendet werden kann. / Previous studies of L2 vocabulary learning presented visual context effects on L2 word and collocation learning and processing. It was found that L1 has a positive transfer in L2 learning when words have similarities. Furthermore, the influences of learners’ cognitive ability and their age of acquisition (AoA) in L2 vocabulary learning have been found in diverse L2 vocabulary learning conditions. The present dissertation aimed to further investigate the effects of visual context and transfer on L2 learning, as well as how cognitive ability and AoA influence any such effects in a particular L2 vocabulary learning context. In detail, we investigated event depiction (i.e., non-linguistic visual context) effects and L1–L2 transfer effects on L2 phrasal vocabulary (i.e., verb-noun phrases) learning for adult beginners. We conducted short-term L2 vocabulary learning experiments during which we measured reaction times. Two other research questions examined whether there are relationships between learners’ AoA or their cognitive ability and their L2 vocabulary learning success in a short-term L2 learning setting. Results showed adult L2 beginners benefited from visual depictions in L2 vocabulary learning: They were more accurate and faster in event-present learning conditions than in event-absent learning conditions. These effects were not only replicated with young adults aged 18 to 31 in three experiments, but they also extended to early and late middle-aged adults aged 32 to 65. The prior research suggested that the L1–L2 similarity might influence L2 learning, but not in our L2 learning context. In addition, the AoA of subjects was manipulated, which resulted in young adults performing in the cognitive test and L2 learning tasks best compared to the other two groups. Based on the findings of our research, we were able to identify which factors strongly influence L2 vocabulary learning success for L2 adult beginners and that L2 phrasal vocabulary learning with depicted event photographs can be applied.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間・環境学) / 甲第24301号 / 人博第1057号 / 新制||人||248(附属図書館) / 2022||人博||1057(吉田南総合図書館) / 京都大学大学院人間・環境学研究科共生人間学専攻 / (主査)准教授 PETERSON Mark, 准教授 中森 誉之, 教授 勝又 直也, 教授 FIELD Malcolm Henry / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human and Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM