This dissertation is on the subject of bilingual vocabulary acquisition, specifically regarding children between the age of 12 and 20-24 months, and presents a longitudinal case study of a Cantonese-English bilingual child. We begin by questioning the role of exposure (in terms of number and frequency of utterances) as a reliable indicator of vocabulary acquisition at such a young age. While exposure is undoubtedly a good indicator of acquisition from age 2;0 upwards (Huttenlocher, Haight, Byrk, Seltzer, & Lyons, 1991, David & Li, 2008), we suggest that other more specific factors are more crucial at earlier stages, when the rate of vocabulary growth is slower. As such, using a parental diary and a series of video experiments, we propose and test hypotheses concerning the roles of child directed speech (CDS), salience of exposure, emotional arousal and phonological complexity in early language acquisition. Regarding CDS, results taken from the parental diary show apparent selection and adaptation of vocabulary to fit reduplicated forms between the ages of 1;0 and 1;5. In conjunction with previous research, we propose that, between 1;0 and 1;5, during the whole-word stage (Vihman & Croft, 2007), salience and phonological simplicity of exposure are key factors in vocabulary acquisition. This hypothesis points to a likely initial Cantonese dominance in English-Cantonese bilinguals, which is supported by our data. Our results from video experiments appear to support hypotheses concerning positive emotional arousal as a facilitator of vocabulary acquisition prior to 20-24 months, and also of a child’s ability to acquire language with minimal exposure, in a similar but not identical process to fast mapping (Carey & Bartlett, 1978). We propose as such that emotional arousal is a key component in language acquisition before age 2;0, and link this type acquisition to flashbulb memories (Brown & Kulik, 1977). Finally we show that our parental diary data corroborates the well documented verb and noun biases in Chinese (Choi & Gopnik, 1995) and English (Bornstein et al., 2004) respectively. We question what these conflicting biases may mean for a bilingual child in terms of language dominance and code mixing, and also discuss potential reasons for, and implications of, these biases. / published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

Over the years, many studies have been shown that storytelling plays a significant role in vocabulary acquisition (Speaker, Taylor, & Kamen, 2004). My research focused on vocabulary development in native and bilingual English speaking kindergartners through storytelling. Findings from this study of storytelling that revealed a positive relationship between the number of occurrences to words in the story and the vocabulary development as well as the positive relationship between the numbers of exposures to the storybooks and the vocabulary development are presented. Findings also confirmed that older kindergartners acquired more new vocabulary compared with the younger group kindergartners. The kindergartners who were all non readers listened to stories over a two week period by a professional storyteller. The kindergartners listened to the first story only once in the first week and completed a multiple-choice vocabulary posttest immediately thereafter. This test included 5 unfamiliar words from the story. The second storybook was read twice in the following week, two days apart and a multiple-choice vocabulary posttest with a different set of 5 unfamiliar words was presented after the second time the story was read. Three weeks after this, a delayed posttest with the 10 words were administered. There were 10 target words throughout the 2 stories. Only one target word appeared in both stories, once in Story 1 and twice in Story 2. Likewise, 4 target words appeared once in Story 1 and the other set of 4 target words appeared once in Story 2. There was 1 target word (not heard word) which had not read to the kindergartners in each of the story. As expected, the scores on the second multiple-choice vocabulary posttest was higher than the first multiple-choice vocabulary posttest because children vocabulary acquisition increased with the numbers of the exposures to story and the number of occurrences to words in the story. Nevertheless, storytelling would have no benefits on children’s vocabulary acquisition if words were not being delivered or told to the children, whereas the number of occurrences of the story read increased. Findings in the present study proved that reading the same story at least twice and more exposures to words contributed the positive influence to kindergartners’ vocabulary growth. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

published_or_final_version / Curriculum Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which tri-weekly evidence-based vocabulary lessons implemented throughout the regular school day would increase kindergarten students’ expressive and receptive vocabulary development, thus decreasing the vocabulary gap exhibited between low-income children and their more advantaged peers upon entering kindergarten. The participants in this study were kindergarten students at an elementary school in the Midwest. The students in the control group received their normal vocabulary instruction from the district’s adopted reading series. The experimental group students received instruction from the evidence-based direct instruction vocabulary lessons found in Judy Montgomery’s The Bridge of Vocabulary. Data was collected before and after the intervention took place using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Fourth Edition and the Expressive Vocabulary Test, Second Edition, and was analyzed using an ANOVA to compare growth. Analysis showed that students who received the vocabulary intervention made significantly greater growth in both expressive and receptive vocabulary development than students who received vocabulary instruction from the adopted reading series. More specifically, the students from poverty who received the intervention made significantly greater vocabulary development than the students from poverty who did not receive the intervention. / Department of Elementary Education

Orientador: Matilde Virginia Ricardi Scaramucci / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-05T21:06:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gattolin_SandraReginaButtros_D.pdf: 10712135 bytes, checksum: eadbc239ffdb32c6a44fadc86659b466 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: A aquisição da competência lexical tem sido considerada um dos maiores desafios encontrados por professores e alunos de inglês como língua estrangeira. Após o contato com palavras novas nos livros didáticos e nas atividades de sala de aula, são freqüentes os casos de aprendizes que não conseguem usá-las novamente por desconhecimento das mesmas. Os professores reconhecem a necessidade de ajudar seus alunos nesse sentido, mas, aparentemente, não sabem como lidar com o problema; aqueles que insistem em encontrar uma solução acabam sentindo um retorno às antigas práticas já conhecidas por sua limitada eficiência. Assim, evidências da necessidade de uma maior atenção destinada ao léxico nas aulas de língua inglesa motivaram as pesquisas em busca da construção de uma teoria de aquisição de vocabulário, e não são poucas as contribuições teóricas disponíveis na literatura. Poucos pesquisadores, entretanto, têm buscado demonstrar como operacionalizar tais teorias dentro de uma abordagem de ensino com foco na comunicação. Visando minimizar essa lacuna, o objetivo desta pesquisa, de natureza interventiva, foi investigar, entre alunos universitários brasileiros, seu processo de aprendizagem de vocabulário mediado por um material de leitura para fins específicos, produzido com o foco voltado para a formação de leitores autônomos. As atividades de vocabulário constantes desse material foram fundamentadas no conceito rico de vocabulário, proposto por Richards (1976) e estendido por Scaramucci (1995). Os dados coletados são de natureza quantitativa e qualitativa. Os dados de natureza quantitativa foram obtidos por meio da aplicação de duas baterias de testes para verificação do conhecimento lexical dos participantes do estudo. Os resultados obtidos no pré-teste e no pós-teste foram comparados e analisados estatisticamente através das técnicas do teste de Friedman e teste-t, evidenciando que, ao término do curso, a extensão do vocabulário dos participantes era significativamente maior do que no início dele. Os dados de natureza qualitativa foram obtidos por meio de um questionário para levantamento das estratégias de aprendizagem de vocabulário, diários dialogados e observações em sala de aula gravadas em áudio. Essa triangulação permitiu inferir que a interação promovida pelo material desenvolvido para o curso, com foco na profundidade do conhecimento do léxico, foi um dos aspectos da sala de aula que mais contribuíram para a construção desse conhecimento. Permitiu inferir também que o professor tem papel fundamental nesse processo. Entre as contribuições oferecidas por este estudo está o conjunto de princípios que subjaz à construção do conhecimento acima referido / Abstract: One of the greatest problems teachers and students face when teaching and learning a foreign language concerns vocabulary acquisition. After meeting certain words in books and/or class activities, students are not able to use these words again. Although teachers realize they should do something to help their students, they seem not to know how to deal with this problem; the ones who attempt very often feel they are falling back on audiolingual practices. Researchers have long tried to build a theory to fill this gap, and much has already been done, but, so far, few professionals have shown how to produce knowledge with the knowledge acquired from research, specially how to approach theory-based vocabulary activities in a communicative way. Aiming at reducing this gap, the objective of this study was to investigate the vocabulary learning process of a group of Brazilian university students using an English for Specific Purpose material produced not only to enable the development of the reading skill but also to help learners be aware of the aspects involved in knowing a word so that they could continue building their lexical knowledge autonomously. The material designed for the course included both reading activities and activities which focused on systematizing vocabulary teaching and learning, all of which based on the rich concept of vocabulary acquisition, proposed by Richards (1976) and extended by Scaramucci (1995). Quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The former were obtained in two sets of six vocabulary knowledge scales, accomplished by the participants at two distinct points in time. Their answers were compared and statistically analyzed with the use of Friedman test and t-test techniques. Results have shown that at the end of the intervention students knew a significantly higher number of words than they did at the beginning of the course. Qualitative data were collected with the use of three different types of research instruments: a questionnaire, diaries and classroom observation. Qualitative analysis allowed inferring that the interaction promoted by the material was one of the aspects which most contributed to the building of this knowledge. Similarly important was the role of the teacher in this process. Among the contributions offered by this research is a set of principles that seemed to have underlain these students¿ vocabulary acquisition / Doutorado / Lingua Estrangeira / Doutor em Linguística Aplicada

Traditional mnemonic methods of teaching vocabulary in the Second Language (L2) classroom are not providing the students with sufficient vocabulary knowledge to facilitate effective communication, i.e. students do not use the words they have learnt for communication as textbook presentation and drill do not ensure student use of these same structures in the student’s own spontaneous expression (Savignon, 2000). The strategies to facilitate meaning-vocabulary1 learning as part of a wider outcome to teaching elements of functional communication in a multilingual society is not clearly defined in the Revised National Curriculum Statement (DoE, 2003). This research report set in a constructivist framework, will attempt to raise awareness in language teachers of a need to recognize the importance to facilitate meaning-vocabulary in L2 in OBE and collaborative learning. The aim of this research was therefore to find an effective strategy to facilitate collaborative L2 meaning-vocabulary learning to develop functional communication. The research question in this study was: * How can facilitators more effectively guide collaborative meaning-vocabulary learning to improve functional communication? Secondary questions to this study were: * Why do L2 facilitators not spend enough time on collaborative meaning-vocabulary learning? * What is the role of the facilitator in L2 collaborative meaning-vocabulary learning through communicative teaching strategies? * How should meaning-vocabulary be taught to ensure students acquire the ability to use the L2 critically and creatively in functional communicative situations outside the classroom? I have set my methodology in a qualitative paradigm, used an action research design, made use of interviews and interpreted the interviews to clarify the research topic by means of a ‘thick description’ (Henning, et al. 2004:142). The data used in this research were not only gathered from describing and analyzing the practices of the classroom community, but it also originated in real life classroom situations and both of these are characteristics of action research (Burns, 2000). I have used different data collection methods to ensure the validity of the findings and the recommendations. The methodology used to gather the data guided me to explore qualitative content analysis, grounded theory analysis and to a lesser extent discourse analysis. I have used these three methods to condense the data to find some meaning in the form to enable me to construct a theory around facilitating meaning-vocabulary learning, i.e. construct my own interpretive text. Qualitative content analysis was the basis for grounded theory analysis, while the discourse was dissected to find alternative proof for the findings. Some of the findings included guidelines which a teacher should keep in mind when facilitating meaning-vocabulary learning: 1. Know your students. 2. Keep meaning-vocabulary learning enjoyable – use different strategies when possible, but let them ‘construct’ their own knowledge. The students must ‘do’ something when they are learning meaning-vocabulary. 3. Encourage the students to use the words during functional communication exercises and essay writing. 4. Encourage the students to engage in their L2 inside and outside the classroom as often as possible, e.g. listen to radio, watch television, engage in conversation with friends or family in the L2. 5. Focus on meaning-vocabulary in communicative language. 6. Engage in conversation with your students as often as possible, not only about a theme or topic but also about their experiences and feelings in your classroom. 7. Use pictures to explain word meanings. Let them create their own images where possible. 8. Use the new meaning-vocabulary during discussions. / Mr. W.A. Janse van Rensburg