Word learning in first and second languages

1. Word learning in first and second languages

2. Do dogs learn words? • Teaching a dog its name • Teaching it to sit • Teaching it to come when called

4. 3 principles of word learning • Mutual exclusivity principle • Whole object principle • Taxanomic principle

5. Mutual exclusivity principle • One object has only one name

6. わんわん ぶぶ

7. Whole object principle • A label is for a whole object not for a part of the object

10. Shape bias • Objects with the same shape have the same name

11. Non-solid objects • Tend to be labeled by material not shape

12. Taxanomic principle • Objects are related through taxonomies not themes • For example: dog, cat, dog food. Dog and cat are connected more than dog and dog food

13. However….

14. In “The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why” Richard Nisbett says…..

15. Which two are connected?

16. Describe what you see

17. Shared attention • Children learn to attend to (pay attention to) where the adult is looking

18. Very early childhood • one to one (face to face) relationships • for example mother-child

19. From 9-12 months • Triadic relationships are possible • For example mother-child-ball • This requires shared attention • the ability to understand what someone else is looking at for example

20. Evidence is now accumulating to show that it is a caregiver’s responsiveness to a child, rather than the adult’s direction or external scaffolding of the interaction that determines the interactions between them (L. Bloom, 1993, 1998; Bloom, Margulis, Tinker, and Fujita, 1996).

21. In simple English: it is not the mother telling the child to look at something and then naming it that helps the child learn words.

22. 18 - 24 months:word learning explosion Why does this happen?

23. It is the mother seeing what the child is looking at and then naming the object that helps the child learn words.

24. What about second language learning?

25. L1-L2 Mediation Hypothesis(Jiang 2000)

26. The L1 Lexical Entry semantic syntax lemma morphology phonology lexeme (adapted from Levelt 1989)

27. Lexical Development in L2 L2 semantics L2 syntax L2 morphology L2 phon/orth L1 semantics L1 syntax L2 phon/orth L2 phon/orth (adapted from Jiang 2000)

28. L1- L2 Lexical Mediation L1 word ? ? L2 phon/orth

29. Intermediate Learners look for a direct one to one mapping in the L1 L1 word L2 word

30. Advanced Learners do not look for a direct one to one mapping in the L1 concept L2 word

31. Word Frequency • How many words a student knows affects • how much of a text (or conversation) they • understand and how many new words they • learn from the text.

32. Word Coverage and Word Frequency for Everyday Use • Word frequency Text coverage • Most frequent 1000 72% • 1001-2000 most frequent 80% • 2001-3000 most frequent 84%

33. Word Coverage and Word Frequency for Academic Texts • Word frequency Text coverage • Most frequent 1000 71% • 10001-2000 most frequent 75% • Academic word list (570) 85%

34. Word Coverage • If a student knows 95% of the words in a text, • they have a good chance to learn new • words. • If a student knows 98% or more of the words • in a text, then fluency practice can be successful.

35. So How Do We Do This? • Assess students' word knowledge(this will be explained next week). • Use The Compleat Lexical Tutor to analyze the text or activity. • http://www.lextutor.ca/ • Modify the text or activity for word learning or fluency as needed.