1 / 17

Ancient Greek Vocabulary Acquisition and Education

Importance of vocabulary in foreign language acquisition, with a focus on Ancient Greek. Presentation covers learning approaches, defining difficult words, role of the Greek alphabet, and more. Explores experimental data and teaching characteristics. Discussion aims to stimulate research and provide linguistic tools for designing didactic material.

szook
Download Presentation

Ancient Greek Vocabulary Acquisition and Education

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Ἔν ἀρχῇ ἤν ὁ λόγος... Ancient Greekvocabularyacquisitionandeducation Jeroen Vis, the Netherlands

  2. Introduction Importance of vocabulary in foreignlanguageacquisition is stressed in many studies. Huge body of literatureon late foreignvocabularyacquisition. Sparsesystematic research on Ancient Greek.

  3. Outline of presentation Several topics related to AncientGreekvocabularyacquisition. Learning approach: activitybased vs. paired-associate. Definingdifficultwords. Role of the Greekalphabet.

  4. Aims of presentation Tostimulatethediscussion on Ancient Greek (and Latin) (vocabulary) acquisitionandeducation. Toadd (experimental) linguistic research tothisdiscussion. Toprovidelinguistic tools fordesigningdidacticmaterial.

  5. Theoretical background • Knowledge of vocabulary is important in secondlanguageacquisition • Speakers should have acces to about 95% of a text (Nation 1990) • For this, 5000-10000 vocabulary items are needed • How canthis status best beachieved? • Are thereinnatedifficultwords? • Is theGreekalphabetproblematic?

  6. Background: AncientGreek • There is sparseempirical research with respect to Ancient Greekvocabularyacquisition • Textbooksonly provide bilingual word lists, vocabularyactivities are marginal • Can we incorporatecurrent research in Modern Languages? • Which point of view? • AncientGreekexhibitssomepeculiarities • Additionalexperimental data are needed

  7. Characteristics of teaching AG • Peculiarities of AncientGreek: • No spoken language > input is onlywritten • Traditional method of teaching • Different alphabet • Unfamiliarconcepts • Input limited to classroom • Classroom setting, including • School age • Beginners • Diversity of items • Students’ learningpreference

  8. Learning approaches • Twomain approaches concerning the most effective way of acquiringforeignvocabulary (Modern Languages) • A) paired-associate (Mondria 2003, de Groot 2010): the concept is already in the brain, itonlyneeds to acquire a new ‘label’. Otheractivities are merelydistracting and time-consuming. • B) Activity based (Hulstijn & Laufer 2001 amongothers): more involvement leads tobetteracquisition. • Both approaches are supportedbyexperimental data.

  9. Experimental data • 3 test conditions: multiple choiceactivity, pairedassociate, multiple choice + pairedassociate • immediate post-test anddelayed post-test

  10. For short term acquisition, thepairedassociate approach seems best. • For longer term acquisition, theactivitybased approach seemspromising • >> Learning by means of PA, deep processing by means of activitybasedlearning

  11. Definingdifficultwords • 3 parameters, partlybased on Groot (2006 & 2010) : General idea: more activity in the brainmakes a word more difficult to learn A. Phoneticform • Focus on clusters [pt], [kt], [ps], [ks] B. Meaning • abstract vs. concrete meaning C. Grammaticalcategory • Notincluded in Groot, substantive – verb – adjective, possiblyrelatedto #B

  12. Experimental data • All parameters andcombination of parameters tested in a learningtask • No significant results • Conclusion: difficulty of wordscan’tbedefined in terms of these parameters a priori • Teacher base theirestimation on frequency of the word

  13. Role of thealphabet Different alphabet Difficultiesforlanguageacquisitionaccording to someteachers Greekalphabet vs. transcription Beginners vs. advancedlearners No significant results

  14. Conclusions • Pairedassociate is anefficientlearning approach • Vocabularyactivitiescontributetodeep processing • Difficultwordscan’tbedefined a priori • Teachers have a different idea of difficultwordsthanpupils • The alphabetplays no role in learningvocabulary

  15. Thankyou See for more details and downloads: www.ionika.nl

More Related