Description The aim of this course is to expose students to recent research and theory relating (more)

Description The aim of this course is to expose students to recent research and theory relating to models of lexical acquisition, to examine the structure of the mental lexicon and to discuss issues related to first language and influences on second language vocabulary acquisition. (less)

Average educated adult: 15,000 – 20,000 word families L2 learners also manage to acquire thousands (more)

Average educated adult: 15,000 – 20,000 word families L2 learners also manage to acquire thousands of word families. Vocabulary Acquisition (less)

Explicit learning (focused study of words) Incidental learning (exposure to language – focus on (more)

Explicit learning (focused study of words) Incidental learning (exposure to language – focus on the use of language rather than the learning of words) How are learners able to acquire so many words? (less)

Explicit: greatest chance of acquisition but time-consuming Incidental: beneficial but slower and (more)

Explicit: greatest chance of acquisition but time-consuming Incidental: beneficial but slower and gradual (about 7-9 encounters with a word are necessary for acquisition) Incidental learning comes from reading interacting Incidental & Explicit learning (less)

Vocabulary acquisition is incremental. Mastery of a word entails mastery of various component (more)

Vocabulary acquisition is incremental. Mastery of a word entails mastery of various component types of word knowledge (e.g. orthography, pronunciation, meaning, collocations, sense relations, etc.) What we seem to know (less)

Form (pronunciation, rhyming, first few letters) or spelling (if the word is written) word class (more)

Form (pronunciation, rhyming, first few letters) or spelling (if the word is written) word class meaning (the particular sense in the context)  What do we acquire when we first meet a word? (less)

Children first acquire the core meaning of words; later they understand details of a word’s (more)

Children first acquire the core meaning of words; later they understand details of a word’s meaning features. Acquisition of word meaning and grammatical knowledge (less)

The process: Labeling (attaching a label to a concept) Categorization (grouping a number of (more)

The process: Labeling (attaching a label to a concept) Categorization (grouping a number of objects under a common label) network building (building connections between related words) Meaning acquisition in children (less)

After acquiring the core meaning of a word, additional exposure to the target word in context (more)

After acquiring the core meaning of a word, additional exposure to the target word in context allows us to see how far the meaning can be extended and where the semantic boundaries are: this is an ongoing process (even for native adults). (less)

Most words in English have two or more meaning senses. One of them is usually the most basic, (more)

Most words in English have two or more meaning senses. One of them is usually the most basic, frequent or neutral: core meaning sense. e.g., old: Pauline was astonished to see an old woman an old friend (a long-standing friend) her old boyfriend (a former boyfriend) old Fred (Fred whom she knew well) Core meaning sense (less)

learners acquire the core meaning sense of a word before more figurative senses. the core meaning (more)

learners acquire the core meaning sense of a word before more figurative senses. the core meaning senses are transferred; non typical figurative meaning senses are not transferred literal L1 meaning senses (break a stick) are more likely to be transferred to L2, than figurative meaning senses (break a heart ). In L2 vocabulary acquisition (less)

Short-term memory capacity is one of the best predictors of both vocabulary and grammar (more)

Short-term memory capacity is one of the best predictors of both vocabulary and grammar achievement. During vocabulary acquisition, there is both advancement and backsliding. Forgetting can also occur even with well known words when a language is not used for some time: attrition Role of memory in vocabulary acquisition (less)

Lexical knowledge is more prone to attrition than other linguistic aspects, because vocabulary is (more)

Lexical knowledge is more prone to attrition than other linguistic aspects, because vocabulary is made up of individual units rather than a series of rules. When learning new information, most forgetting occurs soon after the learning. After that, the rate of forgetting decreases. So, learners need to review soon after the learning session. Vocabulary and forgetting (less)