Phonological similarity influences word learning in adults learning Spanish as a foreign language

Abstract

Neighborhood density—the number of words that sound similar to a given word (Luce & Pisoni, 1998)—influences word-learning in native English speaking children and adults (Storkel, 2004; Storkel, Armbruster, & Hogan, 2006): novel words with many similar sounding English words (i.e., dense neighborhood) are learned more quickly than novel words with few similar sounding English words (i.e., sparse neighborhood). The present study examined how neighborhood density influences word-learning in native English speaking adults learning Spanish as a foreign language. Students in their third-semester of Spanish language classes learned advanced Spanish words that sounded similar to many known Spanish words (i.e., dense neighborhood) or sounded similar to few known Spanish words (i.e., sparse neighborhood). In three word-learning tasks, performance was better for Spanish words with dense rather than sparse neighborhoods. These results suggest that a similar mechanism may be used to learn new words in a native and a foreign language.

Modality-Independent Effects of Phonological Neighborhood Structure on Initial L2 Sign Language Learning

“…The use of hearing naïve M2L2 sign language learners is a unique and innovative tool to characterize de novo language learning. Unlike children being taught nonwords (Storkel & Morrisette, 2002) or adults learning a second language (Stamer & Vitevitch, 2012), hearing nonsigners acquiring sign language without any previous phonological exposure and no semantic representations to bootstrap can provide a glimpse into acquiring a new phonological system influences the construction of a lexicon during initial stages of sign language acquisition. Although adults are not completely the same as children, this comparison and the similarities seen herein suggest initial stages of M2L2 sign acquisition is similar to that of monolingual children acquiring a spoken language.…”

“…Studies often show that the triggering and lexical configuration process happens fairly quickly, often only needs less than ten exposures (e.g., fast mapping; Storkel, 2001). Lexical configuration and engagement have also been explicitly investigated in first language acquisition (Storkel & Lee, 2011) and in second language acquisition (Stamer & Vitevitch, 2012). Storkel and Lee (2011) attributed sublexical and lexical characteristics to these mechanisms.…”

Short research note: The Beginning Spanish Lexicon: A web-based interface to calculate phonological similarity among Spanish words in adults learning Spanish as a foreign language

“…By using phonemic inputs to the Beginning Spanish Lexicon one could examine this question with specially constructed nonwords as has been done in previous experiments performed with English speakers (e.g., Storkel, Armbruster & Hogan, 2006) or with real Spanish words (e.g., Stamer & Vitevitch, in press). Basing such estimates on native language resources might over-estimate the lexical knowledge of the typical language learner, and would not identify which words in the native lexicon a typical language learner knows.…”

“…(A median split is often used to categorize words as either dense or sparse, but other conventions can be used; e.g ., Storkel, 2004). Numerous studies have shown that neighborhood density influences a variety of language-related processes including learning novel (English) words by children and adults (Storkel, 2002; Storkel et al, 2006), learning novel words in a second language (Stamer & Vitevitch, in press), recognizing spoken words ( English : Luce & Pisoni, 1998; Spanish : Vitevitch & Rodríguez, 2005), producing spoken words ( English : Vitevitch, 1997; Spanish : Vitevitch & Stamer, 2006; 2009), and storing/retrieving words from short-term memory (Roodenrys et al, 2002). …”

Gradient phonological inconsistency affects vocabulary learning.

“…Word learners appear to benefit when new words are similar in form to words they already know (Stamer & Vitevitch, 2012;Storkel, Armbrüster, & Hogan, 2006). However, this does not consider what happens when learners are acquiring similar words simultaneously.…”