The Effect of Number and Presentation Order of High-Constraint Sentences on Second Language Word Learning

Ma, Tengfei; Chen, Ran; Dunlap, Susan; Chen, Baoguo

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01396

Cited by 5 publications

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“…Results showed that the meaning of the novel words could be acquired in high constraint sentences but not in low constraint sentences, suggesting that high sentence constraint facilitates the acquisition of L2 contextual word meaning. This facilitation effect of high sentence constraint was also demonstrated in another study (Ma et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Rapid L2 Word Learning through High Constraint Sentence Context: An Event-Related Potential Study

Chen

Liang

et al. 2017

Front. Psychol.

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Previous studies have found quantity of exposure, i.e., frequency of exposure (Horst et al., 1998; Webb, 2008; Pellicer-Sánchez and Schmitt, 2010), is important for second language (L2) contextual word learning. Besides this factor, context constraint and L2 proficiency level have also been found to affect contextual word learning (Pulido, 2003; Tekmen and Daloglu, 2006; Elgort et al., 2015; Ma et al., 2015). In the present study, we adopted the event-related potential (ERP) technique and chose high constraint sentences as reading materials to further explore the effects of quantity of exposure and proficiency on L2 contextual word learning. Participants were Chinese learners of English with different English proficiency levels. For each novel word, there were four high constraint sentences with the critical word at the end of the sentence. Learners read sentences and made semantic relatedness judgment afterwards, with ERPs recorded. Results showed that in the high constraint condition where each pseudoword was embedded in four sentences with consistent meaning, N400 amplitude upon this pseudoword decreased significantly as learners read the first two sentences. High proficiency learners responded faster in the semantic relatedness judgment task. These results suggest that in high quality sentence contexts, L2 learners could rapidly acquire word meaning without multiple exposures, and L2 proficiency facilitated this learning process.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Rapid L2 Word Learning through High Constraint Sentence Context: An Event-Related Potential Study

Chen

Liang

et al. 2017

Front. Psychol.

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“…It is estimated that an L2 learner needs to know at least 35,000 words in order to understand authentic written texts (Nation, 2001). This draws the attention of many researchers, who have investigated the mechanism of L2 word learning using different methods, for example, deliberate learning method (Elgort, 2011; Ghazi Saidi et al, 2013; Perfetti et al, 2005) or incidental learning method (Bordag et al, 2015; Elgort & Warren, 2014; Ma et al, 2016; Pellicer‐Sanchez & Schmitt, 2010). These studies have centered on unambiguous words, that is, the establishment of a single form‐meaning mapping relationship.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of learning new meaning on the previously learned meaning of L2 ambiguous words: The role of semantic similarity

et al. 2021

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Previous study has found that previously learned meaning affects the learning of new meaning for known second language (L2) words. However, it is not clear whether learning a new meaning also affects the previously learned meaning and whether this effect is modulated by the semantic similarity between them. The current study aimed to explore this issue using event-related potential technique.A word learning task was used, in which Chinese-English bilinguals were required to learn a new meaning that was semantically related or unrelated to the previously learned meaning of familiar L2 words and judge the semantic related-

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“…The participants recruited in the current study were adults which may rely on both taxonomic and thematic relations. Third, there has been evidence for the modulation of sentential constraint and L2 proficiency level on L2 word learning ( Pulido, 2003 ; Borovsky et al, 2010 ; Elgort et al, 2015 ; Ma et al, 2015 , 2016 ; Chen et al, 2017 ). Only in highly constraining sentences could the meaning of L2 novel words be derived ( Ma et al, 2015 ), and higher-proficiency L2 learners outperformed than lower-proficiency L2 learners ( Ma et al, 2015 ; Chen et al, 2017 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of conceptual concreteness on the reading acquisition and integration of novel words into semantic memory via thematic relations

et al. 2023

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Plenty of studies have been conducted to reveal neurocognitive underpinnings of conceptual representation. Compared with that of concrete concepts, the neurocognitive correlates of abstract concepts remain elusive. The current study aimed to investigate the influence of conceptual concreteness on the reading acquisition and integration of novel words into semantic memory. We constructed two-sentence contexts in which two-character pseudowords were embedded as novel words. Participants read the contexts to infer the meaning of novel words which were either concrete or abstract, and then performed a lexical decision task and a cued-recall memory task. In lexical decision task, primed by the learned novel words, their corresponding concepts, thematically related or unrelated words as well as unlearned pseudowords were judged whether they were words or not. In memory task, participants were presented with the novel words and asked to write down their meaning. The contextual reading and memory test can demonstrate the modulation of conceptual concreteness on novel word learning and the lexical decision task can reveal whether concrete and abstract novel words are integrated into semantic memory similarly or not. During contextual reading, abstract novel words presented for the first time elicited a larger N400 than concrete ones. In memory task, the meaning of concrete novel words was recollected better than abstract novel words. These results indicate that abstract novel words are more difficult to acquire during contextual reading, and to retain afterwards. For lexical decision task behavioral and ERPs were graded, with the longest reaction time, the lowest accuracy and the largest N400s for the unrelated words, then the thematically related words and finally the corresponding concepts of the novel words, regardless of conceptual concreteness. The results suggest that both concrete and abstract novel words can be integrated into semantic memory via thematic relations. These findings are discussed in terms of differential representational framework which posits that concrete words connect with each other via semantic similarities, and abstract ones via thematic relations.

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The Effect of Number and Presentation Order of High-Constraint Sentences on Second Language Word Learning

Cited by 5 publications

References 48 publications

Rapid L2 Word Learning through High Constraint Sentence Context: An Event-Related Potential Study

Rapid L2 Word Learning through High Constraint Sentence Context: An Event-Related Potential Study

The impact of learning new meaning on the previously learned meaning of L2 ambiguous words: The role of semantic similarity

The influence of conceptual concreteness on the reading acquisition and integration of novel words into semantic memory via thematic relations

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