Word learning in first and second languages

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

3 principles of word learning Mutual exclusivity principle Whole object principle Taxanomic principle

Mutual exclusivity principle One object has only one name

わんわんぶぶ

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

Shape bias Objects with the same shape have the same name

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

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

However….

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

Which two are connected?

Describe what you see

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

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

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

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).

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.

months: word learning explosion Why does this happen?

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

What about second language learning?

L1-L2 Mediation Hypothesis (Jiang 2000)

morphologyphonology semanticsyntax The L1 Lexical Entry lexeme lemma (adapted from Levelt 1989)

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

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

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

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

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.

Word Coverage and Word Frequency for Everyday Use Word frequencyText coverage Most frequent % most frequent80% most frequent84%

Word Coverage and Word Frequency for Academic Texts Word frequencyText coverage Most frequent % most frequent75% Academic word list (570)85%

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.

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. Modify the text or activity for word learning or fluency as needed.