JALT-CALL 2011 Comprehending Authentic Video: The Importance of High Frequency Vocabulary Dr. Charles Browne, Professor of Applied Linguistics Director, EFL Teacher Education Program Meiji Gakuin University; Tokyo, Japan

Is “cutting edge” really the way forward in CALL? 1990: Director of Sony Language Laboratories 1995: helped design CALL center at Aoyama Gakuin 2004: published “New Perspectives in CALL” 2006: introduced 1 st online vocabulary test and flashcards at JALT-CALL in Sapporo 20o9: Began developing online learning tools for teaching via authentic video 2011: JALT-CALL Plenary – YAY!

1.Figure out what kinds of things technology does better or faster than humans can 2.Figure out what are the weaknesses and problems teachers and learners face in the EFL classroom 3.Figure out what the comfort zone/ability level of the average teacher and student is 4.Using an informed approach to CLT, try to develop software and technologies that assist teachers and learners A recipe for success in CALL…

Outline of Presentation 1.Some basic findings of corpus linguistics 1.Introduction to problems faced by Japanese EFL learners related to vocabulary 2.Introduction to EnglishCentral as well as a range of free online tools for identifying and teaching vocabulary from authentic videos

Some Opening Questions: 1.How many words do you think there are in the English Language? 1,000,000 (Stanford research group, 2008) 350,000 (Oxford English Dictionary) 2.How many words does a typical native speaker know? 20,0000(Goulden, Nation, Read, 2000)

Words% known# knownResearcher 17%97/100West(53), Nation(90) 1025%3/4West(53), Nation(90) 10050%1/2West(53), Nation(90) %1/4West(53), Engles(68) %1/7West(53), Nation(90) %1/20Hirsch & Nation(92) %1/50Laufer (92), Coady(93) 350,000100%100/100Oxford English Dictionary The Importance of “Frequency”

Coverage within the BNC for high frequency words (Leech, Rayson, & Wilson, 2001)

Coverage within the CIC for high frequency words (McCarthy, 2002)

Problem 1: EFL learners don’t know enough high frequency words…

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ Frequency 350,000 5,000 EFL Vocabulary Learning in Japan… chaos permission and of the exasperate digress chaos permission and of the abstain emigrate torment The Negative Effect of “Test English” PROBLEM: Students NEED to learn the first 5000 words of English to use English in the real word… But entrance exams and high school textbooks force students to memorize hundreds of low-frequency words… RESULT? High school students can’t deal with real world English because they don’t know hundreds of the most important high frequency words… sum bid ace HFW 2,289 2,566 4,441 14,641 23,371 25,537 42,024 84,168

Problem 2: Reading and Listening materials in Japan (i.e. INPUT) are too difficult…

When reading or listening to a text, students will of course will not know many words… What percentage of words do you think must be known for them to be able to read easily? 50% ? 75% ? 85% ? 95% ?

75% Coverage 1000 high frequency words …another possible problem with _____ _____ is how to _____ learner _____ although research suggests that _____ are a very _____ way to learn new words (Leitner, 1972, Mondria, 1994, Nation, 1990, 2001), students may lose interest if _____ are the _____ _____ of doing _____ _____. There is a _____ _____ in the _____ classroom of using games with a _____ purpose to increase and _____ learner _____ (Ersoz, 2000, Uberman 1988, Wright, Betteridge & Buckby, 1984), as well as lower the learner _____ _____ (Asher, 1965, 1977, Dulay, Krashen & Burt, 1982) [ 19 missing words ]

85% Coverage 2000 high frequency words …another possible problem with _____ _____ is how to _____ learner _____ although research suggests that _____ are a very efficient way to learn new words (Leitner, 1972, Mondria, 1994, Nation, 1990, 2001), students may lose interest if _____ are the _____ method of doing _____ _____. There is a rich tradition in the _____ classroom of using games with a communicative purpose to increase and maintain learner _____ (Ersoz, 2000, Uberman 1988, Wright, Betteridge & Buckby, 1984), as well as lower the learner _____ _____ (Asher, 1965, 1977, Dulay, Krashen & Burt, 1982) [ 13 missing words ]

95% Coverage 5000 high frequency words …another possible problem with vocabulary _____ is how to sustain learner motivation although research suggests that _____ are a very efficient way to learn new words (Leitner, 1972, Mondria, 1994, Nation, 1990, 2001), students may lose interest if _____ are the sole method of doing vocabulary review. There is a rich tradition in the _____ classroom of using games with a communicative purpose to increase and maintain learner motivation (Ersoz, 2000, Uberman 1988, Wright, Betteridge & Buckby, 1984), as well as lower the learner affective filter (Asher, 1965, 1977, Dulay, Krashen & Burt, 1982) [ 4 missing words ]

Vocabulary Thresholds: Below 80%, reading comprehension is almost impossible (Hu & Nation, 2001) 95% coverage is the point at which learners can read without the help of dictionaries (Laufer, 1989)

Vocabulary & Readability: How do Japanese schools measure up? Junior High: Teaches first 1000 words fairly well Readability of texts seems good - short passages, easy vocabulary, lots of pictures to support texts Senior High: Focus changes dramatically to teaching of low frequency words Many, many words from are never taught… Readability of texts is actually MORE difficult than unsimplified native speaker texts!

The Compleat Lexical Tutor

Vocab Profile: Online Vocabulary Analysis Tool

Typical Graded Reader Results (1200 word level) 85% expected for 2000 words 98.9%

Typical Yomiuri Newspaper Article 85% expected for 2000 words 87.4%

Harry Potter Chapter 2 85% expected for 2000 words 94.1%

Typical Time Magazine Article 85% expected for 2000 words 80.9%

Japanese High School Textbook (Spectrum Unit 16) 85% expected for 2000 words 76.8%

Summary of Vocab-Profile Results for Various Texts Type of Text% Coverage for 2000 High Frequency Words Native Speaker Texts85% Graded Reader (1200 words) 99% Yomiuri Newspaper87% Harry Potter94% Time Magazine81% Japanese HS textbook77%

Are Japanese students reading the right vocabulary? (Browne, 1996, 1998) TextCoverage from 2000 High Frequency Words Spectrum71% Milestone78% Unicorn79% Unsimplified Native Texts 85%

Are universities testing the right vocabulary? (Kikuchi, 2006, Browne & Kikuchi, 2008) Text of Entrance Examinations for: % Coverage from 2000 High Frequency Words Keio Univ.69% Sophia Univ.72% Waseda Univ.72% Kyoto Univ.77% Nagoya Univ.68% Tokyo Univ.80%

Solution Number One: COMPREHNSIBLE INPUT authentic and motivating listening and reading materials

Graded Materials - Reading Cambridge Oxford Penguin etc…

How to Grade Reading Materials

How to Grade Reading Materials

Graded Materials - Listening (recorded version of graded readers)

Graded Materials - Listening (found materials on the internet)

Graded Authentic Videos

How can an “authentic” video be graded?.... Stage 1:Teacher intuition Stage 2:Readability Formulas Stage 3:Readability Formulas informed by vocabulary frequency

Readability Formulas (Flesch-Kincaid)

Solution Number Two: KEYWORD IDENTIFICATION identifying the most important words to learn in a video

How to Identify Keywords

Key Words for Dracula…

How to Identify Keywords

Key Words for Obama’s Education Speech...

Solution Number Three: COMPREHENION SUPPORT Scaffolding tools to help learners deal with videos above their level

100% 0% Bilingual Captioning Select difficulty level of videos you want Click on video you want to study

100% 0% Bilingual Captioning Transcripts available for pre- listening study Key vocabulary words selected for study by corpus analysis

100% 0% Bilingual Captioning Captioning in English, Japanese, or both Transcripts can be hidden by pushing these buttons

100% 0% Clickable HTML dictionaries Definitions written based on the meanings given in the videos Click on any word in the transcript to get definitional info: definition part of speech sample sentence pronunciation

100% 0% Speed Control for Speech Encourages learners to listen multiple times until they can catch the meaning Push this button to slow the speed of speech

Solution Number Four: KEYWORD LEARNING In-context, spaced-repetition vocabulary learning system

100% Short-term memory loss 50% 0% Time

100% 0% The Forgetting Curve Ebbinhaus (1885), Leitner (1972), Pimsleur (1967), Mondria, (1994) Repeated viewings foster long-term retention

Spaced Repetition is the science of long-term memory Based on the research of Ebbinghaus, Pimsleur, Leitner, and Mondria, electronic flashcards automatically repeat each new word at spaced time intervals, and until the learner achieves long-term, instant-recall ability.

Spaced Repetition is the science of long-term memory

Vocabulary Flashcards: by corpus analysis of videos (1) Select a video category to study

Vocabulary Flashcards: by corpus analysis of videos (2) Go to the vocabulary application, then click on the list of words from the category you want to study

Vocabulary Flashcards: by corpus analysis of videos (3) Study the words as a list, or just pick a word to learn it in all the different contexts it occurs in the database

Vocabulary Flashcards: by corpus analysis of videos (4) All clips in the database which contain your keyword are played in context, in succession. You can listen only or record your voice and compare to the native speaker

Vocabulary Flashcards: by corpus analysis of videos (5) Study your words in QUIZ mode to work on definitions in context, listening and CLOZE type activities

Vocabulary Flashcards: by corpus analysis of videos Quiz mode is based on Ebbbinghaus, Leitner and Pimsleur’s “spaced- repetition” approach

Vocabulary Flashcards: by corpus analysis of videos First, the meaning and context of 2-3 new words are introduced via video flashcards

Vocabulary Flashcards: by corpus analysis of videos

Progress is recorded at the end of each session…

Thank you ! For a copy of this Powerpoint, please contact: Dr. Charles Browne, Professor of Applied Linguistics Chair, EFL Teacher Training Program Meiji Gakuin University, Dept. of English

Graded Listening (recorded version of graded readers)

Clickable HTML dictionary

How many words do L2 learners know? Minimum 5000 words needed for independent learning CountryVocab. Size Hours of Instruction Reference Japan (University) Shillaw (95), Barrow (99) China (English Majors) Laufer (99) Indonesia (University) Nurweni & Read (99) Oman (University) Hort et al (98) Israel (HS graduates) Laufer (98) France (HS students) Arnaud et al (85) Greece (age 15, HS) Milton & Meara (98) Germany (age 15, HS) Milton & Meara (98)