Tom Cobb Université du Québec à Montréal Vocab Symposium - Getting the Word Out AAAL April ‘07 “Vocab learning in a video game?”

Tom Cobb Université du Québec à Montréal Vocab Colloquium - Getting the Word Out AAAL April ‘07 “Vocab learning in a video game?”

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7 Context (1) While much is known about making vocab learning + growth efficient Little of it has an effect on language learners  Who proceed in largely hit-n-miss fashion

8 Context (2) Word Knowledge has many interlinked facets 1. Meaning(s) 2. Phonological form 3. Orthographic form 4. Syntactic combinability 5. Collocative combinability 6. Procedural (access speed) Initial acquisition points are 1, 2, or 3

9 Context (3) Pop culture  Spelling-bee mania of recent years  Films etc Education culture  Decline of spelling in age of SMS + spell-checker  Obvious impact on writing  Subtle on reading Gaming culture  Gamers target learning market  Some seriously  Huge potential to get research “out”

10 Spelling games - a non -learning approach  Game presents endless streams of unusual words  Exclusive focus on form  Patterns with little generalizability  Words with minimal communicative value  Only big L1 lexicons can play

11 Spelling games - a learning approach  Game words at player growth edge  Spelling patterns generalize  Game skills = language-use skills –Form cued by meaning –Access speed rewarded  Words with communicative value  Any size lexicons can play L2 included

12 Desiderata of a learning approach 1. Entire lexicon scaled by level 2. Game-compatible testing 3. Semantic based cueing 4. Recycling of inputs 5. Incorporate access speed 6. Incorporate social nature of language 7. Provide motivating interactions

13 1. Known lexicon categorized by level From corpus  get frequency list  No problem since 1960s But unlemmatized = unuseful  Except GSL + AWL Make VocabProfile possible Solved by Nation (06)  BNC corpus  14 lemmatized k-lists Cobb (07) carries job up to 20k  The fringe of adult educated lexicon Goulden, Nation & Read

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15  RECENTLY AVAILABLE  100 million word Brit. Nat Corpus (BNC) => 17MB word list 694,807 different word types GAME NEEDS 20 lemmatized lists by k-level …

16  NATION’S WORK  14 lemmatized lists  To drive Vocabprofile program MY WORK EXPAND LISTS TO lemmatized lists by k-level 15,000 16,000 17,000 18,000 19,000 20,000

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25 2. Game compatible level testing Meara et al, Yes/no Checklist  Many words in short time  PNW’s as honesty check PNW’s for other languages  Duyck’s WordGen Website Duyck/wordgen.htmlhttp://users.ugent.be/~wduyck/Wouter%20 Duyck/wordgen.html Some issue of size…

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27 3. Semantic cueing Word meanings integrated As help / reminder As game element From high grade L2-learner dictionary  E.g., Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary (CALD) Whose definitions blend simple language with fairly low frequency words (15k plus)

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29 4. Principled recycling of both hits and misses Classic memory research  Pimsleur et al in psychology  Mondria in L2 Forgetting is rapid at first, then slows  Geometric progression This information can be used to prevent forgetting  Retrieval practice at forget-points Expanding intervals Goal: minimum number of retrievals to LTM

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32 5. Lex access-speed as game component Research shows lexical access can be trained  Snellings, van Gelderen, de Glopper (2002) So, progressively reduce time for game completion  According to power-law algorithm

33 6. Focus on social nature of language learning / use Wireless capacity of DS players  Up to four players  Competition, collaboration…

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35 7. Provide motivation to persist Language consultant provides content + learning theory Game professionals provide game elements  Exploit DS’s potential Sound Stylus Split screen

36 Extension projects Transport game concepts to other languages Transport game concepts to other language interfaces  French ESL learners  Spanish ESL learners  Japanese ESL learners…

37 Further reading Frequency lists –Leech et al, Word Frequencies in Written & Spoken English Lemmatization procedures –Nation 20k as size of adult educated lexicon –Goulding, Nation & Read (1990) Yes-No Test –Buxton & Meara (1987) Spaced recycling –Mondria & Mondria-Wit de Boer (1993) Reaction-time & practice –Snellings, van Geldeen, & de Glopper (2002) Easy and hard spelling –Connor (c.1986), N. Ellis (c.1996), Cognitive processes in spelling

38 Goulden, R., Nation, P., & Read, J.(1990). How large can a receptive vocabulary be? Applied Linguistics 11, Meara, P., & Buxton, B. (1987). An alternative to multiple choice vocabulary tests. Language Testing 4, Nation, P. (2007). How large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening? Canadian Modern Language Review 63 (1), Mondria, J.-A. & Mondria-De Vries, S.(1993). Efficiently memorizing words with the help of word cards and 'hand computer': Theory and applications. System 22, Snellings, P., van Gelderen, A,, & de Glopper, K. (2002). Lexical retrieval: An aspect of fluent second language production that can be enhanced. Language Learning 52 (4),

Stay tuned for upcoming developments…