Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T19:36:59.217Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

List learning of second language vocabulary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Gerry Griffin  and
Trevor A. Harley
Gerry Griffin*
Affiliation:
Bournemouth University
Trevor A. Harley
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
*
Gerry Griffin, Department of Applied Psychology, Bournemouth University, Poole BH12 5BB, England. email: ggriffin@bournemouth.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The learning of second language vocabulary in lists of word pairs is a widespread practice. A basic practical question in this respect is whether it is more effective for nonfluent bilinguals to learn word pairs in first language–second language order (Ll–L2), or vice versa. To date, experimental psychology has not given a clear answer to this question, partly because it has not addressed the relevant issues directly. This article reviews some aspects of psychology that are relevant to L2 vocabulary list learning and reports on an experiment conducted with comprehensive (high) school students, aged 11–13, who were learning French. The experiment examined the presentation of vocabulary items to be learned. It was found that presenting items in L1–L2 order was the more versatile form of presentation if both production and comprehension of L2 items were required on the part of the learner. The theoretical implications of the findings, relating to the structure of the bilingual lexicon, are also discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , October 1996 , pp. 443 - 460
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Arnaud, P., & Bejoint, H. (Eds.). (1992). Vocabulary and applied linguistics. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Asch, S. E. (1968). The doctrinal tyranny of associationism: Or what is wrong with rote learning. In Dixon, T. R. & Horton, D. L. (Eds.), Verbal behavior and general behavior theory (pp. 214–228). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Asch, S. E., & Ebenholtz, S. M. (1962). The principle of associative symmetry. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 106, 135–163.Google Scholar
Bahrick, H. P. (1984). Semantic memory content in permastore: Fifty years of memory for Spanish learned in school. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning General, 113, 1–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bahrick, H. P., Bahrick, L. E., Bahrick, A. S., & Bahrick, P. E. (1993). Maintenance of foreign language vocabulary and the spacing effect. Psychological Science, 4, 316–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bahrick, H. P., & Phelps, E. (1987). Retention of Spanish vocabulary over 8 years. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 13, 344–349.Google Scholar
Battig, W. F. (1979). The flexibility of human memory. In Cermak, L. S. & Craik, F. I. M. (Eds.), Levels of processing in human memory (pp. 23–44). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bialystock, E. (1985). The compatibility of teaching and learning strategies. Applied Linguistics, 6, 255–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bower, G. H. (1972). Mental imagery and associative learning. In Gregg, L. W. (Ed.), Cognition in learning and memory (pp. 51–88). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Bower, G. H., Clark, M. C., Lesgold, A. M., & Winenz, D. (1969). Hierarchical retrieval schemes in recall of categorized word lists. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 8, 323–343.Google Scholar
Carroll, J. B. (1963). Research on teaching foreign languages. In Gage, N. L. (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (pp. 1060–1100). Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Carter, R., & McCarthy, M. (Eds.). (1988). Vocabulary and language teaching. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Cason, H. (1933). Association between the familiar and unfamiliar. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 16, 295–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, H-C. (1992). Lexical processing in bilingual word recognition. In Harris, R. J. (Ed.), Cognitive processing in bilinguals (pp. 253–264). Amsterdam: North Holland.Google Scholar
Cieutat, V. J., Stockwell, F. E., & Noble, C. E. (1958). The interaction of ability and amount of practice with stimulus and response meaningfulness (m, m') in paired-associate learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 56, 193–202.Google Scholar
Clark, H. H. (1973). The language-as-fixed-effect fallacy: A critique of language statistics in psychological research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 12. 335–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craik, F. I. M., & Lockhart, R. S. (1972). Levels of processing: A framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11, 671–684.Google Scholar
Crothers, E., & Suppes, P. (1967). Experiments in second-language learning. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
de Groot, A. M. B. (1993). Word-type effects in bilingual processing tasks: Support for a mixed-representational system. In Schreuder, R. & Weltens, B. (Eds.), The bilingual lexicon (pp.27–51). Amsterdam: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, N., & Beaton, A. (1993a). Factors affecting the learning of foreign language vocabulary: Imagery keyword mediators and phonological short-term memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 46A, 533–558.Google Scholar
Ellis, N., & Beaton, A. (1993b). Psycholinguistic determinants of foreign language vocabulary learning. Language Learning, 43, 559–617.Google Scholar
Eysenck, M. W. (1978). Levels of processing: A critique. British Journal of Psychology, 69, 157–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eysenck, M. W. (1984). A handbook of cognitive psychology. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Glanzer, M. (1962). Grammatical category: A rote learning and word association analysis. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1, 31–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grainger, J. (1993). Visual word recognition in bilinguals. In Schreuder, R. & Weltens, B. (Eds.), The bilingual lexicon (pp. 11–25). Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Heim, A. W., Watts, K. P., Bower, I. B., & Hawton, K. E. (1966). Learning and retention of word-pairs with varying degrees of association. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 18, 193–205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Horowitz, L. M., & Gordon, A. M. (1972). Associative symmetry and second language learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 63, 287–294.Google Scholar
Jacoby, L. L., & Craik, F. I. M. (1979). Effects of elaboration of processing at encoding and retrieval: Trace distinctiveness and recovery of initial context. In Cermak, L. S. & Craik, F. I. M. (Eds.), Levels of processing in human memory (pp. 1–21). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Jenkins, J. J. (1979). Four points to remember: A tetrahedral model of memory experiments. In Cermak, L. S. & Craik, F. I. M. (Eds.), Levels of processing in human memory (pp. 429–446). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbuam.Google Scholar
Johnston, W. A. (1967). S-R, R.S independence and the interference potency of latent R-S associations. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74, 511–516.Google Scholar
Kroll, J. F. (1993). Accessing conceptual representations for words in a second language. In Schreuder, R. & Weltens, B. (Eds.), The bilingual lexicon (pp. 63–81). Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Kroll, J. F., & Sholl, A. (1992). Lexical and conceptual memory in fluent and nonfluent bilinguals. In Harris, R. J. (Ed.), Cognitive processing in bilinguals (pp. 191–204). Amsterdam: North Holland.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lado, R., Baldwin, B., & Lobo, F. (1967). Massive vocabulary expansion in foreign language beyond the basic course: The effects of stimuli, timing, and order of presentation. (Project 5, 1095). United States Office of Education, Bureau of Research.Google Scholar
Mägiste, E. (1979). The competing language systems of the multilingual: A developmental study of decoding and encoding processes. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 18, 79–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKeown, M. C., & Curtis, M. E. (Eds.). (1987). The nature of vocabulary acquisition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Meara, P. (1980). Vocabulary acquisition: A neglected aspect of language learning. Language Teaching and Linguistics: Abstracts, 13, 221–246.Google Scholar
Meara, P. (1983). Vocabulary in a second language. London: CILT.Google Scholar
Meara, P. (1984). The study of lexis in interlanguage: In Davies, A., Criper, C., & Howatt, A. (Eds.), Interlanguage (pp. 225–235). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Meara, P. (1987). Vocabulary in a second language (Vol. 2). London: CILT.Google Scholar
Meara, P. (1993). The bilingual lexicon and the teaching of vocabulary. In Schreuder, R. & Weltens, B. (Eds.), The bilingual lexicon (pp. 279–297). Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Murdock, B. B. (1962). The serial position effect in free recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 64, 482–488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nation, I. S. P. (1982). Beginning to learn foreign vocabulary: A review of the research. RELC Journal, 13, 14–36.Google Scholar
Nation, I. S. P. (1987). Teaching and learning vocabulary (rev. ed.). English Language Institute, Occasional Publication No. 7. Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University.Google Scholar
Nation, I. S. P. (1990). Teaching and learning vocabulary. New York: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Nation, P. (1993). Vocabulary size, growth, and use. In Schreuder, R. & Weltens, B. (Eds.), The bilingual lexicon (pp. 115–134). Amsterdam: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, T. O. (1977). Repetition and depth of processing. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 16, 151–171.Google Scholar
Noble, C. E. (1952). An analysis of meaning. Psychological Review, 59, 421–430.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Noble, C. E., & McNeely, D. A. (1957). The role of meaningfulness (m) in paired-associate verbal learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 53, 16–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paivio, A. (1969). Mental imagery in associative learning and memory. Psychological Review, 76, 241–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paivio, A. (1971). Imagery and verbal processes. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston.Google Scholar
Papagno, C., Valentine, T., & Baddeley, A. (1991). Phonological short-term memory and foreign-language vocabulary learning. Journal of Memory and Language, 30, 331–347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Postman, L. (1962). The effects of language habits on the acquisition and retention of verbal associations. Journal of Experimental Psychology; 64, 7–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Potter, M. C., So, K-F., von Eckhardt, B., & Feldman, L. B. (1984). Lexical and conceptual representation in beginning and more proficient bilinguals. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 23, 23–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodgers, T. S. (1969). On measuring vocabulary difficulty: An analysis of item variables in learning Russian–English vocabulary pairs. IRAL, 7, 327–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, R. A., & Bjork, R. A. (1992). New conceptualizations of practice: Common principles in three paradigms suggest new concepts for training. Psychological Science, 3, 207–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schreuder, R., & Weltens, B. (Eds.). (1993). The bilingual lexicon. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Segal, M. A., & Mandler, G. (1967). Directionality and organizational processes in paired-associate learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74, 305–312.Google Scholar
Service, E. (1992). Phonology, working memory, and foreign-language learning. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 45A, 21–50.Google Scholar
Stahl, S. A., & Fairbanks, M. M. (1986). The effects of vocabulary instruction: A model-based meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 56, 72–110.Google Scholar
Stoddard, G. D. (1929). An experiment in verbal learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 20, 452–457.Google Scholar
Tulving, E. (1968). Theoretical issues in free recall. In Dixon, T. R. & Horton, D. L. (Eds.), Verbal behavior and general behavior theory (pp. 2–36). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Underwood, B. J., & Schulz, R. W. (1960). Meaningfulness and verbal learning. Chicago: Lippincott.Google Scholar
Voss, J. F. (1972). On the relationship of associative and organizational processes. In Tulving, E. & Donaldson, W. (Eds.), Organization of memory (pp. 167–194). New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Voss, J. F. (1979). Organization, structure, and memory: Three perspectives. In Puff, C. R.(Ed.), Memory organization and structure (pp. 375–400). New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Wolford, G. (1971). Function and distinct associations for paired-associate performance. Psychological Review, 78, 303–313.Google Scholar