Computer assisted second language vocabulary acquisition

Abstract

During the initial stages of instructed L2 acquisition students learn a couple thousand, mainly high frequency words.Functional language proficiency, however, requires mastery of a considerably larger number of words.It is therefore necessary at the intermediate and advanced stages of language acquisition to learn a large vocabulary in a short period of time.There is not enough time to copy the natural (largely incidental) L1 word acquisition process.Incidental acquisition of the words is only possible up to a point, because, on account of their low frequency, they do not occur often enough in the L2 learning material.Acquisition of new words from authentic L2 reading texts by means of strategies such as contextual deduction is also not a solution for a number of reasons.There appears to be no alternative to intentional learning of a great many new words in a relatively short period of time.The words to be learned may be presented in isolation or in context.Presentation in bilingual word lists seems an attractive shortcut because it takes less time than contextual presentation and yields excellent short term results.Long term retention, however, is often disappointing so contextual presentation seems advisable.Any suggestions how to implement this in pedagogic contexts should be based on a systematic analysis of the two most important aspects of the L2 word learning problem, that is to say, selecting the relevant vocabulary (which and how many words) and creating optimal conditions for the acquisition process.This article sets out to describe a computer assisted word acquisition programme (CAVOCA) which tries to do precisely this: the programme operationalises current theoretical thinking about word acquisition, and its contents are based on a systematic inventory of the vocabulary relevant for the target group.To establish its efficiency, the programme was contrasted in a number of experimental settings with a paired associates method of learning new words.The experimental results suggest that an approach combining the two methods is most advisable.

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