Browsing by Subject "Vocabulary acquisition"

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    Age and type of instruction (CLIC vs. traditional EFL) in lexical development
    (2016-06-28) Agustín-Llach, María Pilar
    The present paper compares the vocabulary development of a group of CLIL and of traditional EFL learners along three years. The observation that a CLIL approach might provide with larger benefits in the long run vocabulary is the starting point of this study. We had learners in the two groups complete a letter writing task. These writings were then scrutinized for L1 influence in the form of borrowings and lexical creations. The frequency of the words in the letters was also object of analysis. Results revealed that CLIL learners perform slightly better but non-significantly better than traditional EFL along the three years. Furthermore, the evolution of L1 influence and word use also followed an expected improvement pattern as learners went up grade. However, our results do not provide evidence of a growing CLIL advantage with increasing experience. The young age and low proficiency of learners in the present study might be blocking this possible advantage found elsewhere.
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    The Distribution of the Lexical Component in ELT Coursebooks and its Suitability for Vocabulary Acquisition from a Cognitive Perspective. A Case Study
    (Edit.um, 2009) Criado, Raquel; Filología Inglesa
    The psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic perspective of language acquisition requires some essential conditions in vocabulary acquisition: a) repetitive practice, which allows for data to reach long-term memory, and thus become proceduralised and automatised; b) how relevant the lexical items are regarding the communicative needs of the learners insofar as communicative relevance is linked to frequency in general linguistic usage; c) the potential in vocabulary acquisition, which will necessarily relate to the amount of new lexical items introduced in each one of the units in textbook; d) the way words are taught, i.e. whether aimed at explicit or incidental learning. In order to analyse and evaluate these issues, we will study the lexical items presented in a specific textbook from the point of view of frequency, distribution along the manual, opportunities for rehearsal and repetition (which will depend on frequency), and the nature of the activities centred on vocabulary. The results of this case study will allow us to check whether or not they may stand a comparison against the findings of psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic research on vocabulary acquisition