Using psycholinguistic measures to research vocabulary:

Evidence from reaction time (RT) and

eye-tracking

Ana Pellicer-SánchezUniversity of Nottingham

Theory and Practice in Vocabulary Learning and TeachingUniversity of Reading

20th January 2012

Key issues

•Importance of vocabulary knowledge

•Need to master high number of words

•What do we need to know about words?

Multiple Aspects of Vocabulary

Knowledge

Aspects of Lexical Knowledge

USE

MEANING

FORMwrittenspokenword parts

form & meaningconcept & referents

grammatical functionscollocationsregister/frequency

associations

Fluency & Automaticity

(Nation, 2001)

Aspects of Lexical Knowledge Continuum of mastery

No knowledge Complete Mastery

Automaticity

Very slow

Very fast

Study 1 and Study 2

“Acquisition of automaticity and speed of lexical access in the language

classroom”

Studies 1 & 2- Aims

•Can automaticity and speed of lexical access benefit from classroom instruction?

and if so,

• Which teaching approach is more beneficial?

•Two main teaching and learning approaches:

• Implicit/Incidental learning:“Incidental learning can occur when one is using

language for communicative purposes” (Schmitt, 2000:120).

▫Explicit/Intentional learning: “Explicit learning focuses attention directly on

the information to be learned” (Schmitt, 2000:120).

Studies 1 & 3- Methodology

Studies 1 & 2- Methodology

•Participants: 20/21 students of Spanish as a FL •Structure:

Test 1

Test 2

Treatment

Week 1 Weeks 2 & 3 1 month later

Studies 1 & 2- Methodology

• Tests:- E-Prime software - Yes-no decision- Meaning-form link- RTs recorded- Instructions + Practice session + Test- Target and control words

Studies 1 & 2- Methodology

•STUDY 1: - Two sessions - Incidental approach - Exposure through reading for comprehension•STUDY 2: - Two sessions - Explicit/Engaged approach - Exposure through vocabulary activities

Studies 1 & 2- RTs Pre-test

Post-test

jefe jefe

RT1 = 850 ms

RT2 = 780 ms

Two measures: 1) Raw RT2) Coefficient of Variation (CV)= M/SD

(Segalowitz & Segalowitz, 1993)

Studies 1 & 2: Main findings

•Acquisition of declarative knowledge from both approaches.

•Advantage of the explicit approach. •Automaticity of vocabulary knowledge can be

acquired in the language classroom.

•It might need more explicit, focused exposure.•No significant effect of the number of repetitions

in the acquisition of automaticity and speed of lexical access.

Study 3

“Acquiring automaticity and speed of lexical processing in reading”

1) What happens when L2 learners encounter new words while reading? How are new words read?

2) How many times do L2 learners need to read a new word before showing a more fluent and automatic reading?

Study 3- Aims

•Participants: 15 non-natives speakers of English 7 males, 8 females Ages: from 21 to 32 years old (M= 25.5) Variety of L1s: Portuguese, Spanish, Greek, Chinese,

Hindi, Lithuania, Polish, Romanian. PG students Self-rated reading abilities ≥ 8 (10-point scale)

Study 3- Methodology

•Structure:

Reading Activity + post-reading assessment

•Materials: Reading text:

▫Short story

▫2,298 words

▫High-frequency vocabulary (3k from the

BNC)

Study 3- Methodology

Study 3- Methodology

Nonword Meaning/ Word replaced N Repetitions

1. holter house (1k); shelter (3k) 8

2. berrow bowl (2k) 8

3. bancel criminal/ prisoner (2k) 8

4. cambul ring (1k) 8

5. twoser noise (2k) 8

6. soters clothes (1k) 8

• Target vocabulary:

• Instruments:▫Eye tracker: Eyelink I▫Calibration (at the

beginning and half way

through the experiment)▫Practice session▫Experimental session

(25 screens)▫Comprehension Questions▫Post-tests ▫Less than 1 hour

Study 3- Apparatus and Procedure

Part 1-Form recognition test:

Study 3-Instruments

Uncerta

ina) ackol b) acklon c) hacklon d) hackol 1 2 3 4

1. a) hotler b) holter c) houter d) houler 1 2 3 4

2. a) twoser b) twonse c) twiser d) twines 1 2 3 4

…

Example:

Part 2-Meaning Recall test: InterviewsPart 3-Meaning Recognition test:

1) holter   a) basement b) workhouse 1 2 3 4 c) prison d) food hall e) I don’t know. 

2) cambul a) picture b) plate 1 2 3 4 c) window d) ring e) I don’t know   

Study 3-Instruments

Part 4-Reading strategies Interviews

1) First fixation duration = 32) First pass reading time = 3 + 43) Fixation count= 3 fixations4) Total reading time = 3+4+6

Study 3-Eye-tracking measures

1 2 3 4

56

7 8 9 10 11

Study 3- Declarative knowledge (Preliminary results)

**

Form recognition Meaning recall Meaning recognition0

1

2

3

4

5

6

5.4(90%)

3.8(63%)

5(83%)

Series1

**** p< .001

Rep 1 Rep 2 Rep 3 Rep 4 Rep 5 Rep 6 Rep 7 Rep 80

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

First Fixation Dur-ation

First Pass Reading Time

Total Reading Time

**p ≤ .001

**

Study 3- Eye-movements (Preliminary results)

**

Study 3- Results (Preliminary results)

Rep 1 Rep 2 Rep 3 Rep 4 Rep 5 Rep 6 Rep 7 Rep 80

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

N Fixati...

**

**p ≤ .001

Study 3- Conclusion

•Effectiveness of reading for incidental acquisition of multiple components of vocabulary knowledge.

•Acquisition of fluency of reading: Significant effect of the N of repetitions for

unknown words (not for controls) 3-5 repetitions.

Similarity to known words by 8 repetitions.

General conclusion•Studies 1 & 2:

- Automaticity and speed of lexical access can benefit from classroom instruction.

- It might take more explicit exposure- No effect of frequency of exposure.

•Study 3:- Automaticity, fluency, and speed of learners’

reading of new vocabulary can be acquired incidentally from repeated exposure.

- Significant effect after 3-5 repetitions. •Measures of RT and eye-tracking are effective means of

measuring vocabulary acquisition.

References• Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in

another language. Cambridge: University Press. • Schmitt, N. (2000). Vocabulary in language teaching.

Cambridge: University Press. • Segalowitz, N., & Segalowitz, S. (1993). Skilled

performance, practice, and the differentiation of speed-up from automatization effects: Evidence from second language word recognition. Applied Psycholinguistics, 14 (3), 369-385.

• Pellicer-Sánchez, A. & Schmitt, N. (2010). Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition from an Authentic Novel: Do things fall apart? Reading in a Foreign Language, 22(1), 31-55.

• Webb, S. (2007). The effects of repetition on vocabulary knowledge. Applied Linguistics, 28,46–65.