ImplicitandExplicitCognitiveProcesses

inIncidentalVocabularyAcquisition

ANDREAENDERInstituteofMultilingualism,UniversityofFribourg,SwitzerlandE-mail:andrea.ender@unifr.chINTRODUCITION

LITERATUREREVIEW

RESEARCHQUESTIONS

METHODOLOGY

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION

Introduction

DefinitionofIncidentalVocabularyAcquisitionfocustovaryingextentsonthemainpedagogicalactivitybeingundertakenorontheaimofthelearner(Gass1999;ParibakhtandWesche1999).—aim-orientedDefinitionofexplicitvocabularyacquisitiontheexplicitlearningofvocabularyischaracterizedbyselectiveattentionandtheuseofstrategiestodeterminethemeaningsofalexicalunit(Ellis1994:219).●Definitionofimplicitvocabularyacquisition

Implicitvocabularyacquisitionwouldthereforebethetotallyunconsciousandunintentionallearningofnewwordsasaresultofexposuretotheminameaningfulcontext(amoredetaileddiscussionofthevagueterm‘consciousness’inlanguagelearningisgiveninRieder(2003).Lexicalprocessingstrategies

(i)ignorethelexicalitemandcontinuereading(ii)consultadictionaryoranotherindividual(iii)inferthemeaningonthebasisoflinguisticorcontextualcues

Apartfrom‘ignoring’,thesestrategiestakeobviousandexplicitaimatdeterminingtheword’smeaning.guessing/inferringthemeaning(i)fromthecontextandonthebasisoftheirknowledgeoftheworld(extralingualandcontextualcues)(ii)fromassociationsbasedonknowledgeofthetargetlanguage(intralingualcues)(iii)fromassociationswithexistingknowledgeofthelearner’sL1orofaforeignlanguageotherthantheoneunderstudy(interlingualcues).Researchquestions

Howdoesimplicitandexplicitprocessingofnewlexicalitemsdifferintermsoftheretentionorlearningofnewvocabulary,andhowdodifferentformsofexplicitprocessingdifferinthisway?Howfarcanimplicitprocessesbeconsideredsuccessfulfortheexpansionofsecondlanguagevocabulary?MethodologyParticipants24advancedlearners(21F+3M)ofFrenchwhoarenativeGermanspeakers.●Procedure●Analyses

Procedure

Pretestparticipantswereaskedtoreadthroughthetextsandhighlightanywordsandphrasestheydidnotknowin40minutes.Thisprocedurewasintendedtoyieldthenumberofunknownwordsinthetextsonanindividualbasis.Thereading-for-comprehensionexercise(afewdayslater)readthetwotexts—summarizethecontentofparagraphbyparagraph—answerstudyquestions—speaktheirthoughtsoutloudduringthereadingandcomprehensionprocess(wereaudio-recorded)

thesethink-aloudprotocolswereintendedtodocumentthewaytheparticipantscopedwithunknownvocabulary(e.g.ignoringit,consultingadictionary)Thefollow-upvocabularytest(aweeklater)theparticipantsweretestedontheirretentionofthenewwordsandphrases.thestudentswereaskedtodeclaretheirlevelofknowledgeforeachpreviouslyunknownword,usingtheVocabularyKnowledgeScale(VKS)byWescheandParibakht(1996).Analyses

RESULTS

●Relativefrequencyofprocessingstrategies&Effectsofprocessingstrategies●Modelingtheimportanceofimplicitandexplicitprocesses

38﹪39﹪10﹪13﹪Vocabulary-learningscores—thatistheproportionofpreviouslyunknown

wordsforwhichvocabularygrowthwasmanifest,atleastintermsoftherecall

ofameaning—rangedfromeightto59percentfortheindividualparticipants,

withanoverallaverageof27percent(SD=13.25).12%26%56%50%

Lexicalitemsrecalledafterbeinginvolvedinwhatcouldbeconceivedofasanimplicitprocess,however,mostlyreceivedascoreofthree,whichistosay,thelearnerscameupwithanappropriatetranslationequivalent.Incasesofexplicitsearchforameaning,thelearnersattainedsignificantlyhigherretentionscores.

Modelingtheimportanceofimplicitandexplicitprocesses11%27%47%57%inthepresentsample,language-basedinferencestrategiesarealessfrequentbutmoreefficientprocessforlearningthansense-creationbasedonworldknowledgeandcontext.

Inall,thelearnersinthepresentstudydonotbehaveasactiveguessers,eventhoughtheiranswerstothestrategyinventorybyOxford(1990),reportingtheir

strategicbehaviour,identifiedthemasstrategy-experiencedlearners(Ender

2007:127).

DISCUSSIONLimitations

whetherthebeneficialeffectoflinguisticcuesisthesameforbothinter-andintralingualcueswhetherthereisanimportantdistinctionbetweenassociationswithinthetargetlanguagesystemontheonehandand,ontheother,associationswiththelearner’sfirstlanguageand/orpossiblyalsowithotherforeignlanguagesinthelearner’srepertoire.thestrategiesappliedherereflecttheclassroombehaviourofthesespecific(mostlyfemale)learners,andothergroupsoflearners—forexample,inanaturalisticlearningsituationorinotherreadingcontextssuchasleisurereading—mayreactdifferently.

CONCLUSIONIthasrevealedthatincidentalvocabularyacquisitioncanresultfrombothimplicitandexplicitcognitiveprocesses.Explicitprocessingmethodssuchasconsultingadictionary,inferringthemeaningbasedondifferentassociations(interlingual,intralingual,extralin-gual,andcontextual),oracombinationofthesetwoapproachesaremorepromisingforlearning.Eventhoughtheeffectfromimplicitprocessesislimited,itisnotnegligible.Infe