Different phonological mechanisms facilitate vocabulary learning at early and late stages of language acquisition: Evidence from Polish 9-year-olds learning English

Abstract

To acquire a new word, learners need to create its representation in phonological short-term memory (STM) and then encode it in their long-term memory. Two strategies can enable word representation in STM: universal segmentation and phonological mapping. Universal segmentation is language universal and thus should predict word learning in any language, while phonological mapping is language specific. This study investigates the mechanisms of vocabulary learning through a comparison of vocabulary learning task results in multiple languages. We tested 44 Polish third graders learning English on phonological STM, phonological awareness in Polish and in English, and on three tasks, which involved learning novel word forms in Polish (first language), in English (second language), and in a language that did not resemble any language known to participants (an unknown language). Participants’ English proficiency was controlled through a vocabulary task. The results suggest that word learning engages different mechanisms for familiar and unfamiliar languages. Phonological awareness in English predicted learning second language and unknown language words, and phonological STM predicted learning words of the unknown language. We propose that universal segmentation facilitates word learning only in an unfamiliar language, while in familiar languages speakers use phonological mapping in order to learn new words.

Vocabulary, Metalinguistic Awareness and Language Dominance Among Bilingual Preschool Children

“…Children with poorer phonological awareness learned novel and non-novel words less accurately or more slowly ( Hu and Schuele, 2005 ; Hu, 2008 ). Longitudinally, phonological awareness plays a role when words are relearnt ( Hu, 2003 ) and phonological processing of novel words is based on sublexical representations, which are phonological and unstructured ( Marecka et al, 2018 ).…”

Effects of computerized grapho-phonological training on literacy acquisition and vocabulary knowledge in children with an immigrant background learning German as L2

“…This representation can later be encoded in long-term memory. The efficiency of this process depends on the range and quality of phonological representations already available to the learner (Marecka et al 2018). Studies confirmed that preexisting phonological knowledge supports vocabulary acquisition in L2 learners (Majerus et al 2008;Masoura and Gathercole 2005).…”

“…We may attribute the significant gains in vocabulary to the integration of auditory-phonological and orthographic training. As outlined in the introduction, phonological awareness skills predict vocabulary acquisition in L1 and L2 learners (Kalia et al 2018;Marecka et al 2018), and phonological awareness training fosters word learning in children (de Jong et al 2000; Melby-Lervåg and Hulme 2010). Concerning L2 learners, phonological training boosts the acquisition of long-term phonological knowledge of the L2, e.g., sensitivity for the phoneme structure of words, and for phonemic features and phonotactic regularities that might be non-existent in L1.…”

“…First, studies on categorical speech perception revealed that literacy acquisition improves precision of phoneme boundaries in adults (Serniclaes et al 2005) and children (Burnham 2003;Hoonhorst et al 2011). Second, it has been shown that phonological awareness predicts vocabulary acquisition in L1 and L2 learners (Kalia et al 2018;Marecka et al 2018), and that training of phonological awareness (i.e., blending, deletion, and substitution of phonemes in words) improves later recall of the target words much more than rhyme training or teaching definitions (Melby-Lervåg and Hulme 2010). In addition, training of phonological awareness and letter-sound mappings in preschoolers fosters long-term learning of new, unfamiliar names associated with cuddle toys (de Jong et al 2000).…”

An Ear for Language

“…Given that better segmentation can lead to more efficient encoding of a novel word form (cf. Marecka et al, 2018 for an overview), high sensitivity to ART should make word learning much easier.…”