Helping busy Suzy fight fuzzy in foreign language learning

Refining key concepts of the Ontogenesis Model of the L2 lexical representation

“…3 Fuzzy lexical representations and the optimum Fuzziness and the optimum are two crucial concepts explored in the OM that have been addressed in the previous literature only to a limited degree. Several commentators (Gyllstad 2021;Gass, 2021;Darcy, 2021;Baxter et al, 2021a;Ecke & Hall, 2021;Li & Zhao, 2021;Escudero & Hayes-Harb, 2021;Lemhöfer, 2021;Mishra, 2021;Nicol, 2021;Wolter, 2021;Calabria, 2021) have rightly noted that these concepts need to be elaborated upon, which was not possible in the limited space provided by the keynote. Aware of this, we opted for writing a companion article devoted uniquely to fuzzy lexical representations (FLR) (Gor, Cook, Bordag, Chrabaszcz & Opitz, in press) as part of the research topic Fuzzy Lexical Representations in the Nonnative Mental Lexicon (https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/ 15827/fuzzy-lexical-representations-in-the-nonnative-mentallexicon).…”

“…According to the OM and the FLR hypothesis (Gor et al, in press), the general property of most L2 LRs is their fuzziness, defined as imprecise, ambiguous or low-resolution encoding at one or more of the OM's dimensions. Fuzziness, as a proxy for poor encoding, will have different manifestations depending on its locus, as well as different effects on the LR and its functioning in different networks; accordingly, multiple scenarios need to be entertained (see Baxter et al, 2021a;Ecke & Hall, 2021;Escudero & Hayes-Harb, 2021;Lemhöfer, 2021).…”

“…For example, one ambition of the OM is to be accessible and useful for second language instruction. As pointed out by Baxter, Leoné and Dijkstra (2021a), the OM can serve as a "valuable theoretical underpinning for educational research". For this particular purpose, it is less essential to present considerations of how different aspects of the OM can be computationally implemented; it is more important to synthesise current knowledge for further research that specifies which tasks and teaching methods contribute to the development of which components of lexical representations or to the reduction of fuzziness and moving towards the optimum in each specific dimension or domain.…”

Words in the non-native mind: Developing lexical representations in the L2

“…Several commentators (Darcy, 2022; Ellis, 2022; Escudero & Hayes-Harb, 2022; Gyllstad, 2022; Kroll, Vargas Fuentes & Torres, 2022; Lemhöfer, 2022) praise the Keynote article for bringing together different strands of research on the L2 lexicon that have rarely been considered together before – namely, (i) psycholinguistic studies on L2 word processing and (ii) acquisition studies of L2 word learning. In addition, Baxter, Leoné and Dijkstra (2022) highlight the potential usefulness of the model proposed by Bordag et al as a valuable theoretical underpinning for vocabulary teaching and educational research more generally – a topic the Keynote article briefly mentions. Some non-trivial criticism of the proposed model has also been raised and a number of limitations noted.…”