Is Vocabulary Knowledge Sufficient for Word-Meaning Inference? An Investigation of the Role of Morphological Awareness in Adult L2 Learners of Chinese

Ke, Sihui; Koda, Keiko

doi:10.1093/applin/amx040

Cited by 57 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…It is unclear whether this accuracy interference reflects differences in non-dominant language proficiency, the context/age of the language learning experience, or simply the challenges associated with acquiring Mandarin literacy skills as dominant English speakers/readers (e.g. Ke and Koda, 2017). We are in the process of collecting translation recognition data from lower proficiency, non-heritage Mandarin learners to clarify this latter point.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language proficiency is only part of the story: Lexical access in heritage and non-heritage bilinguals

Wiener

Tokowicz

2019

Second Language Research

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This study examined how language proficiency and age of acquisition affect a bilingual language user’s reliance on the dominant language during lexical access. Two bilingual groups performed a translation recognition task: Mandarin–English classroom bilinguals who acquired their dominant language (Mandarin) from birth and their non-dominant language (English) post-puberty through formal classroom instruction, and Mandarin–English heritage bilinguals who acquired their non-dominant language (Mandarin) at home from birth but became more dominant in another language (English) through society and peers. Participants decided whether word pairs were correct translations as quickly and accurately as possible. Critical trials involved correct translations (e.g. 房东 – landlord) and incorrect translations that were related to the correct translation in meaning (e.g. 房东 – rent) or form (e.g. 房东 – lantern). When identifying correct translations, lower proficiency heritage bilinguals were slower and less accurate than higher proficiency classroom bilinguals. Yet, when rejecting incorrect translations, heritage bilinguals demonstrated a greater magnitude of semantically-related interference than classroom bilinguals. Heritage bilinguals additionally demonstrated small but measurable amounts of form-related interference whereas the classroom bilinguals did not. Heritage bilinguals thus showed unique patterns of lexical access distinct from bilinguals who acquired their non-dominant language at a later age in a classroom setting.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language proficiency is only part of the story: Lexical access in heritage and non-heritage bilinguals

Wiener

Tokowicz

2019

Second Language Research

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“…As shown in the example below, of the two multicharacter words that share the initial character 非/fēi/, the former represents a monomorphemic word (非常, /fēicháng/,), while the latter corresponds to an affixed word (非-正式, /fēi-zhèngshì/, "in-formal"). Moreover, MA correlates highly with vocabulary knowledge because MA includes knowledge of morpheme functions, which makes it difficult to distinguish the two constructs and casts doubt on the validity of MA measurement (Ke & Koda, 2019;D. Liu, McBride-Chang, Wong, Shu, & Wong, 2013).…”

Section: Defining and Measuring Ma In Chinesementioning

confidence: 99%

Transfer facilitation effects of morphological awareness on multicharacter word reading in Chinese as a foreign language

Koda

2021

Applied Psycholinguistics

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This study examined the transfer facilitation effects from English morphological awareness on Chinese multicharacter word reading in English-speaking adult learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). Fifty English-speaking American university CFL learners participated in our study who measured their English morphological awareness, Chinese morphological awareness, Chinese linguistic knowledge, Chinese word reading, and working memory. There were three major findings: (1) with approximately three years of formal Chinese instruction and limited Chinese print input, English-speaking adult learners of Chinese developed sensitivity to the internal morphological structure of multicharacter words in Chinese. (2) English morphological awareness did not directly contribute to Chinese bimorphemic three-character pseudoword reading yet contributed indirectly via the joint serial mediation by Chinese morphological awareness and Chinese monomorphemic two-character real word reading. (3) There was no additional influence from Chinese linguistic knowledge on Chinese word reading. And, English morphological awareness explained about 3.64% of the variance in second language Chinese bimorphemic three-character pseudoword reading. Discussion is provided regarding the transfer facilitation mechanism through which first language morphological awareness contributes to adult second language reading acquisition.

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“…With respect to linguistic knowledge, L2 researchers have found that internal lexical representations (i.e., readers' knowledge about phonological, orthographical and morphological information about the word in question), as well as knowledge of syntactical and semantic relations among words and discourse knowledge, play a significant role in the inference of word meaning (e.g., de Bot, Paribakht, & Wesche, 1997;Haynes, 1993;Ke & Koda, 2019;Paribakht & Wesche, 1999). Decoding accuracy appears to be associated with word meaning inference in L2 as well (Prior et al, 2014).…”

Section: Knowledge and Strategies To Infer And Construct Word Meaning In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ability of young learners to construct word meaning in context

Butler¹

2020

10.14746/ssllt

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This study examines young English readers’ ability to infer word meanings in context and to use metacognitive knowledge for constructing word meanings in relation to their reading performance. The participants were 61 fourth-grade students in the United States, comprising 24 monolingual English-speaking (ME) students and 37 English-as-a-second-language (L2) students; each group was also divided into strong and emergent readers in English. Participants were asked to read aloud paragraphs containing words unfamiliar to them in two different contextual conditions (i.e., explicit and implicit conditions), to guess the unfamiliar word meanings, and to tell a teacher how they arrived at the inferred meanings. Quantitative analyses found significant differences between strong and emergent readers in their oral fluency as well as in their ability to infer word meanings and articulate their use of metacognitive knowledge. Although significant differences were found in the ability to infer word meanings and the use of metacognitive reasoning between ME and L2 students, such differences disappeared after controlling for the size of students’ receptive vocabulary. Qualitative analyses also revealed differences in the kinds of knowledge and strategies that strong and emergent readers relied on when constructing the meaning of unknown words in both explicit and implicit contexts.

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Is Vocabulary Knowledge Sufficient for Word-Meaning Inference? An Investigation of the Role of Morphological Awareness in Adult L2 Learners of Chinese

Cited by 57 publications

References 41 publications

Language proficiency is only part of the story: Lexical access in heritage and non-heritage bilinguals

Language proficiency is only part of the story: Lexical access in heritage and non-heritage bilinguals

Transfer facilitation effects of morphological awareness on multicharacter word reading in Chinese as a foreign language

The ability of young learners to construct word meaning in context

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