Learning a Foreign Language: the Role of Native Vocabulary Knowledge - Essay Example

The Role of Gender in the Acquisition of First Language Vocabulary” Annotated bibliography: Koenig, M & Woodward, A.L. (2012). “Toddlers learn words in a foreign language: the role of native vocabulary knowledge”, journal of child language, 39 (2012), pp 322- 337. The article examines ability of monolingual English-speaking toddlers to learn word-referent links from Dutch and English speakers. The research used a sample of 50 from Chicago area from predominantly English-speaking families, but sample was 64 percent Caucasion, 22 African American, 8 percent Hispanic and 6 percent Asian. Children with high vocabularies performed more accurately than children with low vocabularies and proficient monolingual English learners can learn words from foreign speakers, but infants have a social preference for speaker of their native language. The article concludes that children performed better in English than Dutch condition thus suggesting that monolingual toddlers with proficiency in native language are capable of learning words outside the conventional system and are sensitive to boundaries that exist between languages. I felt interested in this article since it offered a comprehensive and controlled research that provided insights on mechanisms of learning foreign language. I believe the article will be useful in understanding whether children who stay closer to their mothers develop better vocabulary. However, the article suffers a limitation since it does not identify the gender and age is a factor in vocabulary learning. Szagun, G., Stumper, B., Sondag, N & Franik, M. (2007). “The acquisition of gender marking by young German-speaking children: evidence from learning guided by phonological regularities”, Journal of child language, 34 (2007), pp 445-471. This comprehensive research article examined the acquisition of nouns by a sample of 21 young German-speaking children. The research investigated whether gender and age are factors that determine development of first language vocabulary. The authors attempted to investigate whether young children use phonological regularities of noun structure after acquiring noun gender. The article clarifies that phonological patterns guide in noun gender acquisition and errors are systematic. The data analysis was based on 22 two hourly speech samples per child from 6 children aged between 1;4 and 3; 8 and on 5 two-hourly speech samples per child from the remaining 15 children aged between 1 ; 4 and 2 ; 10. Everything spoken by the child was transcribed using Childes and Cohen’s kappa indicated good agreement between coders. The findings indicated that masculine errors were more frequent than feminine errors. The error rate dropped by 10 percent around 3 years thus indicating age may be a factor in vocabulary development amongst different gender in the society. I felt interested in the article since the research methodology, design and data collection caters for age factor and gender differences in acquisition of first language. The research use numerous speech samples and five transcribers thus improving reliability of the findings. The correct gender marking was associated with adult frequency of the noun and research concludes that young children are sensitive to patterns of regularity and recurrent phonological patterns in nouns. I believe the article will be useful in investigating if age in the vocabulary development amongst different gender in the society is a factor and influence of the length of stay with mothers on vocabulary development. Marchman, V.A., Fernald, A & Hurtado, N. (2010). “How vocabulary size in two languages relates to efficiency in spoken word recognition by young Spanish-English bilinguals”, Journal of Child language, Vol 37 (2010), pp 817-840. The authors examine the speech processing efficiency in relation to speech development in Spanish and English bilingual children. The authors assert that English learners at age of 2 ; 1 demonstrated faster lexical processing and vocabulary growth in the second year. The article claims that Latino children whose mothers produced more talk at the age of 1 ; 6 of those children showed more productive vocabularies. The authors assert that more exposures are necessary in form-meaning mappings in supporting lexical access thus suggesting thus making the article useful in understanding if stay with mothers influences vocabulary acquisition. The article uses a sample of 26 children aged 2; 5 to 2 ; 10. The research used measures such as language background interviews by bilingual research assistant, vocabulary assessment and spoken language understanding. The article concludes that Spanish vocabulary size is uncorrelated with English and efficiency of online processing is related to the size of the vocabulary in the particular language. I was interested in the article since is suggests that efficient real-time language use support language learning. The article is useful in understanding whether young bilingual learners demonstrate differences in language acquisition than monolinguals and impact of stay with mothers on the proficiency of language development. Mariscal, S. (2009). “Early acquisition of gender agreement in the Spanish noun phrase: starting small*”, Journla of Child language, vol 36 (2009), pp 143-171. The research article examined the process of acquisition of grammatical system, gender agreement in Spanish noun phrase in children under 3 years of age. The authors try to determine the adequacy of constructivist approach to (L1) grammar acquisition that account for gender agreement in Spanish. The authors assert that many adjectives demonstrate gender agreement by same endings found in nouns (-0 and –a). The research is useful since it points out that article acquisition is complete by the age of three years in French and Spanish speaking children. Children acquiring Spanish as second language display more gender agreement errors. The research utilized four middle-class Spanish children (two boys and two girls) with ages starting 1 ; 10 and 2 ; 01 in Madrid. The research visited the children twice a week for a month and made nine recordings using a wireless microphone. The research concluded there is a consistency with constructivist approaches in grammarical acquisition by children and there is an influence in acquisition of language nouns. The findings indicate decline in determiner omissions precedes gender morphology acquisition. The findings conclude that language acquisition is gradual as children integrate phonological, distributional and functional evidence and establish more regularities between them. I was interested in the article since I believe it provides clear research on the process of language acquisition. Although the research includes both genders, I believe the sample is too small and the findings more not be a representative of the population of the Spanish-speaking children. However, I believe the research will be useful in understanding whether female firstborn develop better vocabulary in early stages as compared to male genders and whether children who close to their mothers develop better vocabulary. The article will provide evidence on variations of gender language acquisition and semantics. Tabatabaei, O & Hejazi, N.H. (2011). “Gender differences in vocabulary instruction in using keyword method (linguistic Mnemonics)”, Journal of Canadian social science, Vol 7, No 5, 2011, pp 198-204. The article examines differences between the improvement of vocabulary acquisition of Iranian EFL male and female learners using linguistic Mnemonics. The research was aimed at determining whether keyword method improves Iranian female intermediate EFL learners’ vocabulary learning and any significant differences between male and female learners. The authors claim that gender is factor in utilizing strategies to learn foreign language. The research used a representative sample of 38 male and 39 female students of between 18-24 years of age with 7 years experience in English learning. The research is reliable since it includes both an experimental and control group for both male and female learners and relies on the Oxford Placement Test to select the participants from a population and 5- point Likert scale for the 20-item questionnaires. The questionnaire were reliable and approved by English experts. The results of the study point out that experimental group that received vocabulary instruction through keyword method outperformed the control group that did not receive vocabulary instruction using the method. However, the researchers did not identify any significant differences in improvement of between male and female intermediate EFL learners in vocabulary learning through the method. However, the gender differences were evident in the immediate posttest scores for experimental groups as females performed better than male counterparts thus suggesting differences of the effectiveness of the method between the two genders. I felt extremely interested in the article since the results offer useful data for understanding gender differences in vocabulary learning. I believe the research will be vital in understanding whether gender is a factor in vocabulary learning as there was significant differences in the male and female gender posttest results of the experimental groups. I agree with the research that the instruction method will influence the vocabulary learning and gender differences may be present due to exposure. Karrass, J., Mullins, B.J & Lefever, J.B. (2002). “Processes in language acquisition: the role of gender, attention, and maternal encouragement of attention over time”, Journal of child language, vol 29 (2002), pp 519-543. The main purpose of the research article was to examine the association between infant temperamental attention, maternal encouragement of attention and the infant’s language development and any effects of gender on the associations. The authors assert that maternal encourage facilitates language learning and gender differences exist since girls tend to outperform boys as maternal interactions exist between boys and girls. The research study utilised 87 full-term infants, both male and female from predominantly white middle-clas homes. Mothers and infants attended 1 and half to two hours laboratory assessments and mothers were asked to complete data on each assessment. The mothers filled Infant behaviour questionnaire (IBQ) at different ages to rate behavioural tendencies and maternal encouragement of attention was coded in videotapes from 5-minute mother-child free play at scales of 1 to 5. The findings indicate that manipulative exploration at 0 ; 4, maternal physical attention encouragement at age 0 ; 4 and maternal verbal encouragement at age 1 ; 0 were the strongest predictors of early language abilities. The results agree with past research that gender, infant attention and maternal encouragement encourage vocabulary learning. For girls, temperamental attention at ages 0; 8 and 1; 0 predicted later language skills and girls scored higher than boys at that age. Although the researchers acknowledged numerous errors and distractions such as infant fussiness, sleepiness and camera malfunction, the results are useful in understanding gender differences in first language learning. I felt deeply interested in the article due to its ability to outline gender differences and age differences in language learning. I agree with the authors that infant development influenced by social environment and mother behaviour facilitates language learning. Infants with high temperamental attention show advanced language skills in early childhood. I agree with the article that maternal stimulation through verbal direction facilitates latter language comprehension and development. I believe the article is extremely useful in undertaking this research. Bordag, D., Opitz, A & Pechmann, T. (2006). “Gender processing in First and Second languages” the role of noun termination”, Journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory and cognition, 2006, vol 32, No. 5, pp 1090- 1101. The article examines how phonological form of a word, especially the termination affects gender processing in monolinguals and unbalanced bilinguals speaking German language. The results indicated no significant differences in gender for native German speakers, but significant evidence that L2 word’s termination plays role in L2 gender processing. The research tested 18 German native speakers between 21 and 36 years and participants rated how each of the 58 pictures was depicted in a noun. The findings show differences in L1 and L2 gender processing between L2 and L1 speakers of German and no differences in gender typical and gender atypical nouns in L1. In terms of reaction time, L2 German speaker demonstrated few difficulties in gender-marked nouns and more difficulties in atypical gender marked nouns. The findings indicate a transition from a system that depends on computation to a system depended on fixed storage of the grammatical features like gender. Further children and bilinguals have shorter experience and less exposure compared to adult L1 speakers thus more sensitive to phonological form of a noun. I was interested in the article since it offers significant information on gender information processing and impact of gender on the language learning. I believe the article will be useful in determining whether influence the rate of language learning and development. Henrichs, J., Rescorla, L., Schenk,J.J., Schmidt, H.G., Jaddoe, V.W., Hofman, A., Raat, H., Verhulst, F.C & Tiemeier, H. (2010). “Examining continuity of early expressive vocabulary development: the generation R study”, (Published online Oct 21, 2010), DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2010/09-0255). The article examines continuity and discontinuity of vocabulary skills in a population-based cohort in Netherlands. The article has identified that child factors, environmental factors and biological factors will determine language development in children. The research methodology entailed mothers of 3,759 children who completed MacArthur Short Form vocabulary checklist at 18 months and subsequent Dutch translation of the Language development survey at 30 months. The findings indicated that 85.2 percent of children had normal vocabulary development and word production at 18 months explained 11.5 percent vof the variance in 30 month vocabulary scores. The age, low birth weight, gender and parental stress accounted for the other 6.2 percent. I was much interested in this source since it offers insights on the impact of biological, environment and child factors in predicting language development at different ages. The article also identifies birth position as one of the child factors that may determine language development thus making it more relevant to this research study. The sample is high thus increasing reliability and internal consistency is high thus increasing the accuracy of the findings. Huttenlocher, J., Haight, W., Bryk, A., Seltzer, M & lyons, T. (1991). “Early vocabulary growth: relation to language input and gender”, Journal of American psychological association, vol 27, No 2, pp 236-248. The research study aims to examine the role of exposure to speech in childrens; early vocabulary growth. I agree with the authors that early childhood entails rapid linguistic development until 24 months after which growth follows a linear pattern until six years. The authors explore the hereditary and environment factors that influence language growth and impact of gender on the capacity to learn. The researchers assert that mothers speak more to girls than boys and interaction with human adults lead to faster language acquisition. The research utilized full-time caregivers and 11 children (5 girls and 6 boys) between 14 and 16 months. Although the sample is small, I believe the research is useful in understanding the effects of parental exposure especially to mothers and gender on language learning. I felt interested in the article since it offers clear information on how parental exposure influences child’s language acquisition through utterances of the mother. I believe the research follows a longitudinal research design that is helpful in understanding language development over the period of the study. The article is critical in the current research and will enable me understand whether stay will mothers influences language acquisition. Tan, T.X., Loker, T., Dedrick, R.F & Marfo, K. (2012). “Second-first language acquisition: analysis of expressive language skills in a sample of girls from China”, Journal of Child language, Vol 39 (2012), pp 365-382. The article investigates adopted Chinese girl’s expressive English languages in relation to their age of adoption, length of exposure to English and chronological age. The researchers assert that learning English is essential in post-adoption adjustment and skills in the first language will vary depending on the age of adoption. The research aimed at understanding the nature of relationship between the adopted Chinese girls’ expressive English skills and adoption age and the length of exposure to English. The research made a comparison with similar sample of girls in the US. The research methods focused on 318 girls between 18-35 months collected from adoptive mothers in US and Canada. The findings indicated a negative correlation between vocabulary and mean length of phrase scores with adoption age, but positively correlated with the length of English exposure and chronological age. Developmental risk status at adoption time was not related with language outcomes. The results showed significant gaps in expressive language of the same-age girls in the US normative sample at 18-23 months, but the gap closed for 30-35 months. I was much interested in the article since it makes a comparison with US normative sample and caters for the length of exposure to English language. I believe the source is critical since it has eliminated the impact of gender and will help understanding the impact of age and exposure to English on language acquisition. Read More