Julie Deconinck

‘Does the form of this word fit its meaning?’ The effect of learner-generated mapping elaborations on L2 word recall:

If known words can be defined psycholinguistically as ‘form–meaning mappings’, the present article investigates whether prompting learners to evaluate whether the form of a new second language (L2) word fits its meaning generates ‘mapping elaborations’ that aid recall. Thirty Dutch-speaking upper-intermediate learners of English were invited to rate and motivate the degree of congruency they perceived between the form and meaning of 14 novel L2 words. Their ability to recall the form and the meaning of the target words was measured in an unannounced post-test. Recall was found to be positively related to the number of learner-generated mapping elaborations triggered by the task. Elaborations of a sound–symbolic nature appeared particularly useful for rendering the form of new words memorable.

Does copying idioms promote their recall

This paper reports an experiment designed to evaluate an attempt to improve the effectiveness of an existing L2 idiom-learning tool. In this tool, learners are helped to associate the abstract, idiomatic meaning of expressions such as jump the gun (act too soon) with their original, concrete meaning (e.g. associating jump the gun with the scene of a track athlete who starts running before the starting pistol is fired). This association lends concreteness to target lexis, which is known to facilitate learning (Paivio, A., & Desrochers, A. (1979). Effects of an imagery mnemonic on second language recall and comprehension. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 33, 17–28). It is a mental operation that orients the learner first and foremost to the semantic dimension of the expression, however. It does not as such engage the learner with formal properties of the expression, such as its orthography. In an effort to stimulate the latter engagement, a copy exercise was incorporated in the learning procedure. The merit of this additional exercise was evaluated by having one group of students (N= 21) study 25 idioms according to the new procedure, while a comparison group (N= 21) was given an additional meaning-oriented task instead. Recall by the two groups was compared immediately and two weeks after the treatment by means of a gap-fill test. The copy exercise was not found to promote better recall, a result we discuss with reference to levels of processing theory (Lockhart, R.S., & Craik, F.I.G. (1990). Levels of processing: A retrospective commentary on a framework for memory research. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 44, 87–112).

Metalinguistic awareness in L2 vocabulary acquisition: which factors influence learners’ motivations of form-meaning connections?

ABSTRACT Research has shown that prompting learners to elaborate on the appropriateness of form-meaning links can be an efficient vocabulary learning exercise (Deconinck, Boers & Eyckmans, 2017). In this paper we wish to shed more light on the mental processes that occur during this specific elaborative task by investigating the influence of individual learner variables pertaining to prior linguistic knowledge and a number of word-specific features. To this end fifty Dutch-speaking EFL learners rated the congruency they perceived between the form and meaning of 24 English words on a 6-point Likert scale. The motivation of their scores was elicited by means of a think-aloud protocol, the transcriptions of which were analysed with regard to the type of elaborations made. Vocabulary size tests and a language background questionnaire provided us with additional information about the learners. We identified five types of elaborations: cross-lexical associations, sound-symbolic associations, word-form comparisons, morphological associations, and idiosyncratic associations. The data also reveal that the individual learner variables and word-specific features examined in the present study have an influence on the number of elaborations made by the learners. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Language learning motivation and projected desire: an interview study with parents of young language learners

ABSTRACT Recent studies on language learning motivation have foregrounded notions of identity formation and self-fulfilment. This paper takes two different theoretical frameworks as points of departure (Dörnyei’s ‘L2 Motivational Self System’ and Kramsch’s ‘desire in language’), but it looks at the motivation/desire of the parents of young language learners, rather than at the learners themselves. Based on in-depth interviews about language and identity with nine parents of various linguistic and social backgrounds in Brussels (Belgium), the data reveal that these parents frequently had vivid mental images of what their multilingual children could achieve in the future (in contrast to their own ‘monolingual’ achievements). Additionally, they imagined their children having future access to a range of identity options thanks to this multilingual education. In this way, we show that ‘desire in language’ is not limited to the construction of an inwardly generated identity; it can also be projected outwardly onto other individuals, in this case by parents onto their children.