Tom Salsbury

Predicting Lexical Proficiency in Language Learner Texts Using Computational Indices.

The authors present a model of lexical proficiency based on lexical indices related to vocabulary size, depth of lexical knowledge, and accessibility to core lexical items. The lexical indices used in this study come from the computational tool Coh-Metrix and include word length scores, lexical diversity values, word frequency counts, hypernymy values, polysemy values, semantic co-referentiality, word meaningfulness, word concreteness, word imagability, and word familiarity. Human raters evaluated a corpus of 240 written texts using a standardized rubric of lexical proficiency. To ensure a variety of text levels, the corpus comprised 60 texts each from beginning, intermediate, and advanced second language (L2) adult English learners. The L2 texts were collected longitudinally from 10 English learners. In addition, 60 texts from native English speakers were collected. The holistic scores from the trained human raters were then correlated to a variety of lexical indices. The researchers found that lexical diversity, word hypernymy values and content word frequency explain 44% of the variance of the human evaluations of lexical proficiency in the examined writing samples. The findings represent an important step in the development of a model of lexical proficiency that incorporates both vocabulary size and depth of lexical knowledge features.

Predicting the proficiency level of language learners using lexical indices

This study explores how second language (L2) texts written by learners at various proficiency levels can be classified using computational indices that characterize lexical competence. For this study, 100 writing samples taken from 100 L2 learners were analyzed using lexical indices reported by the computational tool Coh-Metrix. The L2 writing samples were categorized into beginning, intermediate, and advanced groupings based on the TOEFL and ACT ESL Compass scores of the writer. A discriminant function analysis was used to predict the level categorization of the texts using lexical indices related to breadth of lexical knowledge (word frequency, lexical diversity), depth of lexical knowledge (hypernymy, polysemy, semantic co-referentiality, and word meaningfulness), and access to core lexical items (word concreteness, familiarity, and imagability). The strongest predictors of an individual’s proficiency level were word imagability, word frequency, lexical diversity, and word familiarity. In total, the indices correctly classified 70% of the texts based on proficiency level in both a training and a test set. The authors argue for the applicability of a statistical model as a method to investigate lexical competence across language levels, as a method to assess L2 lexical development, and as a method to classify L2 proficiency.

Psycholinguistic word information in second language oral discourse

This study uses word information scores from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Psycholinguistic Database to analyse word development in the spontaneous speech data of six adult learners of English as a second language (L2) in a one-year longitudinal study. In contrast to broad measures of lexical development, such as word frequency and lexical diversity, this study analyses L2 learners’ depth of word knowledge as measured by psycholinguistic values for concreteness, imagability, meaningfulness, and familiarity. Repeated measure ANOVAs yielded significant differences over time for concreteness, imagability, and meaningfulness, where the temporal intervals act as the independent variable, and the MRC values function as the dependent variables. Non-significant results were found for familiarity scores. The results provide evidence that learners’ productive vocabularies become more abstract, less context dependent, and more tightly associated over time. This indicates a deeper knowledge of second language vocabulary and has important implications for how vocabulary knowledge can be measured in future studies of L2 lexical development.

Frequency Effects or Context Effects in Second Language Word Learning: What Predicts Early Lexical Production?.

This study examines frequency, contextual diversity, and contextual distinctiveness effects in predicting produced versus not-produced frequent nouns and verbs by early second language (L2) learners of English. The study analyzes whether word frequency is the strongest predictor of early L2 word production independent of contextual diversity and distinctiveness and whether differences exist in the lexical properties of nouns and verbs that can help explain beginning-level L2 word production. The study uses machine learning algorithms to develop models that predict produced and unproduced words in L2 oral discourse. The results demonstrate that word frequency is the strongest classifi er of whether a noun is produced or not produced in beginning L2 oral discourse, whereas contextual diversity is the strongest classifi er of whether a verb is produced or not produced. Post hoc tests reveal that nouns are more concrete, meaningful, imageable, specifi c, and unambiguous than verbs, which indicates that lexical properties may explain differences in noun and verb production. Thus, whereas distributional

“Out of complacency and into action”: an exploration of professional development experiences in school/home literacy engagement

Parents can provide interaction that is crucial to student learning. Helping teachers connect students’ home and school lives and assisting parents in understanding possible roles in student learning can contribute to student achievement. A one‐year funded project focused on: (1) helping teachers involve parents in the literacy achievement of their children; (2) developing responsible, effective, technologically enhanced partnerships between teachers and parents; and (3) providing a model for professional development in home/school literacy connections. This article explains the research base and procedures for the project, outcomes that impact how parent–teacher engagement can be formed, examples of effective activities, and guidelines for teacher educators to promote successful professional development in home/school engagement.