Factors in second language acquisition: opportunity, exposure, uptake and retention Rob Waring

Essential questions

• • • • How much language do students need to meet?

What kinds of vocabulary do they need to learn?

How many times do they need to meet words to learn them?

What are the optimal conditions for learning vocabulary?

Types of vocabulary

Individual words: book, table, life, chance, walk, airplane… Affixes:

used, user, usefulness, user-friendly, disuse…

Multi-part words: traffic jam, the day after tomorrow, lunch box… Lexical phrases: by the way, to and fro, a kind of,… Idioms:

let the cat out of the bag, raining cats and dogs

Sentence heads: Do you mind if I…, If I were you,.. Could you…? Collocations: Colligations: Others:

High season, mild cheese, blonde hair… agree to do x, agree on X, rely on someone, have an effect on x, x affects y...

SONY, Paul, twenty-seven, etc. , UNESCO…

How much to learn: vocabulary

Learners need 8000-9000 words to know 98% of the vocabulary in native novels, magazines and most general reading Intermediate learners need at least a vocabulary of 2000 words receptively and 1000 productively to be able to build fluency rapidly Advanced learners will need 4000-6000 words An average high frequency word has about 8-15 common collocations There are 400-500 common phrasal verbs There are 1000-1500 common idioms There are hundreds of common sentences heads and formulaic phrases

How much to learn: collocations

fast / quick yellow / blonde regular / normal a round / circle of meal train food shower hair car flower guy fries day exercise friends drinks golf wagons hate Types Adverb + Adjective: completely satisfied (NOT downright satisfied) Adjective + Noun: excruciating pain (NOT excruciating joy) Noun + Noun: a surge of anger (NOT a rush of anger) Noun + Verb: lions roar (NOT lions shout) Verb + Noun: commit suicide (NOT undertake suicide) Verb + Expression With Preposition: burst into tears (NOT blow up in tears) Verb + Adverb: wave frantically (NOT wave feverishly)

How much to learn: Grammar

He walked to the station Who did he go with?

He didn’t buy anything Were they seen?

Did he see the man?

He ate with his mother She wasn’t given anything Why did he mistrust them?

You bought it, didn’t you?

They were being shown the ….

What were you doing when the phone rang?

If I were you, I’d… Could I have that?

If I won the lottery, I’d … Was he going to be there at 12?

How much to learn: grammar

The grammar takes a long time The main tenses have many different forms I have given.

You have given.

He/she/it has given.

We have given.

They have given.

Have I given?

Have you given?

Has he/she/it given?

Have we given?

Have they given?

I haven’t given.

You haven’t given.

He/she/it haven’t given.

We haven’t given They haven’t given.

What have I given?

What have you given?

What has he/she/it given?

What have we given?

What have they given?

I have been given.

You have been given.

He/she/it has been given.

We have been given.

They have been given.

Have I been given?

Have you been given?

Has he/she/it been given?

Have we been given?

Have they been given?

I haven’t been given.

You haven’t been given.

He/she/it hasn’t been given.

We haven’t been given They haven’t been given.

What have I been given?

What have you been given?

What has he/she/it been given?

What have we been given?

What have they been given?

I have been giving.

You have been giving.

He/she/it has been giving.

We have been giving.

They have been giving.

Have I been giving?

Have you been giving?

Has he/she/it been giving?

Have we been giving?

Have they been giving?

I haven’t been giving.

You haven’t been giving.

He/she/it hasn’t been giving.

We haven’t been giving They haven’t been giving.

Yes, I have. No, I haven’t.

Yes, you have.

No, you haven’t.

Yes, he/she/it has.

No, he/she/it hasn’t.

Yes, we have.

No, we haven’t.

Yes, they have.

No, they haven’t ……, have I?

….., haven’t I?

……, have you?

……, haven’t you?

….., has he/he/it?

….., hasn’t he/she/it?

….., have we?

..…, haven’t we?

….., have they?

….., haven’t they?

Two levels of word knowledge

Initial ‘form-meaning’ level

Learning how the meaning is connected to its spelling and pronunciation

‘Deeper’ knowledge

Learning how the word works in communicative situations and with its co-text • • • pencil = /pensil/ = Quite easy to learn Fast (if done well) Restricted only to the meaning level ‘Concrete stuff’: Individual words, affixes, lexical phrases, idioms, multi part words, sentence heads etc. WHAT HOW WHICH collocation, colligation, multiple meaning senses and nuances, topic area, register, frequency, spoken or written etc. • Takes a long time • Requires massive exposure • Can’t realistically be taught – too much to do.

‘Abstract stuff’: collocations, colligations, spoken/written, register etc.

Intentional vs. Incidental learning

Intentional learning

Direct focus on learning when the focus is to learn words wordlists, word cards, vocabulary exercises, dictionary use • Can be learnt systematically • Meanings are learnt 16 times faster than with incidental learning • Retention high if learnt well • Decontextualized or ‘local’ learning level FOCUS

Incidental learning

Learning ‘by accident’ - as a result of focusing on something else E.G.

LEARNING from reading or listening, watching movies, listening to songs, casual conversation • Slow and fragile learning • Input tends to be random and unpredictable, unsystematized • Contextualized (chances for integrative learning) Best for ‘form-meaning’ level learning USE Best for ‘deeper aspects’ of vocabulary learning

Terms

• • • • Opportunity: the chance that students have to meet words Exposure: the texts/ language that students actually meet Uptake: the rate at which things are learnt Retention: the rate at which words are learnt or forgotten

Uptake and retention

Intentional learning -fast – (Mukoyama 2005) -retention is good if the quality of learning is good -can’t learn the deeper aspects of vocabulary this way -each collocation is too infrequent -too many to learn -necessarily need to be learnt in context Incidental learning -20-50 meetings to learn a word’s meaning -knowledge is fragile as the meeting is often fleeting

Number of words

The Forgetting Curve

Knowledge

Occurrence rates

Frequency

1st BE

Word

2nd THE Top 25 Top 50 Top 100 Top 500 Top 1000 Top 1500 Top 2000 Top 2500 Top 3000 SOME SENTENCE OUT PREDICT ORGANIC TIMETABLE COMMERCE BIOCHEMICAL REFUND

No.

10,387 10,027 1,192 606 323 50 18

% of corpus

4.989% 4.816% 0.573% 0.291% 0.155% 0.024% 0.009%

1 No. of words to read to meet it x times

20 21

5

100 104

10

200 208

20

401 415

50

1,002 1,038 175 873 1,747 3,493 8,733 344 1,718 645 4,164 11,567 3,223 20,820 57,834 3,436 6,446 41,641 115,668 6,871 12,892 83,281 231,337 17,178 32,230 208,203 578,342 9 4 2 2 0.004% 0.002% 23,134 115,668 52,051 260,254 0.001% 104,102 520,508 0.001% 104,102 520,508 231,337 462,673 1,156,683 520,507 1,041,015 2,602,538 1,041,015 2,082,030 5,205,075 1,041,015 2,082,030 5,205,075

Opportunity

• • • • In EFL environments: Natural opportunity is low Natural opportunity takes time, effort and commitment Opportunities have to be sought For many, creating language opportunities can only be done realistically through course requirements

Exposure

How frequently do learners meet words?

How much text do learners meet?

What kinds of words do learners typically meet?

Exposure

Data from a ‘typical’ 4 skills 5–level course book series for Mexican High Schools (Sequences by Heinle Cengage) -Includes all the units, instructions, exercises, workbook material, supplementary teacher’s material and listening texts -Teachers say students complete about 70% of the material -Only 20% of the class is taught in English -Little homework other than the course book materials are given -Data do not include out of class exposure -Data do not include student to student talk, student writings

Exposure

Number of words in a typical 5 level course by frequency Function 1k 2k Other

Total

Names

50+

84671 92390 1942

179003

2106

30-49

6465 1291

7756

616

20-29

3986 1434 42

5462

812

10-19

2021 4302 175

6498

1527

5-9

309 3414 160

3883

1131

1-4

189 2496

2685

953

Total

105171 12572 2873

205287

7145 Function 1k 2k Other

Total

41.25% 45.01% 0.95% 0.00%

87.20%

3.15% 0.63% 0.00%

3.78%

1.94% 0.70% 0.02%

2.66%

0.98% 2.10% 0.09%

3.17%

0.15% 1.66% 0.08%

1.89%

0.00% 0.09% 1.22% 51.23% 6.12% 1.40%

1.31% 100.00%

Exposure

Different words (types) in a typical 5 level course by frequency Function 1k 2k Other

Total

Names

50+

40 434 22 456 14

30-49

167 35 202 16

20-29

163 60 2 225 34

10-19

131 322 13 466 109

5-9

42 506 27 575 177

1-4

52 1263 1315 367

Total

937 997 1305 3239 717 Function 1k 2k Other

Total

1.23% 13.40% 0.68% 0.00% 15.31% 5.16% 1.08% 0.00% 6.24% 5.03% 1.85% 0.06% 6.95% 4.04% 9.94% 0.40% 14.39% 1.30% 15.62% 0.83% 17.75% 0.00% 1.61% 28.93% 30.78% 38.99% 40.29% 40.60% 100.00%

Uptake

What uptake can we expect from a typical course?

How much text do learners meet?

-Possibly 200-300,000 words over a typical 5 level course.

How frequently do learners meet words?

-Function words - very very frequently -De-lexical words - (have, be, do etc.) - very very frequently -800-900 words (25-27%) are met enough times for acquisition -400-600 (10-15%) words will be partially known -1300 words (over 65-70%) will probably not be learnt

Cautions

‘Acquisition’ assumes meeting the words enough times over 3 years is sufficient The data do not include multiple meanings, collocations, idioms, multiple-meaning senses, multi-part words, grammar, etc.

The above data are for possible uptake rates from a typical course (individual results will vary) The data are calculated on input frequency (receptive vocabulary) Productive vocabulary size is typically 1/4 to 1/5 th of the receptive. We can expect a productive vocabulary of 200-300 easy-to-access words and another 200-300 partial-access

What to do?

Courses in general tend not to recycle vocabulary enough to allow for deep acquisition Most courses are linear in design – always teaching new things in each unit / lesson Learners need a good balance of intentional vs. incidental learning Start with lots of words, phrases, lexical chunks, sentence heads first. Focus on communicability. Grammar later Continue the coursework to provide the framework and initial knowledge of words, grammar etc.

Massive text exposure to build incidental learning

Course book plus Extensive Reading

1k 2k Other

Total

1k 2k Other

Total

Uptake if they add 1 graded reader per week

50+ 30-49 20-29 10-19 5-9 1-4

707 223 93

1023

93 107 83

283

44 90 116

250

68 162 309

539

47 125 398

570

32 168 1125

1325 3990

17.72% 5.59% 2.33%

25.64%

2.33% 2.68% 2.08%

7.09%

1.10% 2.26% 2.91%

6.27%

1.70% 4.06% 7.74%

13.51%

1.18% 3.13% 9.97%

14.29%

0.80% 4.21% 28.20%

33.21% 100.00%

Course book plus Extensive Reading

Significant improvement in vocabulary (800 --->1600 words) More of the words in their course book reach the ‘acquisition’ level (27% ---> 40%) They will have a better sense of how the vocabulary and grammar fit together They will have a better sense of collocation, and other deeper aspects of vocabulary acquisition.

Take home:

We can learn lots of words at the form-meaning level quickly Initial word knowledge decays quickly unless learnt well Deeper aspects of word knowledge grow over time We can expect students exposed to normal levels of input from a course to acquire less than a thousand words receptively and a few hundred productively Adding a Extensive Reading almost doubles their vocabulary learning

Thanks for listening

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