Lexis In Context

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 46.2, 2003

The best way to acquire and master that vocabulary is the subject of this article. Before examining the available approaches to Greek vocabulary acquisition and proposing a fresh alternative, we will first look at some of the current research related to second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition.

The Modern Language Journal, 1996

Integrating Engineering Education and Humanities for Global Intercultural Perspectives, 2020

Language Learning Journal, 2012

Few studies focus on the instruction of vocabulary to very young foreign-language learners. How useful, frequent or even interesting are the words that Greek young learners have acquired by the end of their first couple of ‘junior’ years? This paper investigates the vocabulary used in five recent English as a foreign language (EFL) course books currently used in Greece in the first two years of primary EFL teaching which are expected to raise learners to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) A2 level. Our research suggests that the books are insufficiently loaded with vocabulary to achieve this aim and are very heavily focused on only the most frequent vocabulary. It emerges, too, that the course books are extremely varied in the vocabulary they present, which suggests that learners moving from one school to another using different books will find the transition especially difficult. Further, comparison with the word lists for the linked examinations suggests that the content of the course books is not tied to formal exams at beginner's level.

This paper studies conceptual fields in vocabulary teaching and the problem of their classification across languages. As Lehrer (1974) have mentioned, languages are setting up their semantic fields in certain ways. This fact causes difficulties and misinterpretations in language teaching and therefore innovative teaching methods are needed, so L2 students can identify the differences and the real meanings of the target language. Many studies have been carried out concerning teaching methods of synonymy, antonymy and other paradigmatic relations in L2 teaching, but it seems that there is a need for more investigation about the role of syntagmatic relations of the words in language teaching materials. For that reason, in this study the main focus will be on the importance of learning vocabulary through the syntagmatic relations and it is shown how conceptual fields can be taught effectively by syntagmatic relations. It seems crucial to promote idiomatic patterning, collocations and polysemy of word for the development of an interrelated system of vocabulary. Here, the object of my investigation is the activities used for vocabulary learning in schoolbooks intended for Greek English learners. Meaning of the words are differentiated depending on their collocations (Guo, 2010) and if the students are not aware of these, a lot of learning problems occurred. Therefore, the knowledge of the context seems essential, so the learners can use the right vocabulary depending on the concepts in use. A short theoretical background and review on previous studies is necessary at this point. After that, the methodology and materials of the study are displayed before the Analysis section and at the end a Discussion provides the relevant findings and suggestions for further investigation.

Major Trends in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics Volume 3

2008

Language Learning, 1996

Using a think-aloud procedure, we observed the behavior of 15 university students in Australia with experience in Italian as they attempted to learn the meanings of new foreign language (Italian) words. The great majority of the procedures they used involved some form of repetition of the new words and their meanings-mostly a simple reading of the dictionary-like entries provided, or repetitions of the word-meaning complexes. They gave relatively little attention to the physical or grammatical features of words, nor did they commonly use elaborative acquisition procedures. The lack of association between use of context and recall of word meaning is of major interest, given the stress placed on context by many researchers and commentators. Even when students did use the cues in the sentences to generate possible meanings for the target words, this did not help them establish representations for the meanings of the words. Consideration of the use of context in vocabulary acquisition suggests a need to distinguish between the use of context for generation of meaning of a new word and the use of context for acquisition of the meaning for subsequent recall.

ONOMÁZEIN, 2021

The present paper examines lexicon organization and lexical uniqueness through a lexical availability task. Previous research has concentrated on exploring via word association tests how learners organize their L1 and L2 lexicons. Additionally, the closeness between the native and the L2 lexicons are also object of analysis in research. Lexical uniqueness has also been used as a measure to determine "nativeness". In the present study, we had two groups of Greek B1 and C1 level learners of Spanish FL answer a lexical availability task and compared their results with those of a group of native speakers. We found that proficiency level is crucial in the determination of lexical uniqueness and lexicon organization via lexical associations obtained with a lexical availability task. Furthermore, our results revealed that thematic field is a relevant factor in speakers' associative behaviour and lexicon organization. Results are discussed in light of previous research findings and pedagogical implications are proposed.