tom cobb université du québec à montréal vocab symposium - getting the word out aaal april ‘07...

Tom CobbUniversité du Québec à Montréal

Vocab Symposium - Getting the Word Out

AAAL April ‘07

“Vocab learning in a video game?”

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Context (1)

While much is known about making vocab learning + growth efficient

Little of it has an effect on language learners

Who proceed in largely hit-n-miss fashion

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Context (2)

Word Knowledge has many interlinked facets

1. Meaning(s)

2. Phonological form

3. Orthographic form

4. Syntactic combinability

5. Collocative combinability

6. Procedural (access speed)

Initial acquisition points are 1, 2, or 3

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Context (3) Pop culture

Spelling-bee mania of recent years Films etc

Education culture Decline of spelling in age of SMS + spell-

checker Obvious impact on writing Subtle on reading

Gaming culture Gamers target learning market

Some seriously Huge potential to get research “out”

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Spelling games- a non-learning approach

Game presents endless streams of unusual words

Exclusive focus on form

Patterns with little generalizability

Words with minimal communicative value

Only big L1 lexicons can play

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Spelling games- a learning approach

Game words at player growth edge

Spelling patterns generalize

Game skills = language-use skills–Form cued by meaning–Access speed rewarded

Words with communicative value

Any size lexicons can play• L2 included

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Desiderata of a learning approach

1. Entire lexicon scaled by level

2. Game-compatible testing

3. Semantic based cueing

4. Recycling of inputs

5. Incorporate access speed

6. Incorporate social nature of language

7. Provide motivating interactions

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1. Known lexicon categorized by level

From corpus get frequency list No problem since 1960s

But unlemmatized = unuseful Except GSL + AWL

• Make VocabProfile possible

Solved by Nation (06) BNC corpus 14 lemmatized k-lists

Cobb (07) carries job up to 20k The fringe of adult educated lexicon

• Goulden, Nation & Read

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RECENTLY AVAILABLE

100 million word Brit. Nat Corpus (BNC)

=> 17MB word list 694,807 different

word types

GAME NEEDS 20 lemmatized lists

by k-level 3000 4000 5000 …

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NATION’S WORK

14 lemmatized lists To drive

Vocabprofile program

MY WORK EXPAND LISTS TO

15-20 lemmatized lists by k-level

15,000 16,000 17,000 18,000 19,000 20,000

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2. Game compatible level testing Meara et al, Yes/no Checklist

Many words in short time PNW’s as honesty check

PNW’s for other languages Duyck’s WordGen Website

• http://users.ugent.be/~wduyck/Wouter%20Duyck/wordgen.html

Some issue of size…

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3. Semantic cueing Word meanings integrated

• As help / reminder• As game element

From high grade L2-learner dictionary E.g., Cambridge Advanced Learners

Dictionary (CALD)

Whose definitions blend simple language with fairly low frequency words

• (15k plus)

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4. Principled recycling of both hits and misses Classic memory research

Pimsleur et al in psychology Mondria in L2

Forgetting is rapid at first, then slows Geometric progression

This information can be used to prevent forgetting

Retrieval practice at forget-points• Expanding intervals• Goal: minimum number of retrievals to LTM

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5. Lex access-speed as game component

Research shows lexical access can be trained

Snellings, van Gelderen, de Glopper (2002)

So, progressively reduce time for game completion

According to power-law algorithm

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6. Focus on social nature of language learning / use Wireless capacity of DS players

Up to four players Competition, collaboration…

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7. Provide motivation to persist

Language consultant provides content + learning theory

Game professionals provide game elements

Exploit DS’s potential• Sound• Stylus• Split screen

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Extension projects

Transport game concepts to other languages

Transport game concepts to other language interfaces

French ESL learners Spanish ESL learners Japanese ESL learners…

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Further reading Frequency lists

– Leech et al, Word Frequencies in Written & Spoken English

Lemmatization procedures– Nation

20k as size of adult educated lexicon– Goulding, Nation & Read (1990)

Yes-No Test– Buxton & Meara (1987)

Spaced recycling– Mondria & Mondria-Wit de Boer (1993)

Reaction-time & practice– Snellings, van Geldeen, & de Glopper (2002)

Easy and hard spelling– Connor (c.1986), N. Ellis (c.1996), Cognitive processes

in spelling

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Goulden, R., Nation, P., & Read, J.(1990). How large can a receptive vocabulary be? Applied Linguistics 11, 341-358.

Meara, P., & Buxton, B. (1987). An alternative to multiple choice vocabulary tests. Language Testing 4, 142-154.

Nation, P. (2007). How large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening? Canadian Modern Language Review 63 (1), 1-12.

Mondria, J.-A. & Mondria-De Vries, S.(1993). Efficiently memorizing words with the help of word cards and 'hand computer': Theory and applications. System 22, 47-57.

Snellings, P., van Gelderen, A,, & de Glopper, K. (2002). Lexical retrieval: An aspect of fluent second language production that can be enhanced. Language Learning 52 (4), 723-754.

cobb.tom@uqam.ca

www.lextutor.ca/aaal_07

Stay tuned for upcoming developments…