25.1006, Review: Applied Linguistics; Language Acquisition; English; Spanish: Jim=?UTF-8?Q?=C3=A9nez_Catal=C3=A1n_?=(2013)

Fri Feb 28 14:34:59 UTC 2014

LINGUIST List: Vol-25-1006. Fri Feb 28 2014. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 25.1006, Review: Applied Linguistics; Language Acquisition; English; Spanish: Jiménez Catalán (2013)

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Rajiv Rao, U of Wisconsin Madison
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Mateja Schuck, U of Wisconsin Madison
Anja Wanner, U of Wisconsin Madison
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Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 09:34:30
From: Jonathan Clenton [j.clenton at reading.ac.uk]
Subject: Lexical Availability in English and Spanish as a Second Language

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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-3679.html

EDITOR: Rosa María  Jiménez Catalán
TITLE: Lexical Availability in English and Spanish as a Second Language
SERIES TITLE: Educational Linguistics
PUBLISHER: Springer
YEAR: 2013

REVIEWER: Jonathan Clenton, University of Reading

SUMMARY

This book compiles two different research areas: lexical availability studies,
and vocabulary research in second or foreign languages. It presents eleven
studies that document developments in lexical availability, an area often
neglected by English speaking researchers, and offers a resource for a
learner-centred approach to L2 vocabulary skills (as opposed to the
English-language tradition of focusing on frequency and large corpora).

The first chapter (‘Lexical Availability Studies’, by Humberto López Morales),
which is the first chapter in this first section examining lexical
availability in English as an L1 and L2,  presents a narrative of the ‘not
very extensive’ history of lexical availability studies. It provides a
structure of the sections of the book, which first addresses lexical
availability studies in English as an L1 and L2, and then moves on to address
lexical availability studies in Spanish as an L1 and L2.

The second chapter (‘Lexical Availability of Basic and Advanced Semantic
Categories in English L1 and English L2’, by Roberto A. Ferreira Campos and
Max S. Echeverria Weasson) introduces the first of two empirical studies
within this first section. It presents a study that compares the lexicon of
native English speakers and advanced L2 students of English in terms of
different levels of semantic category (i.e. basic or advanced). The basic
semantic categories relate to ‘body parts’ and ‘food and drink’ and the
advanced semantic categories relate to ‘terrorism and crime’ and ‘health and
medicine’. The study found that the L1 speakers outperformed the L2 learners,
and that both groups significantly tended to provide a greater proportion of
basic categories than advanced categories. This second finding appears to have
implications for the available lexicons of L1 and L2 speakers.

The third chapter (‘The Effect of Age on EFL Learners’ Lexical Availability:
Word Responses to the Cue Words ‘Town’ and ‘Countryside’, by Rosa María
Jiménez Catalán, María del Pilar Agustín Llach, Almundena Fernández Fontecha,
an Andrés Canga Alonso) introduces the second of the two empirical studies
within this first section. It presents a corpus study to determine the
influence of age in which the lexical availability outputs of primary school
children ages 11-12 were compared to those of first year university English
language learners ages 18-19. The study found that there were non-significant
differences in the number and characteristics of the words that the two age
groups retrieved in relation to two specific semantic domains: ‘Town’ and
‘Countryside’. Interestingly, the results suggest different conceptualisations
of the two domains, with those of young learners relating to school issues and
those of adult learners relating to hobbies and sports.

The fourth chapter (‘The Incidence of Previous Foreign Language Contact in a
Lexical Availability Task: A Study of Senior Learners’, by Francisco Gallardo
del Puerto, and María Martínez Adrián) considers the effect of previous
English (L2) exposure and age (55 years or older) on a lexical availability
performance task of productive vocabulary. The authors show that their false
beginner students outperformed true beginners in terms of both the total
number of words produced in their lexical availability task and most of the
semantic categories included in the task. They also suggest that, due to
similarities with young-learner studies, age does not have an impact on the
senior learners’ abilities to acquire a language.

The fifth chapter (‘Lexical Variation in Learners’ Responses to Cue Words: The
Effect of Gender’, by María del Pilar Agustín Llach, and Almundena Fernández
Fontecha) explores the effect of gender on the lexical availability of
learners’ word retrieval at two points in time: sixth and ninth grade. The
results indicate that females provided more responses than males at both
points, both male and female responses were consistent in terms of the
proportion of responses they provided at each time, and all learners produced
significantly more responses at the second time point. These results suggest
that learners continue to learn words within each of the semantic categories
represented by the study.

The sixth chapter (‘Frequency Profiles of EFL learners’ Lexical Availability’,
by Rosa María Jiménez Catalán, and Tess Fitzpatrick), the final chapter in
this first section, presents a study which applies a word frequency framework
to sixth grade and eighth grade L2 English learner response data to nine cues
traditionally used in lexical availability studies. The study examined learner
profiles in terms of the number and relative infrequency of words produced
within nine semantic domains. The study showed that the eighth grade students’
lexical availability increased in comparison to the sixth grade students, both
overall and in specific relation to each of the nine cues. Interestingly, the
study showed that there are aspects other than frequency that are worthy of
further exploration, both for lexical availability studies as well as
vocabulary researchers.

The seventh chapter (‘The Relationship of Language Proficiency to the Lexical
Availability of Learners of Spanish’, by Marta Samper Hernández), the first
chapter in this second section examining Lexical Availability in Spanish as an
L1 and L2 in different contexts, addresses lexical availability of L2 Spanish
learners in an immersion context. The chapter focuses on the lexical
availability in two levels of Spanish (i.e. basic and advanced). The study
found that a higher L2 proficiency might not have always resulted in a higher
number of words. The advanced learners produced a larger number of words than
the basic learners for almost all of the cues except for ‘The City’ and ‘Games
and Entertainment’. Overall, the study suggests that aspects aside from
proficiency, such as input and learner experience, need to be considered in
lexical availability studies.

The eighth chapter (‘Slovene Students’ Lexical Availability in English and
Spanish’, by Marjana Sifrar Kalan) examines the differences and similarities
in lexical availability in two L2s: Spanish and English. The study compared
lexical availability amongst Slovene students of L2 Spanish and L2 English in
eight semantic categories, presenting the most available words and semantic
prototypes to these two student groups. Intriguingly, the author found many
similarities between the two groups under examination, suggesting that the
Slovene students’ mental lexicons are alike regardless of the foreign language
in question.

The ninth chapter (‘The Effect of Instruction on Polish Spanish Learners’
Lexical Availability’, by Antonio María López González) presents a study which
compares two bilingual programmes (i.e. intensive and extensive) in Polish
secondary education. The study examined lexical availability in Polish L2
learners of Spanish in the two study programmes, each with a similar number of
hours of instruction. The study has implications for Polish bilingual
programmes, that is, there is an implied benefit of the intensive programme’s
success in offering repeated vocabulary exposure.

The tenth chapter (‘Cognitive Factors of Lexical Availability in a Second
Language’, by Natividad Hernández Muñoz, Christina Izura, and Carmela Tome)
presents the first comparative study of the potential cognitive factors
influencing lexical availability in L1 and L2 Spanish. The study showed that
words learned first, in either the L1 or the L2, are likely to be the most
available and also correspond to the most typical examples of the category,
and that typicality suggests that concepts are involved to a certain degree.
In short, they appear to find that knowing two languages influences lexical
availability.

The eleventh chapter (‘Researching Lexical Availability in L2: Some
Methodological Issues’, by Marta Samper Hernández, and Rosa María Jiménez
Catalán) presents the concluding chapter for the volume, clarifying the basic
terms and concepts from the first ten chapters on lexical availability
research.

EVALUATION 

This book is intended for teachers and researchers of Spanish and English as
foreign languages. The volume includes analyses of the words that learners of
the two languages are likely to retrieve in particular situations. Listing the
most productive prompts is revealing in terms of highlighting what learners of
the two languages are likely to respond with and also, alternatively, what
learners do not know or are unlikely to respond with when presented with
particular cues. In this latter respect, the volume excels in including lists
of the most productive cues for particular vocabulary domains (least
productive cues are also included). In essence, the book appears to elucidate
what L2 learners of either Spanish or English are likely to know and not know,
which is especially useful for language teachers, planners, and designers of
vocabulary activities for L2 learners. The inclusion of studies on additional
influences on lexical availability (including age, gender, L2 proficiency)
provides invaluable data regarding the organisation of L2 language learners’
lexicons. This includes papers examining issues such as the influence of age
on EFL learners’ lexical availability, the influence of gender on learners’
responses to cue words, and the effect of different intensities of instruction
on lexical availability. The volume achieves its aims in the sense that both
teachers and researchers of Spanish and English as foreign languages will find
something of interest here.

The book is revealing in the sense that it presents an approach hitherto
unknown in English-speaking vocabulary research, but one which has a long
tradition in European research. Hence, it offers an excellent
(English-language) resource for any researcher/ teacher wanting to know more
about the lexical availability of his/her learners’ receptive and productive
lexical competence.

The volume closes with an extremely useful overview of the commonalities
across all studies, an impressive feat considering that each are from
different research projects in notably different contexts. Despite such
differences, there are several common traits worthy of note, including how
particular cues are more productive than others, or how particular learning
contexts might encourage vocabulary growth. The editor is quite explicit in
stating that lexical availability studies do not inform “how many words
learners know” (p. 202), but this does not mean that the volume should not be
of interest to vocabulary researchers. As a vocabulary researcher myself, I
consider the volume a fascinating resource and one that offers immense
potential in exploring lexical availability either in isolation or in
combination with vocabulary tests.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Jon Clenton teaches Vocabulary acquisition at the University of Reading, in
the Department of English Language and Applied Linguistic. His current
research focuses on developmental work on vocabulary testing and the extent to
which bilingual models can tell us about the network metaphor and L2
proficiency.

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