26.645, Review: Applied Ling; Lang Acq; Psycholing; Socioling: Zheng (2012)

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Subject: 26.645, Review: Applied Ling; Lang Acq; Psycholing; Socioling: Zheng (2012)

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Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 12:59:30
From: Gloria Cappelli [g.cappelli at angl.unipi.it]
Subject: Dynamic Vocabulary Development in a Foreign Language

 
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/23/23-3113.html

AUTHOR: Yongyan  Zheng
TITLE: Dynamic Vocabulary Development in a Foreign Language
SERIES TITLE: Linguistic Insights - Volume 153
PUBLISHER: Peter Lang AG
YEAR: 2012

REVIEWER: Gloria Cappelli, Università di Pisa

Review's Editors: Malgorzata Cavar and Sara Couture

INTRODUCTION

“Dynamic Vocabulary Development in a Foreign Language” is a recent publication
reporting on a longitudinal study tracking the vocabulary development of a
group of female Chinese learners of English. The study is especially
interesting because it is to my knowledge the first book-length publication to
apply the principles of dynamic systems theory (DST) to the investigation of
vocabulary learning. In the domain of the natural sciences, DST is a framework
used to describe the development of complex systems over time. This framework
has been successfully applied to the study of various linguistic domains
(language acquisition - Laarsen-Freeman 1997, DeBot et al. 2005; lexical
semantics - Bertuccelli Papi and Lenci 2007; Languages for Specific Purposes -
Cappelli, Franceschi and Lorenzetti 2014). The basic tenet of this approach is
that languages can be described as dynamic systems, that is, as sets of
integrated and interrelated aspects of the world that change and evolve
through time and that can be described in terms of the number and types of
their dimensions and of the forms and predictability of their organization.
The system’s organization is seen as the result of the interaction among the
system’s components and between the system and its environment. 

SUMMARY

The book consists of eight chapters. The aim of the first chapter is is to
underline how innovative the contribution of DST to the study of (L2)
vocabulary development can be and to introduce the main concepts on which the
study relies. More specifically, the author briefly reviews some of the major
competing approaches to vocabulary acquisition found in the literature, namely
the qualitative versus quantitative approach to data investigation, the
transient versus durative nature of the data collection, the context-free
versus situated view of vocabulary development, and the different degrees of
importance given to learners’ collective versus individual behavior. 

The second chapter, “Towards a DST perspective on L2 Vocabulary Development,”
presents a critical overview of some of the most relevant empirical findings
reported in the literature on L2 vocabulary development both at the macro
(i.e. the entire number of words available to receptive, and controlled- and
free-productive vocabulary use) and micro level (i.e. the paradigmatic and
syntagmatic knowledge of individual words) so as to provide support to the
author’s claim that a DST perspective on second language development can help
explain discrepancies between the predictions of existing models and some
phenomena observed in the data. The author thoroughly reviews the literature
on several relevant topics in vocabulary learning research such as children's
L1 semantic development, incidental and intentional vocabulary learning,
receptive and productive vocabulary use, lexical plateau, word association
studies, and development of paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations. The second
half of the chapter focuses more specifically on the DST perspective on L2
vocabulary development. After a brief but complete presentation of basic
tenets of the theory, the author introduces the DST perspective on L2
vocabulary development. Concepts such as interconnectedness and constant
change are highlighted and used to address issues of non-linearity, asynchrony
and asymmetry in the receptive-productive and paradigmatic-syntagmatic
dimensions observed in L2 vocabulary learning data. The author proposes to
resort to a combination of a three-stage model of adult L2 lexical
development, DST and L2 Motivational Self System approach (Dörnyei 2005) and
to view L2 vocabulary development as a “dynamic process replete with
non-linear changes, and a progressive interaction of relationships between and
among resources, for instance, L1, L2, input, output, learners’ orientations
and the multiple contexts” (p.62).

The third chapter, “English Vocabulary Learning in China Today,” presents
vocabulary learning within the wider context of English language learning in
China. In line with the principles of DST and the importance that it
attributes to the “contextual variables”, several aspects are taken into
account, such as the environment of English language teaching and the
sociolinguistic status of English in present-day China. The author discusses
formal vocabulary teaching and describes the goals stipulated in the national
syllabi for ELT with special focus on college education. The chapter closes
with a few sections dedicated to opportunities for vocabulary learning outside
school (e.g. international language tests, popular culture, internships,
etc.).

The fourth chapter, “Research Design and Methodology,” describes in depth the
way in which the study was carried out. The research design of this
longitudinal investigation is presented, including informants, data
elicitation instruments, data collection procedures and the methods adopted to
ensure the multiple-case studies were scientifically sound. The choice for a
longitudinal study is in line with the principles of DST, which sees language
development as a complex, dynamic process that cannot be satisfactorily
investigated through quantitatively-oriented, cause-and-effect experimental
design, since the data need to capture the dynamic interaction among many
factors involved in the learning experience, such as learners and their
cognitive, pedagogical and sociocultural context. Exploring this complex
interaction of factors is stated as one of the major goals of the research:
“It is hoped, therefore, that the longitudinal case-study design of the
present study can reveal, at least to some extent, the dynamic nature of L2
vocabulary development by describing the complex interaction between and among
a number of key components in this dynamic system” (p.79). 

The fifth chapter, “Macro-level Vocabulary Development”, discusses the
findings on the macro-level vocabulary development of four first-year learners
and four third-year learners. More specifically, the author reports on
findings on receptive, controlled productive vocabulary size and free
productive vocabulary use. Interestingly, the data highlight the non-linear
nature of macro-level vocabulary development in the participants and unveil
greater than expected individual variability in the developmental path
followed by the informants. The first-year students appear to undergo a more
rapid expansion of their receptive vocabulary knowledge than the third-year
students, and to attain a similar level of accuracy in their controlled
productive use of words at the end of the academic year. Asynchrony in the
development of different types of vocabulary and non-linearity of vocabulary
development at large are also evident in the data, which evidence a general
stop in the growth of productive vocabulary. The lexical richness of the
informants, in fact, appears to deteriorate after one year of study in the
English Department: “[...] even though the participants were more able to make
use of words when they were prompted to, they became more inclined to
recirculate easy, frequent words within a smaller range when left to their own
choices” (p.114). The discussion of individual variability in the initial
state of the participants with respect to the final output is also
interesting, in that it unveils the importance of the interaction of various
intrinsic and extrinsic factors in the learning experience. The first-year
students, as a matter of fact, showed a relatively unified pattern of growth
even though they started from much more varied “initial states” than the
third-year students, who followed more diverse growth patterns. “Stronger
forces” capable of attracting informants to a more stable mode of behavior
seem to be at work, and such forces “are likely to be some contextual factors”
(p.115). 

The sixth chapter, “Micro-level Vocabulary Development,” focuses on the
informants’ in-depth knowledge of the paradigmatic (i.e. senses) and
syntagmatic (i.e. collocational properties) features of some specific
high-frequency lexical items. This knowledge was assessed through Vocabulary
Depth Tests (VDT) and a qualitative analysis of elicited think-aloud protocols
(i.e. the recordings of the informants comments when asked to think aloud
while performing the tests). Data show that the first-year learners’
performance in the VDT improved more than the third-year learners’
performance. Moreover, the former group saw a more significant improvement in
their paradigmatic knowledge whereas the latter group remained relatively
steady in their syntagmatic knowledge of the lexical items investigated, with
a slight improvement in the paradigmatic knowledge. The author also discusses
individual differences in the performance of the participants belonging to the
same year cohort and convincingly explains fluctuations through some basic
tenets of DST.  The central part of the chapter is dedicated to a qualitative
examination of micro-level developments in the two groups through the
discussion of some comments found in the think-aloud protocols. More
specifically, three main factors emerged as relevant in the learners’
vocabulary learning process, both at the paradigmatic and syntagmatic level:
incomplete semantization, influence of their L1, and cross-linguistic
awareness. The final part of the chapter is devoted to a more detailed
discussion of the developmental patterns of the participants’ paradigmatic and
syntagmatic knowledge of the lexical items investigated. 

The seventh chapter, “Situated Vocabulary Learning Experience,” focuses on the
possible role of the educational and sociocultural contexts in the
asynchronies, fluctuations and variations observed in the participants’
vocabulary development. Motivational factors are also addressed. The first
part of the chapter discusses vocabulary learning within the pedagogical
context, both in terms of classroom instruction and interaction.
Interestingly, much importance is placed on the role of the teacher. The
second part focuses on learning experiences and opportunities outside the
classroom, including an interesting section on the “mismatching life
contexts”, that is, the real or perceived gap between the vocabulary knowledge
acquired in class, the insufficient overlap between their life in China and
life in English-speaking countries and the actual need to use English in their
everyday life (pp. 195-199).

The eighth chapter, “Dynamic Vocabulary Development in a Foreign Language,” is
the closing chapter and summarizes the major findings and the main
contributions of the study to L2 vocabulary acquisition research. The most
interesting sections are Section 8.2 and Section 8.3. Section 8.2 proposes a
model to account for the dynamic process of foreign language vocabulary
development by bringing together the Dynamic Model of Foreign Vocabulary
Development, the Three-stage Model of Adult L2 Lexical Development, and the L2
Motivational Self System and offers a schematic representation of such a
model. The various parts of the diagram are illustrated in details, with
special attention dedicated to two crucial aspects of any DST-based account:
the complex interaction among the parts of the system and the constant dynamic
changes observable in the system. Section 8.3 discusses possible implications
of the empirical findings for teaching vocabulary (e.g. promoting
motivation-fostering activities, awareness, and self-initiated learning and
maximizing output opportunities). The final section offers some suggestions
for further research.

The book includes four appendices exemplifying some of the elicitation tests
and collected materials.    

EVALUATION

Over the past few years the DST approach to L2 development and learning has
seen rapid development, with many interesting publications on the topic (Ellis
2007, Larsen-Freeman and Cameron 2008, de Bot 2008, de Bot, Lowie and Verspoor
2007, Van Geert 2008, to name but a few) and much interest in the academic
community.  Zheng’s book is certainly a very interesting and innovative
addition to the studies applying this perspective to SLA research.  

After the many theoretical contributions, sound empirical research informed by
the principles of DST was needed. Much of the previous research was indeed
meant to explain how this theoretical framework borrowed from the natural
sciences can be successfully applied in linguistics, and why languages can
indeed be seen as complex adaptive systems. Adopting DST to describe language
acquisition has been a small “revolution” when compared to the traditional
approaches to SLA, because they often rely on cross-sectional studies looking
for regularities and common patterns of development, causes and effects, and
ways to predict development at various levels of the systems.  On the
contrary, the DST approach focuses on individual preferences, longitudinal
investigations and the complex interaction of factors in determining system
behavior. This seems to imply the impossibility of making any real prediction
regarding the system’s behaviour, and, for this reason, this approach to the
study of languages has been described by some scholars as purely
“postdictive”, if not merely descriptive.  It has not been obvious how applied
research should be carried out within this theoretical framework, but “Dynamic
Vocabulary Development in a Foreign Language” provides an interesting example.

In line with the tenets of DST, instead of being treated as simple “noise”,
non-linearity and individual variability are seen as “a natural consequence
and an inherent property during the course of development; […] most likely an
outcome of the multiple interplays between and among learners’ goals, learning
experiences and the environment” (p.115). The importance that the author
attributes to contextual factors in constraining the system behavior is
interesting, especially her attempt to identify “control parameters” (that is,
awareness and motivation). In a way, this seems to bring back some sort of
“predictability”, and to address one of the major criticisms to this approach
(i.e. the alleged impossibility to predict system behavior and therefore its
essentially posteriori descriptive nature). However, the “control parameters”
identified appear to be very complex themselves, and therefore hardly
“controllable”, but they still allow Zheng to suggest some ways to make
vocabulary teaching possibly more effective. Moreover, besides some
extra-systemic factors, the only intra-systemic variables Zheng takes into
account are learners-related factors. In a DST-oriented approach, though,
interconnectedness, self-organization and stochasticity are seen as crucial
properties of every system. Therefore, in order to explain non-linearity,
individual variability and asynchrony in vocabulary development, looking into
other strictly linguistic, intra-systemic factors would seem quite essential.
It is in fact plausible to assume that the fluctuations identified by the
author in the learners’ vocabulary development are also due to the changing
allocation of the participants’ cognitive resources. This is something which
can supposedly be appreciated only if the development of other levels of the
linguistic system are investigated (e.g. morpho-syntactic, phonetic, pragmatic
abilities). It would have been interesting to have information about the
development of the other linguistic abilities in these learners to see if
stabilization and fossilization or regression corresponded to progress and
development in other areas, and therefore to a reorganization of the entire
system.

If we accept the hypothesis that languages are complex adaptive systems, then
we must also accept the hypothesis that they are constituted of a series of
other nested complex adaptive subsystems. Lexical items themselves can be seen
as complex adaptive systems (see the Lexical Complexity Hypothesis --
Bertuccelli 2003, Bertuccelli and Lenci 2007, Cappelli 2010). It would be
interesting to see what such a view of lexical items themselves can contribute
to the understanding of some of the phenomena observed in vocabulary
development, e.g. incomplete semantization, or the way in which paradigmatic
knowledge is progressively (?) acquired, and the possible contextual
constraints that lead to the stabilization of the self-organizing system over
a certain period of time.

Zheng’s work has the merit of having innovatively opened the path for much
needed applied research in L2 vocabulary development, which promises to
advance our understanding of some of the factors playing a role in the
development of non-native linguistic systems. 

REFERENCES

Bertuccelli Papi, M. (2003), “Cognitive complexity and the lexicon”, in
Merlini Barbaresi, L. (ed), Complexity in Language and Text, Pisa: Plus Pisa
University Press, 67-115.

Bertuccelli Papi, M. and Lenci, A. (2007), “Lexical Complexity and the texture
of meaning”, in M. Bertuccelli Papi, G. Cappelli and S. Masi (eds.), Lexical
Complexity: Theoretical Assessment and Translational Perspectives, Pisa: Plus
Pisa University Press, 15-33.

Cappelli, G. (2010), “Lexical Complexity. Theoretical and Empirical Aspects”,
in L. Pinnavaia and N. Brownlees (eds.), Insights into English and Germanic
lexicology and lexicography: past and present perspectives, Monza: Polimetrica
International Publisher, 115-127.

de Bot, K. (2008), “Second language development as a dynamic process”, Modern
Language Journal, 92(2), 166-178.

de Bot, K., Lowie, W. and Verspoor, M. (2007), “A dynamic system theory
approach to second language acquisition”, Bilingualism: Language and
Cognition, 10, 7-21.

Ellis, N. C. (2007), “Dynamic Systems and SLA: The wood and the trees”,
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 10, 23-25.

Larsen-Freeman, D. and Cameron, L. (2008), Complex Systems and Applied
Linguistics, Oxford: OUP.

Van Geert, P. (2008), “The Dynamic Systems approach in the study of L1 and L2
acquisition: An introduction”, Modern Language Journal, 92(2), 179-199.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Gloria Cappelli is a researcher and lecturer in English Linguistics at the
University of Pisa, Italy. Her interests include lexical semantics, ESP and
SLA.








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