Department of Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

ESRC Seminar Series

"Models and measures of vocabulary acquisition, knowledge and use: the interface between theory and applications."

Introduction

This seminar series is funded by the ESRC - grant Number RES-451-25-4185. It is co-organised under the aegis of the M4 Applied Linguistics group, which consists of Applied Linguists located along the M4 Motorway, from the University of Swansea (Applied Linguistics), the Bristol Centre for Linguistics (UWE, Bristol) and the Institute of Education (Reading).

The members of the M4 Applied Linguistics Group are as follows:

Dr Michael Daller, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics (UWE, Bristol)
Professor David Malvern, Head of the Institute of Education (Reading)
Professor Paul Meara, Professor of Applied Linguistics (University of Swansea)
Dr James Milton, Subject Leader Applied Linguistics (University of Swansea)
Professor Brian Richards, Professor of Education, Department of Education (Reading).
Professor Jeanine Treffers-Daller, Professor of Linguistics (UWE, Bristol)

The six seminars are as follows:

Meeting 1. Lexical organisation in bilinguals: models and measures of bilingual proficiency. UWE, Bristol (5-6 January 2006)

This meeting focused on understanding bilingual speech processing, with a particular focus on word recognition in bilinguals and bilingual speech production. In addition, we tried to uncover how bilingual proficiency can be measured and whether concepts such as “balanced bilingual” or “language dominance” can be operationalised.

Key questions:
How do models of bilingual and monolingual speech processing differ from each other? What are the cognitive advantages or disadvantages of being bilingual, in particular in relation to the breadth and depth of vocabulary? How can we compare lexical and morphosyntactic proficiency in bilinguals who speak typologically unrelated languages? What constitutes equivalence in cross-linguistic comparisons of bilingual proficiency?

Keynote speakers: David Green (UCL), Manfred Pienemann (Newcastle/Paderborn) and Norman Segalowitz  (Concordia University Montreal)

Programme meeting 1

Meeting 2. Testing and teaching vocabulary in a second language setting (EFL and other foreign languages). SWANSEA (8-9 June 2006)

This meeting focused on tests of vocabulary knowledge and use and on the ways vocabulary can be taught in Primary, Secondary and Higher Education.

Key questions:
How do we assess the validity of tests and of data? Which computational tools can help to assess diversity and sophistication of lexis in corpus data? How is knowledge and use of vocabulary related to morphosyntactic skills of learners? How can research findings be made useful to user groups outside the academic world (in particular language teachers)?

One session will focus on the teaching of vocabulary in EFL and modern foreign languages, in primary, secondary and/or Higher Education. The Association for Language Learning (ALL) and the Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies will be involved in planning and organising this session.

Keynote speakers: Tom Cobb (Université du Québec à Montréal) and Paul Meara (University of Swansea)

Programme meeting 2

Meeting 3. Vocabulary development: educational perspectives on L1 and L2. READING (21-22 September 06)

At this meeting we will discuss the development of the lexicon in predepartment and primary department age children. The methods used to test vocabulary knowledge will be at the centre of interest. Applications of D (Malvern et al 2004) in different languages will be discussed.

Keynote speakers: David Dickinson, Vanderbilt University, USA
Viv Edwards, University of Reading, UK
Alison Sealey, University of Birmingham, UK

Key questions:
How is acquisition, knowledge and use of vocabulary related to and embedded in the development of language at other levels (eg syntax or discourse)?

How can research findings be made useful to user groups outside the academic world (in particular language teachers in primary departments)?

Programme meeting 3

Meeting 4. Interdisciplinary approaches: Vocabulary in stylometrics, psycholinguistics, forensic linguistics, corpus linguistics and clinical linguistics - UWE, Bristol (11-12 January 2007)

This meeting focused on the assessment of vocabulary across a range of disciplines. As researchers are often unaware of the way lexis is analysed in neighbouring disciplines, the seminar was set up to enhance exchanges of theories, hypotheses and methods of analysis.

Key questions:
How can models and theories of vocabulary acquisition, lexical knowledge and lexical organisation from the different fields (corpus linguistics, forensic linguistics, stylometry, clinical linguistics, psycholinguistics) be adapted to incorporate insights from neigbouring disciplines?

How can methods used to investigate or assess vocabulary in one field be applied in other fields?
Keynote speakers: John Read (University of Auckland, New Zealand; Visiting Scholar University of Michigan) and Sue Roulstone (UWE Bristol)

Programme meeting 4

Meeting 5. Models and concepts: practical needs and theoretical approaches in modelling and measuring vocabulary knowledge. SWANSEA (5-6 July 2007)

At this meeting we sought to define the key concepts, outline the main theories that guide research into vocabulary from different perspectives, and formulate avenues and methods that may advance research in the field.

Keynote speakers: Kees de Bot (University of Groningen), Mike Byram (University of Durham) and Marjolijn Verspoor (University of Groningen)

Key questions:
What semantic, morphosyntactic, phonological and collocational knowledge is involved in lexical knowledge? How can we delimit words in speech? How can we establish boundaries between words and collocations, between phrases and frozen expressions? What is the role of oral and written corpora in testing theories and measures of vocabulary richness? What constitute appropriate methods for collecting, transcribing and analysing data?

Researchers from different fields were invited to present their view on these issues from the perspective of their discipline.

Programme meeting 5

Meeting 6. Orientation towards the future. READING (27-28 September 2007)

At this final meeting an agenda for future research will be presented. Researchers from all eight strands (L1 and SLA, bilingualism, corpus linguistics, forensic linguistics, stylometry, clinical linguistics, psycholinguistics) will present papers in which they outline research agendas for their discipline, and the way in which these questions are linked to work in other fields.

Keynote speakers: Scott Jarvis, University of Ohio, US and Paul Meara, University of Swansea, UK

Programme meeting 6

Planned output of the ESRC seminar series:
Two volumes with Palgrave, one on Vocabulary Studies in L1 and L2 acquisition; one on Tools and Methods
One special issue of the Journal of French Language Studies  entitled “The analysis of lexical knowledge and use in French as a second language” (to appear in 2008)
One special issue of the Language Learning Journal (Association for Language Learning)
A website with information on Vocabulary Acquisition

Contacts
Helmut.Daller@uwe.ac.uk
d.d.Malvern@reading.ac.uk
p.m.meara@swansea.ac.uk
j.l.milton@swansea.ac.uk
b.j.richards@reading.ac.uk
jeanine.treffers-daller@uwe.ac.uk