This ongoing project consists of a series of studies on the use of semantic feature analysis techniques for learning vocabulary in a second language (L2). Traditionally, semantic feature analysis is a treatment technique used to improve word retrieval ability in people with aphasia or other acquired language disorders. It involves generating semantic features, or descriptors, for the target words (Boyle, 2010). [1]
The studies conducted so far have investigated one-on-one training of abstract words in L2 English and L2 Spanish (Sandberg et al.
This is a replication research project being conducted by the Second Language Acquisition Reading Group at Penn State. We have conducted a close replication and extension of Ellis & Sagarra’s (2010)[1] study on learned attention and blocking effects in the learning temporal reference in Latin (manuscript in preparation). We are also replicating our own study in a web-based format in order to investigate the comparability of face-to-face and remote data collection.
This study investigates the process of vocabulary consolidation in a second language by extending the Complementary Learning Systems account (Davis & Gaskell, 2009) [1] to an L2 context. Data was collected with L1 Polish-L2 English speakers at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.
[1] Davis, M. H., & Gaskell, M. G. (2009). A complementary systems account of word learning: neural and behavioural evidence. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1536), 3773-3800.