The Role of Lexical Semantics in Second Language Reading: On Acquiring Unknown Nouns in Context

• Main Authors: Bichu Chen, 陳碧珠
• Other Authors: David Wible
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/92924498444294789763

博士 === 淡江大學 === 英文學系 === 92 === The present study investigates a second language acquisition issue at the intersection of three aspects of second language competence: lexical semantics, reading, and vocabulary acquisition. The aims of the present dissertation are: (1) to develop a theoretically motivated framework for helping learners infer the meaning of unknown words encountered in their reading using a relational approach to lexical semantics, (2) to conduct an empirical study on the implementation of this framework in the ESL/EFL reading classroom, and (3) to discover ways to help learners become better independent analyzers. The proposed framework was implemented and tested with a quasi-experimental study carried out over a semester and involving pre- and post-tests, and the experimental treatment. The purpose was to investigate to what extent learners receiving instruction and practice on use of a heuristic tool called Lexical Semantic Matrix (LSM) are able to recognize contextual clues based on a relational approach to lexical semantics, and whether the learners in the experimental group exhibit differential improvement in guessing unknown nouns and reading comprehension compared to the control group subjects, who did not receive such instruction and practice. The results show that the learners benefited from receiving lexical semantic instruction and practice via the heuristic tool (LSM) in acquiring meanings of nouns encountered in reading. Additionally, when vocabulary inferencing and reading comprehension tasks were in competition in the language classroom, neither was sacrificed with the application of LSM. Third, conditionally this results support the feasibility of L2 readers using contextual clues, and it shows that there is at least one more way to look for meanings of the unknown nouns other than using dictionaries. Fourth, text difficulty, learners’ levels of vocabulary knowledge, and their reading comprehension ability affect the effectiveness of the heuristic tool (LSM). Finally, complicating factors lead to different correlations among reading comprehension, vocabulary inferencing, and frequency of use of contextual clues. Implications of the findings, limitations of the present work, and recommendations for future research are presented.