Although the relationship between sound and meaning in language is assumed to be largely arbitrary, reliable correspondences between sound and meaning in natural language appear to facilitate word learning. Using a set of independently normed pseudoword and shape stimuli, we examined the real-time effects of sound-to-shape correspondences at…

This study presents the results of a meta-analytic study about the effects of digital game-based learning (DGBL) on vocabulary. The results of the study showed that the effects of DGBL on vocabulary learning may vary with game design features (Q = 5.857, df = 1, p = 0.016), but not with learners' age (Q = 0.906, df = 1, p = 0.341) or linguistic…

Vocabulary knowledge is essential to educational progress. High quality vocabulary instruction requires supportive contextual examples to teach word meaning and proper usage. Identifying such contexts by hand for a large number of words can be difficult. In this work, we take a statistical learning approach to engineer a system that predicts…

Vocabulary knowledge is essential to educational progress. High quality vocabulary instruction requires supportive contextual examples to teach word meaning and proper usage. Identifying such contexts by hand for a large number of words can be difficult. In this work, we take a statistical learning approach to engineer a system that predicts…

Two experiments investigated two-year-olds' retention and generalization of novel words across short and long time delays. Specifically, retention of newly learned words and generalization to novel exemplars or novel contexts were tested 1 min or 1 week after learning. Experiment 1 revealed successful retention as well as successful generalization…

Word learning from linguistic context is essential for vocabulary growth from grade school onward; however, little is known about the mechanisms underlying successful word learning in children. Current methods for studying word learning development require children to identify the meaning of the word after each exposure, a method that interacts…

We investigate whether infant-directed speech (IDS) could facilitate word form learning when compared to adult-directed speech (ADS). To study this, we examine the distribution of word forms at two levels, acoustic and phonological, using a large database of spontaneous speech in Japanese. At the acoustic level we show that, as has been documented…

Error patterns in vocabulary learning data were used as a window into the mechanisms that underlie vocabulary learning performance in bilinguals vs. monolinguals. English--Spanish bilinguals (n = 18) and English-speaking monolinguals (n = 18) were taught novel vocabulary items in association with English translations. At testing, participants…

This experimental study examines the role of oral and written repetition strategies in consolidating new vocabulary in the classroom context. The participants in this study were divided into three treatment groups: oral, written and oral+written. A pretest and three delayed post-tests given at one day, one week and six weeks intervals were…

Extensive reading has been continuously studied as a promising instructional method for improving students' language proficiency, including reading proficiency, vocabulary acquisition, and grammar awareness. The present study is a meta-analysis, which synthesized the data of 21 empirical studies (N = 1268). It was designed to explore whether…

The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between the demographic characteristics and the language development of children. In the research, a "Personal Information Form" consisting of 14 items containing information about the demographic structure of the family was used and a "Language Development Checklist"…

Students can struggle to understand and use terms that describe probabilities. Such struggles lead to difficulties comprehending classroom conversations. In this article, we describe some specific misunderstandings a group of students (ages 11-12) held in regard to vocabulary such as "certain", "likely" and…

The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) are a widely used family of parent-report instruments for easy and inexpensive data-gathering about early language acquisition. CDI data have been used to explore a variety of theoretically important topics, but, with few exceptions, researchers have had to rely on data collected in…

In controlled contexts, young children find it more difficult to learn novel words for actions than words for objects: Imai et al. found that English-speaking three-year-olds mistakenly choose a novel object as a referent for a novel verb about 42% of the time despite hearing the verb in a transitive sentence. The current two studies investigated…

Concept of word--the awareness of how words differ from nonwords or other linguistic properties--is important to learning to read Chinese because words in Chinese texts are not separated by space, and most characters can be productively compounded with other characters to form new words. The current study examined the effects of reader, word, and…