The Incidence of Previous Foreign Language Contact in a Lexical Availability Task: A Study of Senior Learners

Age, together with previous exposure to English, are the main issues addressed in this chapter. The authors looked at the effect of previous foreign language (English) contact on senior learners’ (age 55+) performance in a lexical availability task including 15 prompts, traditionally used in lexical availability studies. The results showed that false beginners outperform true beginners both for the total number of words produced in the lexical availability task and for most of the semantic categories contained in the task. The authors argued that beginners experience similar stages in vocabulary acquisition as a striking similarity is found in the available lexicons of the groups of senior English language learners in this study and that of young learners examined in other studies. Based on their findings, they also suggest that the ability of the older adult to learn new words is not impaired.

[2]  Marta Samper Hernández.  Disponibilidad léxica en alumnos de español como lengua extranjera , 2002 .

[3]  Rosa María Jiménez Catalán,et al.  Disponibilidad léxica en inglés como lengua extranjera en dos tipos de instrucción , 2009 .

[4]  Edith Hanania,et al.  Interrelationships Among Three Tests of Language Proficiency: Standardized ESL, Cloze, and Writing , 1986 .

[5]  Humberto López Morales.  Léxico disponible de Puerto Rico , 1999 .

[6]  Yasuko Ito Watt.  Attrition and Performance in Japanese Language Courses: A Study of Articulation Between the High School and University Levels. , 1997 .

[7]  R. Burling.  SOCIAL CONSTRAINTS ON ADULT LANGUAGE LEARNING , 1981 .

[8]  Catherine Doughty,et al.  Focus on Form in Classroom Second Language Acquisition. The Cambridge Applied Linguistics Series. , 1998 .

[9]  Rosa María Jiménez Catalán,et al.  THE RECEPTIVE VOCABULARY OF ENGLISH FOREIGN LANGUAGE YOUNG LEARNERS , 2008 .

[10]  T. M. Walsh,et al.  NEUROLINGUISTIC FOUNDATIONS TO METHODS OF TEACHING A SECOND LANGUAGE , 1978 .

[11]  A. G. Gil.  La Universidad de Salamanca , 2013 .

[12]  Paul A Prior,et al.  Prior Instruction, Equivalency Formulas, and Functional Proficiency: Examining the Problem of Secondary School-College Articulation , 1992 .

[13]  Alberto Carcedo González.  Tradición y novedad en las aportaciones hispánicas a los estudios de disponibilidad léxica , 1998 .

[14]  R. J. Catalán.  Sex differences in L2 vocabulary learning strategies , 2003 .

[15]  ANXIETY AND THE TRUE BEGINNER-FALSE BEGINNER DYNAMIC IN BEGINNING FRENCH AND SPANISH CLASSES , 2005 .

[16]  E. Rivero.  Estudio de disponibilidad léxica en 43 estudiantes de ELE , 2008 .

[17]  D. Frisbie,et al.  College Foreign Language Study Related to High School Foreign Language Study , 1977 .

[18]  Carmen Muñoz,et al.  Age and the rate of foreign language learning , 2006 .

[19]  E. Horwitz,et al.  Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety , 1986 .

[20]  J. Cenoz.  Age differences in foreign language learning , 2002 .

[21]  Julieta Ojeda Alba,et al.  GIRLS' AND BOYS' LEXICAL AVAILABILITY IN EFL , 2009 .

[22]  Francisco Gallardo del Puerto,et al.  L2 english receptive and productive vocabulary in senior learners , 2010 .

[23]  W. Jochems,et al.  The multiple-choice cloze test as a general language proficiency test , 1988 .

[24]  Tomoko Nakamura,et al.  What Makes Language Learners False Beginners , 1997 .

[25]  Mary J. Schleppegrell,et al.  The Older Language Learner. , 1987 .

[26]  P. Edelenbos,et al.  The assessment of a foreign language at the end of primary (elementary) education , 2000 .

[27]  David Singleton,et al.  Language Acquisition: The Age Factor , 1989 .

[28]  A. Ellis,et al.  Cognitive aspects of lexical availability , 2006 .

[29]  May Fan,et al.  How Big Is the Gap and How To Narrow It? an Investigation Into the Active and Passive Vocabulary Knowledge of L2 Learners , 2000 .

[30]  M. Etxebarria.  Disponibilidad léxica en escolares del Pais Vasco : Variación sociolingüística y modelos de ensenanza bilingüe , 1996 .

[31]  G. Turner.  Teaching French Vocabulary: A Training Study. , 1983 .

[32]  M. Mayo,et al.  Age and the acquisition of English as a foreign language , 2003 .

[33]  Merrill Swain,et al.  THE USE OF ENGLISH AND FRENCH CLOZE TESTS IN A BILINGUAL EDUCATION PROGRAM EVALUATION: VALIDITY AND ERROR ANALYSIS1 , 1977 .