Factors in second language acquisition: opportunity,

exposure, uptake and retention

Rob Waring

Essential questions

• How much language do students need to meet?• What kinds of vocabulary do they need to learn?• How many times do they need to meet words to learn them?• What are the optimal conditions for learning vocabulary?

Types of vocabulary

Individual words: book, table, life, chance, walk, airplane… Affixes: used, user, usefulness, user-friendly, disuse… Multi-part words: traffic jam, the day after tomorrow, lunch box… Lexical phrases: by the way, to and fro, a kind of,…Idioms: let the cat out of the bag, raining cats and dogs

Sentence heads: Do you mind if I…, If I were you,.. Could you…?Collocations: High season, mild cheese, blonde hair…Colligations: agree to do x, agree on X, rely on someone,

have an effect on x, x affects y...Others: SONY, Paul, twenty-seven, etc. , UNESCO…

How much to learn: vocabulary

Learners need 8000-9000 words to know 98% of the vocabulary in native novels, magazines and most general reading

Intermediate learners need at least a vocabulary of 2000 words receptively and 1000 productively to be able to build fluency rapidly

Advanced learners will need 4000-6000 wordsAn average high frequency word has about 8-15 common

collocationsThere are 400-500 common phrasal verbsThere are 1000-1500 common idiomsThere are hundreds of common sentences heads and formulaic

phrases

How much to learn: collocations

How much to learn: Grammar

He walked to the station Did he see the man?Who did he go with? He ate with his motherHe didn’t buy anything She wasn’t given anythingWere they seen? Why did he mistrust them?You bought it, didn’t you? They were being shown the ….What were you doing when the phone rang?If I were you, I’d… If I won the lottery, I’d …Could I have that? Was he going to be there at 12?

How much to learn: grammarThe grammar takes a long timeThe main tenses have many different forms

I have given.You have given.He/she/it has given.We have given.They have given.Have I given?Have you given?Has he/she/it given?Have we given?Have they given?I haven’t given.You haven’t given.He/she/it haven’t given.We haven’t givenThey haven’t given.What have I given?What have you given?What has he/she/it given?What have we given?What have they given?

I have been given.You have been given.He/she/it has been given.We have been given.They have been given.Have I been given?Have you been given?Has he/she/it been given?Have we been given?Have they been given?I haven’t been given.You haven’t been given.He/she/it hasn’t been given.We haven’t been givenThey haven’t been given.What have I been given?What have you been given?What has he/she/it been given?What have we been given?What have they been given?

I have been giving.You have been giving.He/she/it has been giving.We have been giving.They have been giving.Have I been giving?Have you been giving?Has he/she/it been giving?Have we been giving?Have they been giving?I haven’t been giving.You haven’t been giving.He/she/it hasn’t been giving.We haven’t been givingThey haven’t been giving.Yes, I have. No, I haven’t.Yes, you have.No, you haven’t.Yes, he/she/it has.

No, he/she/it hasn’t.Yes, we have.No, we haven’t.Yes, they have.No, they haven’t……, have I?….., haven’t I?……, have you?……, haven’t you?….., has he/he/it?….., hasn’t he/she/it?….., have we?..…, haven’t we?….., have they?….., haven’t they?

Two levels of word knowledgeInitial ‘form-meaning’ level ‘Deeper’ knowledge

Learning how the meaning is connected to its spelling and pronunciation

Learning how the word works in communicative situations and with its co-text

pencil 　 　　　　 = /pensil/ =WHAT collocation, colligation, multiple

meaning senses and nuances, topic area, register, frequency, spoken or written etc.

•Quite easy to learn•Fast (if done well)•Restricted only to the meaning level

HOW •Takes a long time •Requires massive exposure •Can’t realistically be taught – too much to do.

‘Concrete stuff’: Individual words, affixes, lexical phrases, idioms, multi-part words, sentence heads etc.

WHICH ‘Abstract stuff’: collocations, colligations, spoken/written, register etc.

Intentional vs. Incidental learning

Intentional learning Incidental learning

Direct focus on learning when the focus is to learn words

FOCUS Learning ‘by accident’ - as a result of focusing on something else

wordlists, word cards, vocabulary exercises, dictionary use

E.G. from reading or listening, watching movies, listening to songs, casual conversation

•Can be learnt systematically•Meanings are learnt 16 times faster than with incidental learning•Retention high if learnt well•Decontextualized or ‘local’ learning level

LEARNING •Slow and fragile learning•Input tends to be random and unpredictable, unsystematized•Contextualized (chances for integrative learning)

Best for ‘form-meaning’ level learning USE Best for ‘deeper aspects’ of vocabulary learning

Terms

• Opportunity: the chance that students have to meet words• Exposure: the texts/ language that students actually meet• Uptake: the rate at which things are learnt• Retention: the rate at which words are learnt or forgotten

Uptake and retention

Intentional learning-fast – (Mukoyama 2005)-retention is good if the quality of learning is good-can’t learn the deeper aspects of vocabulary this way

-each collocation is too infrequent-too many to learn-necessarily need to be learnt in context

Incidental learning-20-50 meetings to learn a word’s meaning-knowledge is fragile as the meeting is often fleeting

The Forgetting Curve

Number of words

Knowledge

No. of words to read to meet it x times

Frequency Word No. % of corpus 1 5 10 20 50

1st BE 10,387 4.989% 20 100 200 401 1,002

2nd THE 10,027 4.816% 21 104 208 415 1,038

Top 25 SOME 1,192 0.573% 175 873 1,747 3,493 8,733

Top 50 SENTENCE 606 0.291% 344 1,718 3,436 6,871 17,178

Top 100 OUT 323 0.155% 645 3,223 6,446 12,892 32,230

Top 500 PREDICT 50 0.024% 4,164 20,820 41,641 83,281 208,203

Top 1000 ORGANIC 18 0.009% 11,567 57,834 115,668 231,337 578,342

Top 1500 TIMETABLE 9 0.004% 23,134 115,668 231,337 462,673 1,156,683

Top 2000 COMMERCE 4 0.002% 52,051 260,254 520,507 1,041,015 2,602,538

Top 2500 BIOCHEMICAL 2 0.001% 104,102 520,508 1,041,015 2,082,030 5,205,075

Top 3000 REFUND 2 0.001% 104,102 520,508 1,041,015 2,082,030 5,205,075

Occurrence rates

Opportunity

In EFL environments: • Natural opportunity is low• Natural opportunity takes time, effort and commitment• Opportunities have to be sought• For many, creating language opportunities can only be done

realistically through course requirements

Exposure

How frequently do learners meet words?How much text do learners meet?What kinds of words do learners typically meet?

Exposure

Data from a ‘typical’ 4 skills 5–level course book series for Mexican High Schools (Sequences by Heinle Cengage) -Includes all the units, instructions, exercises, workbook material, supplementary teacher’s material and listening texts-Teachers say students complete about 70% of the material-Only 20% of the class is taught in English-Little homework other than the course book materials are given-Data do not include out of class exposure-Data do not include student to student talk, student writings

Exposure

Number of words in a typical 5 level course by frequency50+ 30-49 20-29 10-19 5-9 1-4 Total

Function 846711k 92390 6465 3986 2021 309 1051712k 1942 1291 1434 4302 3414 189 12572Other 42 175 160 2496 2873Total 179003 7756 5462 6498 3883 2685 205287Names 2106 616 812 1527 1131 953 7145

Function 41.25%1k 45.01% 3.15% 1.94% 0.98% 0.15% 0.00% 51.23%2k 0.95% 0.63% 0.70% 2.10% 1.66% 0.09% 6.12%Other 0.00% 0.00% 0.02% 0.09% 0.08% 1.22% 1.40%Total 87.20% 3.78% 2.66% 3.17% 1.89% 1.31% 100.00%

Exposure

Different words (types) in a typical 5 level course by frequency50+ 30-49 20-29 10-19 5-9 1-4 Total

Function 401k 434 167 163 131 42 9372k 22 35 60 322 506 52 997Other 2 13 27 1263 1305Total 456 202 225 466 575 1315 3239Names 14 16 34 109 177 367 717

Function 1.23%

1k 13.40% 5.16% 5.03% 4.04% 1.30% 0.00% 28.93%

2k 0.68% 1.08% 1.85% 9.94% 15.62% 1.61% 30.78%

Other 0.00% 0.00% 0.06% 0.40% 0.83% 38.99% 40.29%

Total 15.31% 6.24% 6.95% 14.39% 17.75% 40.60% 100.00%

Uptake

What uptake can we expect from a typical course?How much text do learners meet?

-Possibly 200-300,000 words over a typical 5 level course.How frequently do learners meet words?

-Function words - very very frequently-De-lexical words - (have, be, do etc.) - very very frequently-800-900 words (25-27%) are met enough times for acquisition-400-600 (10-15%) words will be partially known-1300 words (over 65-70%) will probably not be learnt

Cautions

‘Acquisition’ assumes meeting the words enough times over 3 years is sufficient

The data do not include multiple meanings, collocations, idioms, multiple-meaning senses, multi-part words, grammar, etc.

The above data are for possible uptake rates from a typical course (individual results will vary)

The data are calculated on input frequency (receptive vocabulary)

Productive vocabulary size is typically 1/4 to 1/5th of the receptive. We can expect a productive vocabulary of 200-300 easy-to-access words and another 200-300 partial-access

What to do?

Courses in general tend not to recycle vocabulary enough to allow for deep acquisition

Most courses are linear in design – always teaching new things in each unit / lesson

Learners need a good balance of intentional vs. incidental learning

Start with lots of words, phrases, lexical chunks, sentence heads first. Focus on communicability. Grammar later

Continue the coursework to provide the framework and initial knowledge of words, grammar etc.

Massive text exposure to build incidental learning

Course book plus Extensive Reading

Uptake if they add 1 graded reader per week50+ 30-49 20-29 10-19 5-9 1-4

1k 707 93 44 68 47 32

2k 223 107 90 162 125 168

Other 93 83 116 309 398 1125

Total 1023 283 250 539 570 1325 3990

1k 17.72% 2.33% 1.10% 1.70% 1.18% 0.80%

2k 5.59% 2.68% 2.26% 4.06% 3.13% 4.21%

Other 2.33% 2.08% 2.91% 7.74% 9.97% 28.20%

Total 25.64% 7.09% 6.27% 13.51% 14.29% 33.21% 100.00%

Course book plus Extensive Reading

Significant improvement in vocabulary (800 --->1600 words)More of the words in their course book reach the ‘acquisition’

level (27% ---> 40%)They will have a better sense of how the vocabulary and

grammar fit togetherThey will have a better sense of collocation, and other deeper

aspects of vocabulary acquisition.

Take home:

We can learn lots of words at the form-meaning level quicklyInitial word knowledge decays quickly unless learnt wellDeeper aspects of word knowledge grow over timeWe can expect students exposed to normal levels of input from

a course to acquire less than a thousand words receptively and a few hundred productively

Adding a Extensive Reading almost doubles their vocabulary learning

Thanks for listening

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