Effect of instruction with expert patterns on the lexical learning of English as a foreign language

• Published in: System (Linköping) Vol. 32; no. 1; pp. 89 - 102
• Main Author: Sanchez, Maria Jesus
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2004; Elsevier
• Subjects: English; English (Second Language); English as a Second Language Learning; English as a Second Language Teaching Methods; Expert; Foreign language; Hypothesis Testing; Instruction; Learning; Lexicon; Multiple choice; Multiple Choice Tests; Organization; Pathfinder; Rating task; Second Language Instruction; Semantic Fields; Semantics; Sentences; Teaching Methods; Verbal Tasks; Vocabulary Development; Vocabulary Instruction; Learning; Pathfinder; English; Organization; Rating task; Expert; Multiple choice; Instruction; Foreign language
• ISSN: 0346-251X; 1879-3282
• DOI: 10.1016/j.system.2003.05.002

The aim of this research was to show the importance of instruction in learning a specific set of words. Two different tasks were used in the experiment: one in which subjects were required to fill in sentences and choose the appropriate answer in a multiple choice exercise (lexical test), and the other was a rating task designed to assess semantic relationships. It was hypothesized that subjects would gain a better knowledge of the vocabulary when it was taught with the experts'organization than could be acquired with the organization used by teachers and linguists which is arranged according to what they believe to be relevant parameters [Faber and Pérez, Atlantis 15 (1993), 117–134]. The analyses with the lexical task and with the relatedness ratings, carried out with the Pathfinder procedure, confirm this hypothesis.