Word storage and processing define a multi-factorial domain of scientific inquiry whose thorough investigation goes well beyond the boundaries of traditional disciplinary taxonomies, to require synergic integration of a wide range of methods, techniques and empirical and experimental findings. The present book intends to approach a few central issues concerning the organization, structure and functioning of the Mental Lexicon, by asking domain experts to look at common, central topics from complementary standpoints, and discuss the advantages of developing converging perspectives. The book will explore the connections between computational and algorithmic models of the mental lexicon, word frequency distributions and information theoretical measures of word families, statistical correlations across psycho-linguistic and cognitive evidence, principles of machine learning and integrative brain models of word storage and processing. Main goal of the book will be to map out the landscape of future research in this area, to foster the development of interdisciplinary curricula and help single-domain specialists understand and address issues and questions as they are raised in other disciplines.

The importance of teaching and assessing vocabulary -- A new perspective for thinking about vocabulary -- Surveying the state of vocabulary assessment -- Which words and word meanings should we teach and assess? -- How should we assess vocabulary? -- Classroom practices for vocabulary instruction -- The role of technology to support adaptive, flexible, and scalable assessments -- Resources for developing a nation of word learners

The process of learning words and languages may seem like an instinctual trait, inherent to nearly all humans from a young age. However, a vast range of complex research and information exists in detailing the complexities of the process of word learning. Theoretical and Computational Models of Word Learning: Trends in Psychology and Artificial Intelligence strives to combine cross-disciplinary research into one comprehensive volume to help readers gain a fuller understanding of the developmental processes and influences that makeup the progression of word learning. Blending together developmental psychology and artificial intelligence, this publication is intended for researchers, practitioners, and educators who are interested in language learning and its development as well as computational models formed from these specific areas of research.

Facilitate meaningful, multilevel lessons for students in second grade using Making Words: Lessons For Home or School. This 64-page resource includes 50 reproducible hands-on activities in which children manipulate letter cards to construct words, sort words by spelling patterns, and use the sorted patterns to spell and read new words, and a reproducible sheet of instructions.Making Words: Lessons For Home or School supports the Four-Blocks(R) Literacy Model and is a great addition to any classroom or homeschool.

Early Word Learning explores the processes leading to a young child learning words and their meanings. Word learning is here understood as the outcome of overlapping and interacting processes, starting with an infant’s learning of native speech sounds to segmenting proto-words from fluent speech, mapping individual words to meanings in the face of natural variability and uncertainty, and developing a structured mental lexicon. Experts in the field review the development of early lexical acquisition from empirical, computational and theoretical perspectives to examine the development of skilled word learning as the outcome of a process that begins even before birth and spans the first two years of life. Drawing on cutting-edge research in infant eye-tracking, neuroimaging techniques and computational modelling, this book surveys the field covering both established results and the most recent advances in word learning research. Featuring chapters from international experts whose research approaches the topic from these diverse perspectives using different methodologies, this book provides a comprehensive yet coherent and unified representation of early word learning. It will be invaluable for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in early language development as well as being of interest to researchers interested in lexical development.

Measuring Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition provides an examination of the background to testing vocabulary knowledge in a second language and in particular considers the effect that word frequency and lexical coverage have on learning and communication in a foreign language. It examines the tools we have for assessing the various facets of vocabulary knowledge such as aural and written word recognition, the link with word meaning, and vocabulary depth. These are illustrated and the scores they produce are demonstrated to provide normative data. Vocabulary acquisition from course books and in the classroom in examined, as is vocabulary uptake from informal tasks. This book ties scores on tests of vocabulary breadth to performance on standard foreign language examinations and on hierarchies of communicative performance such as the CEFR.

This book provides a timely and valuable resource to explore second language vocabulary learning outside the formal language learning classroom. Rapidly evolving technology and the increasing impact of the global village have resulted in dramatic changes to and increased occasions for second language vocabulary learning. This book offers new and valuable insights into the radically different opportunities both the physical and digital wild provide for language learners to increase their vocabulary knowledge. Practical advice is also given on how second language teachers can integrate vocabulary learning in the wild into their formal classroom instruction. This collection of cutting-edge studies by international experts working within the fields of second language teaching and learning, second language acquisition, applied linguistics, informal language learning, and technology enhanced learning offers an essential resource for language teachers and researchers. The internet is a powerful source of incidental language learning, but this is only part of language learning in the wild. This excellent book shows the range of opportunities available for learning another language outside the classroom in this much neglected research area. --Paul Nation, Emeritus Professor, Victoria University of Wellington

This book highlights the importance of English academic vocabulary for success at university and explores written tasks as effective pedagogical tools to promote the acquisition of academic words. The book reviews germane and recent SLA, psycholinguistic, corpus linguistics, and L2 writing research to underscore the challenges associated with the learning of academic words. Then, it reports on three empirical studies conducted in the Polish context. The first study develops a reliable tool to assess the knowledge of academic vocabulary of undergraduate learners. The second and third studies investigate the learning of academic words after the writing of sentences and argumentative essays, and discuss the role of cognition as a mediator of such learning. The book also provides an accessible introduction to linear mixed-effect models, a powerful, reliable, and flexible statistical technique that has been gaining popularity among SLA and psycholinguistics researchers.

Knowledge of word meanings is critical to success in reading. A reader cannot fully understand a text in which the meaning to a significant number of words is unknown. Vocabulary knowledge has long been correlated with proficiency in reading. Yet, national surveys of student vocabulary knowledge have demonstrated that student growth in vocabulary has been stagnant at best. This volume offers new insights into vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary teaching. Articles range from a presentation of theories of vocabulary that guide instruction to innovative methods and approaches for teaching vocabulary. Special emphasis is placed on teaching academic and disciplinary vocabulary that is critical to success in content area learning. Our hope for this volume is that it may spark a renewed interest in research into vocabulary and vocabulary instruction and move toward making vocabulary instruction an even more integral part of all literacy and disciplinary instruction.

This handbook addresses words in all their multifarious aspects and brings together scholars from every relevant discipline to do so. The many subjects covered include word frequencies; sounds and sound symbolism; the structure of words; taboo words; lexical borrowing; words in dictionaries and thesauri; word origins and change; place and personal names; nicknames; taxonomies; word acquisition and bilingualism; words in the mind; word disorders; and word games, puns, and puzzles. Words are the most basic of all linguistic units, the aspect of language of which everyone is likely to be most conscious. A 'new' word that makes it into the OED is prime news; when baby says its first word its parents reckon it has started to speak; knowing a language is often taken to mean knowing its words; and languages are seen to be related by the similarities between their words. Up to the twentieth century linguistic description was mainly an account of words and all the current subdivisions of linguistics have something to say about them. A notable feature of human languages is the sheer vastness of their word inventories, and scholars and writers have sometimes deliberately increased the richness of their languages by coining or importing new items into their word-hoards. The book presents scholarship and research in a manner that meets the interests of students and professionals and satisfies the curiosity of the educated reader.