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The benefits of abstract word training on productive vocabulary knowledge among second language learners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2019

Chaleece W. Sandberg ,
Erin Carpenter ,
Katherine Kerschen ,
Daniela Paolieri  and
Carrie N. Jackson
Chaleece W. Sandberg*
Affiliation:
Penn State University
Erin Carpenter
Affiliation:
Penn State University
Katherine Kerschen
Affiliation:
Penn State University
Daniela Paolieri
Affiliation:
University of Granada
Carrie N. Jackson
Affiliation:
Penn State University
*
*Corresponding author. Email: cws18@psu.edu
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Abstract

This study investigates the effect of an abstract word training paradigm initially developed to treat lexical retrieval deficits in patients with aphasia on second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition. Three English–Spanish L2 learners (Experiment 1) and 10 Spanish–English L2 learners (Experiment 3) were trained on 15 abstract words within a context-category (e.g., restaurant) using a five-step training paradigm based on semantic feature analysis. In addition, 7 English–Spanish L2 learners were trained on either abstract or concrete words within a context-category (Experiment 2). Across all experiments, the majority of participants trained on abstract words showed improved production of the trained abstract words, as measured by a word generation task, as well as improvement on untrained concrete words within the same context-category (i.e., generalization). Participants trained on concrete words (Experiment 2) exhibited much smaller word production gains and no generalization to abstract words. These results parallel previous findings from aphasia research and suggest that this training paradigm can successfully be extended to L2 learning contexts, where it has the potential to be a useful tool in vocabulary instruction. We discuss the findings in terms of models of spreading activation and the underlying conceptual representations of abstract and concrete words in the L2 lexicon.

Keywords

abstract word retrievalsecond language learningvocabulary acquisitionword retrieval training
Type
Original Article
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 40 , Issue 6 , November 2019 , pp. 1331 - 1362
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

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