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Testing the Quality of Word Knowledge in a Second Language by Means of Word Associations: Types of Distractors and Types of Associations
Author(s) -
Greidanus Tine,
Nienhuis Lydius
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
the modern language journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.486
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1540-4781
pISSN - 0026-7902
DOI - 10.1111/0026-7902.00126
Subject(s) - syntagmatic analysis , word (group theory) , psychology , word lists by frequency , test (biology) , computer science , quality (philosophy) , natural language processing , linguistics , sentence , philosophy , epistemology , paleontology , biology
The quality of word knowledge in a second language (L2) and the assessment of it is a growing field of interest. Read (1993) presented a test format that assesses the quality of word knowledge by means of word associations. The present study examined the development of the word knowledge of 2 groups of advanced learners of French as a L2 by means of a slightly revised version of this test format. Three aspects in particular were studied. First, there was the type of distractor most suited to the participants: distractors semantically related to the stimulus word versus semantically nonrelated distractors. Second, the role of the 3 types of associations was distinguished: paradigmatic, syntagmatic, and analytic. Third, the study linked qualitative aspects of word knowledge to quantitative aspects, by distinguishing 5 frequency ranges. The semantically related distractors were found to be more appropriate to assess the quality of word knowledge of advanced learners than the semantically nonrelated distractors. The participants showed a preference for paradigmatic responses, as expected. There was a relation between frequency and quality of knowledge: The more frequent a word, the better the knowledge of the tested aspects.