Search

The aim of the paper is to examine the effect of three different groups of words on learning new vocabulary by students of English for Specific Purposes. Semantically related, thematically related, and semantically unrelated sets of words were presented to the students. After each presentation, immediate tests of receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge were performed in which the students translated words in isolation in both translation directions. Delayed testing was conducted fourteen days later and the students also answered the questions on the difficulty of each group of words and translation direction. One-way analysis of variance was used to analyze the test results. The results of immediate testing showed there was no statistically significant difference between students’ receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge of the three sets of words. However, the results of the delayed test showed a significant difference in favour of the semantically related words because the students knew more words from this group compared to the thematically related and semantically unrelated groups of words. The students’ attitudes are consistent with the obtained results since most of the students think that the easiest set of words for them to acquire is the semantic one. Therefore, we conclude that semantically related sets of words can be presented to the students in the classroom, although some authors claim that the semantic connection between the words hinders the acquisition of the new vocabulary.

Copyright of Teaching Innovations / Inovacije u Nastavi is the property of University of Belgrade, Faculty of Teacher Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of European Review of Applied Psychology is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: This present study is aimed at examining whether there is a significant difference in the vocabulary mastery of students who are taught using semantically related words and those who are taught using unrelated words. Quasi Experimental Research is used with Posttest Only Design involving 54 students from two classes. A vocabulary test is constructed as a main instrument. Data of students’ score are analyzed by using Independent T-test. Findings reveal that semantically related words method has positive effects on students’ retention. It is recommended that English teachers implement semantically related words. They should also consider the materials is beneficial for students. Key Words: semantically related words, unrelated words, teaching vocabulary Abstrak: Penelitian ini ini bertujuan untuk menguji keberadaan perbedaan signifikan dalam penguasaan kosakata siswa yang diajar menggunakan semantically related words dan siswa yang diajarkan menggunakan semantically unrelated words. Kuasi Experimental Research digunakan dengan Posttest Only Design dan melibatkan 54 siswa dari dua kelas. Sebuah tes kosakata dibangun sebagai instrumen utama. Data skor siswa dianalisis dengan menggunakan Independent T-test. Temuan menunjukkan bahwa semantically related words memiliki efek positif pada retensi siswa. Disarankan agar guru bahasa Inggris menerapkan semantically related words. Mereka juga harus mempertimbangkan materi-materi yang bermanfaat bagi siswa. Kata kunci: semantically related words, unrelated words, pengajaran kosakata

It has been repeatedly argued that semantically related words should not be learned together because learning is impeded. However, the results of past studies are not uniform, some providing favorable results for semantic clustering, and some seem to suggest different types of similarity affect memory in different ways. The types of similarity that truly causethe problem therefore need to be examined more carefully. Focusing on visual features, which are commonly observed across different models of working memory, a study was conducted to examine if learners have difficulty memorizing a group of words that describe items with common physical features. The study compared the learning of three types of word sets: unrelated, semantically related, and physically related. While no statistically significant difference was observed between semanticallyrelated and unrelated sets, the scores for physically related sets were significantly lower than those for the other two types. This suggests the possibility that the impeding effect of semantic clustering reported in the past could be partly due to the precise nature of semantically similar words, which sometimes share visual features.

Four papers by Tomoko Ishii, Emilie Masson, Atsushi Mizumoto and Rachael Ruegg will be presented in morning session of the Second Annual JALT Vocabulary SIG Vocabulary Symposium in Fukuoka, Japan on July 2, 2013. As discussant, it is my pleasure to comment upon each manuscript. These four lexical researchers originate from all over Japan: Tokyo, Fukuoka, Osaka and Akita. The range of their lexical topics is almost as wide: semantically related words, loanword usage difficulties, self-efficacy and autonomy in vocabulary learning, and, lexical feedback on writing. After commenting on each paper in turn, I shall present a few suggestions for their future research.

Code search is an integral part of software development and program comprehension. The difficulty of code search lies in the inability to guess the exact words used in the code. Therefore, it is crucial for keyword-based code search to expand queries with semantically related words, e.g., synonyms and abbreviations, to increase the search effectiveness. However, it is limited to rely on resources such as English dictionaries and WordNet to obtain semantically related words in software because many words that are semantically related in software are not semantically related in English. On the other hand, many words that are semantically related in English are not semantically related in software. This paper proposes a simple and general technique to automatically infer semantically related words (referred to as rPairs) in software by leveraging the context of words in comments and code. In addition, we propose a ranking algorithm on the rPair results and study cross-project rPairs on two sets of software with similar functionality, i.e., media browsers and operating systems. We achieve a reasonable accuracy in nine large and popular code bases written in C and Java. Our further evaluation against the state of art shows that our technique can achieve a higher precision and recall. In addition, the proposed ranking algorithm improves the rPair extraction accuracy by bringing correct rPairs to the top of the list. Our cross-project study successfully discovers overlapping rPairs among projects of similar functionality and finds that cross-project rPairs are more likely to be correct than project-specific rPairs. Since the cross-project rPairs are highly likely to be general for software of the same type, the discovered overlapping rPairs can benefit other projects of the same type that have not been analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A word-list recall is an experiment that examines the effect of age on the change in memory. The ability to understand or use language is more or less dependent on the memory capacity. Any person may know what s/he wants to say but may not be able to say it if the memory does not help. We use some form of memory in all aspects of language processing. Whatever we have in our mind is stored whether for seconds, hours, or years. By short-term memory, a person can remember different things for a period of seconds or minutes only. By rehearsal, the duration and the quantity of storage will increase. Therefore, rehearsal transforms the short-term memory into the long-term memory. This experiment, which examines the number of words recalled by different age groups after presenting a word list, reveals that the younger a person the more are the words he or she recalls. The experiment also reveals that semantically related words have greater chance to be remembered when they are compared with unrelated words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]