The forgotten learning principles in vocabulary acquisition
What is it about?
The question how new words in a foreign language are best learned is still controversial. Some learning psychologists experimentally showed that learning in paired lists (e.g. Eng. the bank= Fr. la banque) is more efficient than learning in context ('I did the transfer via my bank'). However, the experiments are misleading in that they do not take account of the linguistic complexity of words ( e.g. homonymy 'bank= bord (du fleuve), conjugation of verbs, etc.) or of the complexity of the mental lexicon (e.g. associations bank-money-transfer…). Starting from insights in these complexities alternative acquisition strategies (e.g. 'pregnant contexts') for vocabulary acquisition are presented.
Why is it important?
Efficient vocabulary acquisition strategies based on cognitive and linguistic insights foster foreign language acquisition