Improving lexical richness by text analysis software

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Improving lexical richness by text analysis
software

• Arthur McNeill
• The Chinese University of Hong Kong

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What is lexical richness?

• Quality of vocabulary content of learner output
• Difficult to define
• Different approaches to defining LR are provoking
  heated debate among scholars

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Does lexical richness matter?

• Judges are influenced by lexical content, even
  when they are not asked to focus on vocabulary.
• High correlations between lexical richness and
  other measures of second language proficiency.

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Issues in LR debate

• Assumptions about lexical coverage
• The most frequent 2000 words of English account
  for about 80 of most texts, so low L2 vocabulary
  targets were set for learners

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Vocabulary size and text coverage
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Impact of first 2000 words plus AWL (570
academic words)
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Indicators of lexical richness

• amount of low frequency words in the text
• type/token ratio
• range of vocabulary
• command of different semantic fields

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What vocabulary skills are involved?

• avoiding repetition of words (e.g. by lexical and
  pronominal substitution)
• knowing how to combine words (e.g. collocation
  compounding)

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Examples from Hong Kong sample

• Repetition of key words (need for lexical
  substitution
• The under-use of superordination
• The need for lexical enrichment (adjectives and
  adverbs)

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• I have a rubber, an old, small rubber. Although
  it is so small that I can not use it anymore, I
  still keep it carefully in my drawer as it is so
  important for me.
• That is a long, long time that I have my
  rubber. Four years ago, when I was still an
  eight-years-old child, my parents bought me a
  rubber as my birthday present. I put it into my
  pencil-box and brought it to school everyday.
• We had an interesting game in the past. We
  used our rubber to play with in the game. We
  pushed our rubber one by one and tried not to be
  pushed out at the desk by another rubber. We
  pushed and pulled our rubbers, soon our rubbers
  became older and smaller one day than one day.

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Calculating the lexical frequency profile of a
students text
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Calculating the lexical frequency profile of a
students text
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• I have a rubber, an old, small rubber. Although
  it is so small that I can not use it anymore, I
  still keep it carefully in my drawer as it is so
  important for me.
• That is a long, long time that I have my
  rubber. Four years ago, when I was still an
  eight-years-old child, my parents bought me a
  rubber as my birthday present. I put it into my
  pencil-box and brought it to school everyday.
• We had an interesting game in the past. We
  used our rubber to play with in the game. We
  pushed our rubber one by one and tried not to be
  pushed out at the desk by another rubber. We
  pushed and pulled our rubbers, soon our rubbers
  became older and smaller one day than one day.

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Substitutes for rubber

• It (pronoun)
• One (pronoun)
• Eraser (synonym)
• Item of stationery (definition)
• Device? (superordinate)
• Tool? (superordinate)
• Thing? (colloquial superordinate)

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• I have a rubber, an old, small one. Although it
  is so small that I can not use it anymore, I
  still keep it carefully in my drawer as it is so
  important for me.
• That is a long, long time that I have my
  favourite chosen possession. Four years ago, when
  I was still an eight-years-old child, my parents
  bought it for me as my birthday present. I put it
  into my pencil-box and brought it to school
  everyday.
• We had an interesting game in the past. We
  used our eraser to play with in the game. We
  pushed our items of stationery one by one and
  tried not to be pushed out at the desk by another
  opponent. We pushed and pulled our weapons, soon
  our rubbers became older and smaller one day than
  one day.

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What vocabulary skills help learners with lexical
richness?

• Synonymy
• Giving definitions
• Knowing the name of the superordinate
• Knowing the name of the member (e.g. item,
  piece, article, etc.)
• Using metaphor (e.g. using known words in a
  metaphorical sense)

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Text written by a local HK 16-year old under exam
conditions

• Many students strive for academic exellency,
  but what is the motivation behind their hardwork?
  In this essay, I am going to explore the
  different aspects of learning, and analyse the
  pros and cons of each motivating factor.
• The hunger for knowledge and wisdom can
  motivate students to learn. They hope to widen
  their horizons through reading, watching
  educational programs, travelling and other ways.
  To them, the world is a fascinating place, full
  of wonders and mysteries to unravel. Their love
  of learning motivates them to seek knowledge in
  all areas, from science and mathematics to arts.

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Superordination
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Using superordinate terms
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Using superordinate terms
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Need for lexical enrichment

• When we went up to the classroom, I was sweating.
  Miss Ip neared my table and put the exam paper in
  front of me. I closed my eyes and opened it a
  fraction of an inch. There, on top of the paper,
  was a 77. My heart sank. Then my teacher put the
  other exam paper in front of me. I took it and
  saw an 88 in the mark box.

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Lexical expansion

• When we went up to the (adj.) classroom, I was
  sweating (adv.). Miss Ip neared my table (adv.)
  and (adv.) put the (adj.) exam paper in front of
  me. I (adv.) closed my eyes and (adv.) opened it
  a fraction of an inch. There, on top of the
  (adj.) paper, was a 77. My heart sank. Then my
  (adj.) teacher put the other exam paper in front
  of me. I (adv.) took it and saw an 88 in the mark
  box.

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Teaching implications

• Encourage self-management of vocabulary learning
  by students
• Websites which offer frequency-based words in
  mini-contexts can provide some short-cuts to
  incidental (random) vocabulary growth.
• Process writing can develop awareness of lexical
  richness.

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Useful websites

• Tom Cobb (University of Quebec)
• www.lextutor.ca
• Paul Nation (Victoria University, Wellington
• www.vuw.ac.nz/
• Paul Meara (University of Wales Swansea)
• www.swan.ac.uk/calsresearch
• Arthur McNeill (Chinese University of HK)
• www.cuhk.edu.hk/ENG5600