Investigating Cognitive Aspects of Lexical Chunk Acquisition

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Investigating Cognitive Aspects of Lexical Chunk
Acquisition

• Alan Ping-Yu Huang
• 2006/12/13

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Why study lexical chunks?
Snvizslrbnirebn ksn lkdsn bszerin nrovbrobn
nbrob
underlying linguistic rules
lexical chunks
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Overview

• Previous research on lexical chunks
• Previous eye-movement studies
• Design of a pilot eye-movement study
• Data analysis
• Design of a lexical chunk acquisition study

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Previous research on lexical chunks
(1) Definition and terminology

• Examples as a matter of fact in ___ point of
  view
• Different terms prefabricated patterns (Hakuta,
  1974)
• memorized sentences and lexicalized stems
  (Pawley Syder, 1983)
• lexical phrases (Nattinger DeCarrico,
  1992)
• lexical bundles (Biber et al, 1999)
• formulaic sequences (Wray, 2002)
• Definition a sequence, continuous or
  discontinuous, of words or other elements,
  which is, or appears to be, prefabricated that
  is, stored and retrieved whole from memory at the
  time of use, rather than being subject to
  generation or analysis by the language grammar.
  

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Previous research on lexical chunks
(2) Native-like proficiency and lexical chunks

• Pawley Syder (1983)
• Native-like selection
• E.g. 1a. I desired you to become married to me.
• 1b. Your marrying me is desired by me.
• Native-like fluency
• limitation of working memory (Miller, 1956)

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Previous research on lexical chunks
(3) Detection of formulaicityNSs judgments

• Fernando (1996)
• compositeness
• institionalization E.g. take the bull by the
  horns
• semantic opacity
• Foster (2001)difficulty of deciding formulaicity
• NSs reported difficulty in knowing where exactly
  to mark boundaries of some lexical chunks (p.
  84).

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Previous research on lexical chunks
(4) Detection of formulaicitycorpus-derived
sequences

• Biber, Conrad, and Cortes (2004)
• More stance (e.g. I dont know if) and discourse
  organization (e.g. what do you think) sequences
  were used in classroom instruction than in
  textbooks.
• Schmitt, Grandage, and Adolphss (2004) argument
• e.g. I see what you
• is one of the most

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Previous research on lexical chunks (5) Lexical
chunks in L2 acquisition

• Hakuta (1974)
• (1) patterns with the copula (e.g. Why these
  are dirty?)
• (2) segments do you in questions (e.g. What do
  you drinking, her?)
• (3) segments how to in how-questions (e.g. I know
  how to read it this)

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Previous research on lexical chunks
(6) Processing of lexical chunks in L2
acquisition

• Underwood, Schmitt, and Galpin (2004)
• Lexical chunks seemed to be processed as single
  units by NSs, and not by NNSs.
• E.g.
• from the point of view

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Overview

• Previous research on lexical chunks
• Previous eye-movement studies
• Design of a pilot eye-movement study
• Data analysis
• Design of a lexical chunk acquisition study

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Previous eye-movement studies (1) What can we
know from observing eye movements?
Frenck-Mestre, C. (2005)
The factory fixed during the night opened its
door very early
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Previous eye-movement studies (2) An example
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Previous research on lexical chunks (3) Relevant
studiescontextual constraints

• Assumption words which are constrained by
  linguistic contexts offer redundant information
  and thus get fewer and shorter fixations in
  reading.
• Ehrlich Rayner (1981)

danger sharks created
zoo
shark
shark
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Overview

• Previous research on lexical chunks
• Previous eye-movement studies
• Design of a pilot eye-movement study
• Data analysis
• Design of a lexical chunk acquisition study

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Design of a pilot eye-movement study (1) Purpose

• The pilot study aims at investigating whether
  lexical chunks are processed and stored as single
  units in human minds.
• Native speakers
• Non-native speakers

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Design of a pilot eye-movement study
(2) Participants

• Native speakers two English-speaking native
  speakers.
• Non-native speakers
• 11 EFL learners in Taiwan, studying in the MS
  program in the English Department of Tamkang
  University.

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Design of a pilot eye-movement study
(3) Materials
Underwood, Schmidt and Galpins (2004) study
twenty chunks
a large sum of money (mean)
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Design of a pilot eye-movement study
(5) Hypothesis

• E.g. beat around the bush
• When the native speaking subjects read the
  lexical chunks, they will have shorter and fewer
  fixation durations on the terminal words of these
  sequences, while the L2 subjects will not.

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Overview

• Previous research on lexical chunks
• Previous eye-movement studies
• Design of a pilot eye-movement study
• Data analysis
• Design of a lexical chunk acquisition study

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Data analysis (1) Numbers of fixations
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Data analysis (2) Mean fixation durations
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Data analysis (3) Findings

• Native speakers had fewer and shorter fixations
  on terminal words in lexical chunks, while
  non-native speakers did not.

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Overview

• Previous research on lexical chunks
• Previous eye-movement studies
• Design of a pilot eye-movement study
• Data analysis
• Design of a lexical chunk acquisition study

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Design of a lexical chunk acquisition study (1)
NNSs
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Design of a lexical chunk acquisition study
(2) Can the processing of lexical chunks be
facilitated through reading?
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Design of a lexical chunk acquisition study
(3) Can explicit knowledge of chunks be
converted into implicit use?

• Paradis (1994)
• Anderson (1983)

explicit knowledge
implicit knowledge
?