Metalinguistic awareness in L2 vocabulary acquisition: which factors influence learners’ motivations of form-meaning connections?

ABSTRACT

Research has shown that prompting learners to elaborate on the appropriateness of form-meaning links can be an efficient vocabulary learning exercise (Deconinck, Boers & Eyckmans, 2017). In this paper we wish to shed more light on the mental processes that occur during this specific elaborative task by investigating the influence of individual learner variables pertaining to prior linguistic knowledge and a number of word-specific features. To this end fifty Dutch-speaking EFL learners rated the congruency they perceived between the form and meaning of 24 English words on a 6-point Likert scale. The motivation of their scores was elicited by means of a think-aloud protocol, the transcriptions of which were analysed with regard to the type of elaborations made. Vocabulary size tests and a language background questionnaire provided us with additional information about the learners. We identified five types of elaborations: cross-lexical associations, sound-symbolic associations, word-form comparisons, morphological associations, and idiosyncratic associations. The data also reveal that the individual learner variables and word-specific features examined in the present study have an influence on the number of elaborations made by the learners. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• L2 vocabulary learning
• cognitive linguistics
• metalinguistic awareness
• SLA
• vocabulary teaching

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the participants who took part in this project and the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions, which have allowed us to improve this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. These words were first used by Elgort, Candry, Boutorwick, Eyckmans, & Brysbaert (2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah Candry

Sarah Candry is a PhD student at the Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication of Ghent University. In 2014, she started her PhD on structural elaboration techniques in L2 vocabulary learning. Her main research interests include second language acquisition, L2 vocabulary learning and foreign language pedagogy.

Julie Deconinck

Julie Deconinck is an assistant professor at the Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). She teaches a variety of English language and translation courses to students in the Applied Linguistics programme of the VUB. Her research interests include L2 vocabulary learning, language teaching, cognitive linguistics, and, more recently, the social and cultural aspects of language learning and multilingualism in general.

June Eyckmans

June Eyckmans is an associate professor in applied linguistics at the Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication of Ghent University where she teaches courses on applied linguistics and research methodology. Her research interests centre on second language acquisition research, with a special focus on L2 vocabulary learning, on the methodology of assessment and on study abroad research.  She currently supervises research projects on individual difference variables, vocabulary learning and incidental language acquisition. She is often consulted by national and international organisations for the improvement of language assessment procedures.