Many So-Called Lexical Errors Are Symptomatic of Weak Syntactic Knowledge
The second research question addressed the relationship between the use of certain cues and success (i.e. accuracy) on the FCT (see Table 3). Surprisingly, the use of semantic cues was not nearly as successful as predicted by theoretical models of vocabulary development. Recall that positive transfer is expected to occur with exact L1-L2 equivalents since these will necessarily belong to the same class (e.g. libra – book). However, the think-aloud data clearly show that learners often have imprecise links between the target word and the LI equivalent (see examples 17 and 18). In other words, the learner may infer the general semantic concept associated with the target word, but not the precise LI equivalent (i.e. the wordfeliz could become linked to a number of LI equivalents, such as happy, happiness, happily).5 Although establishing a link between an L2 word and its LI counterpart seems like a straightforward matter, the link could be nebulous, as described above, or it could be made to the wrong form within the correct word family (e.g. linkingye/j’z with happiness). Thus, even if the L2 and LI items coincide in word class, positive transfer is not guaranteed and word class confusions may still occur. The problem may have to do with quantity and quality of classroom input, which makes it ‘extremely difficult, if not impossible, for an L2 learner to extract and create semantic, syntactic, and morphological specifications about a word’ (Jiang, 2000, p. 49). Hearing or reading a word and inferring the meaning from context may not be enough for the learner to categorise it appropriately.
The finding that learners acquire some conceptual information (i.e. word meaning) before acquiring the grammatical class of the word is at odds with the studies of L2 lexical inferencing. Recall that those studies (cf. Lee & Wolf, 1997; Watts, 2004) demonstrated that learners generally perform better on tests of grammatical class than on tests of word meaning. This study, however, shows the opposite, i.e. learners often had established some semantic representation of the target words but not their grammatical class. There is an important difference between the studies that clarifies this apparent discrepancy. In the lexical inferencing studies reference here, the target words were nonsense words, which were, by definition, unknown to the participants.
As Watts (2004) explained, the learners in her study had very limited exposure to each nonsense word, which made it difficult or impossible to establish a link between the form and its meaning. This has important implications for vocabulary researchers because it suggests that the acquisition of real words (with the benefit of repeated exposure) may be different from the simulated acquisition of nonce words. The final research question probed learners’ inaccurate responses on the FCT, recognising that two distinct problems can lead to word class confusions. The data reveal a significant proportion (55%) of learners’ word class errors stem from misidentification of the syntactic slot. Misclassification of the target lexical items was also observed (24%), albeit less frequently. This finding is important because it challenges the view that word class is strictly a lexical problem or a matter of learning L2 derivational suffixes. This assumption has been made routinely in previous studies (e.g. Morin, 2003, 2006; Whitley, 2004) that have focused on the acquisition of derivational morphology. For example, Morin (2003) recognises that ‘L2 learners fail to distinguish among nouns, verbs, and adjectives’, but suggests that the solution lies in having a more solid grasp of derivations: ‘With a better understanding of L2 morphology, learners may be able to improve their written expression in the L2 and avoid these all too common types of mistakes’ (p. 202).
The data presented in this study, however, suggest that the problem of word class in SLA also involves a lack of sensitivity to the distributional regularities of the target language. This does not imply that derivational morphology is not a valuable tool for expanding learners’ vocabulary knowledge and increasing awareness of interrelationships among words, as noted by Morin and Schmitt and Zimmerman (2002). The findings of the current study simply underscore that many so-called lexical errors are symptomatic of weak syntactic knowledge.With years of experience in making delicate Discount Louis Vuitton Handbags , we are waiting to provide the crowning touch to your style. Just feel free to shop Louis Vuitton handbags M95545 in black here.
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