Online word association survey - call for participation
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 11:36 pm
Howdy folks,
When I say "apple", what's the first word you think of? According to recent research (Yoneoka, 2001; Thomas, 2006), if your native language is Japanese or Korean you might respond with something like "red" or "delicious". However, if you are a native speaker of another language, your response may be more along the lines of "banana" or "fruit". Native Japanese and Korean speakers tend to respond syntagmatically, or with words of a different word class than the stimulus, while native speakers of other languages tend to respond paradigmatically, or with words of the same word class.
My current MA dissertation research explores this interesting Japanese/Korean tendency. In my study, I'll be using an online English word association survey to collect responses from participants with different native languages. The goal is to explore the different ways in which they organize words in their mental lexicons.
This research can provide useful insights into how English learners store and relate English words in their minds, which in turn can aid in vocabulary teaching and in the development of learner dictionaries, thesauri, textbooks, and other teaching materials.
I’d like to extend an open invitation to you and your students to participate in my research. I've constructed a convenient online survey that can be completed in just a few minutes, either in class (if you have a computer lab) or on the students’ own computers elsewhere. If you’re interested in having your class participate – and this applies to not only ESL/EFL classes but also to native English speaking content classes – please PM me here or contact me off-list at:
info AT thementallexicon DOT com
I’ll provide you with details and a link to the survey which you can pass on to your class.
Many of my students find word association surveys interesting as it gets them thinking about how words relate to each other. For those who have computers in the classroom, the survey could make a fine warm-up for a vocabulary lesson.
To see some of my previous research, please visit:
http://www.thementallexicon.com/Second_ ... ,_2006.pdf
Thanks very much,
Dax Thomas
Sugaya Gakuen
Reference:
Yoneoka, J. (2001) ‘Word Associations: The Universal Paradigmatic Pattern Assumption and the Japanese/Korean Anomaly,’ Kumamoto Gakuen Daigaku Ronshu Sogo Kagaku 7-2, p. 161-174.　　 http://www2.kumagaku.ac.jp/teacher/~jud ... rtf　
*edited once to fix broken link*
When I say "apple", what's the first word you think of? According to recent research (Yoneoka, 2001; Thomas, 2006), if your native language is Japanese or Korean you might respond with something like "red" or "delicious". However, if you are a native speaker of another language, your response may be more along the lines of "banana" or "fruit". Native Japanese and Korean speakers tend to respond syntagmatically, or with words of a different word class than the stimulus, while native speakers of other languages tend to respond paradigmatically, or with words of the same word class.
My current MA dissertation research explores this interesting Japanese/Korean tendency. In my study, I'll be using an online English word association survey to collect responses from participants with different native languages. The goal is to explore the different ways in which they organize words in their mental lexicons.
This research can provide useful insights into how English learners store and relate English words in their minds, which in turn can aid in vocabulary teaching and in the development of learner dictionaries, thesauri, textbooks, and other teaching materials.
I’d like to extend an open invitation to you and your students to participate in my research. I've constructed a convenient online survey that can be completed in just a few minutes, either in class (if you have a computer lab) or on the students’ own computers elsewhere. If you’re interested in having your class participate – and this applies to not only ESL/EFL classes but also to native English speaking content classes – please PM me here or contact me off-list at:
info AT thementallexicon DOT com
I’ll provide you with details and a link to the survey which you can pass on to your class.
Many of my students find word association surveys interesting as it gets them thinking about how words relate to each other. For those who have computers in the classroom, the survey could make a fine warm-up for a vocabulary lesson.
To see some of my previous research, please visit:
http://www.thementallexicon.com/Second_ ... ,_2006.pdf
Thanks very much,
Dax Thomas
Sugaya Gakuen
Reference:
Yoneoka, J. (2001) ‘Word Associations: The Universal Paradigmatic Pattern Assumption and the Japanese/Korean Anomaly,’ Kumamoto Gakuen Daigaku Ronshu Sogo Kagaku 7-2, p. 161-174.　　 http://www2.kumagaku.ac.jp/teacher/~jud ... rtf　
*edited once to fix broken link*