Morphology is said to play a role in word acquisition. English psych adjectives are identified as a category of words with morphological complex gradience, which consists of free morphs, derivatives and inflections. D...Morphology is said to play a role in word acquisition. English psych adjectives are identified as a category of words with morphological complex gradience, which consists of free morphs, derivatives and inflections. Due to their morphological features, psych adjectives were considered the ideal candidates to test the effect of morphology on word acquisition. This study adopted a within-group research design, where a controlled productive test and a receptive knowledge test were developed and administered to English learners of an intermediate level. Results suggested that acquisition of the inflections was significantly different from that of free morphs and derivatives in the controlled productive test, but no difference was found in the receptive knowledge test. Comparisons of the two tests for the three word groups showed that the only significant difference occurred in the inflection word group. The overall results revealed that learners experienced much more difficulty in acquiring inflectional psych adjectives. In light of the dissociation of associative memory and rule memory, two possible explanations for the learning problems were offered: 1) learners failed to represent the inflections in associative memory, or 2) they have not proceduralized the morphology rules in rule memory.展开更多
This paper reports a case study that explores elementary learners' reading anxiety over Chinese as a second language (CSL). Two elementary CSL learners were chosen as research participants. Lived experience descrip...This paper reports a case study that explores elementary learners' reading anxiety over Chinese as a second language (CSL). Two elementary CSL learners were chosen as research participants. Lived experience descriptions, think-aloud, retrospective interviews, field observations, and research journal writings were used to investigate the sources of elementary CSL learners' reading anxiety and the ways employed to reduce their reading anxiety. The data were analyzed by Moustakas' (1994) data analysis procedures, Creswell's (2007) three steps, and Bogdon & Biklen's (1992) data analysis methods. Results show that elementary CSL learners do have reading anxiety in their reading process and the sources of the anxiety include cross-linguistic differences between English and Chinese expressions, lack of previous knowledge, difficult and complex vocabulary, wrong guesses, and comprehension difficulties. Both participants tried to use strategies such as guessing, looking up words, understanding two character words based on the meaning of each character, skipping and keepitag reading, and using previous knowledge to predict the rest of the text to reduce their reading anxiety. The present study provides both theoretical and pedagogical implications in the field of CSL reading learning and teaching.展开更多
文摘Morphology is said to play a role in word acquisition. English psych adjectives are identified as a category of words with morphological complex gradience, which consists of free morphs, derivatives and inflections. Due to their morphological features, psych adjectives were considered the ideal candidates to test the effect of morphology on word acquisition. This study adopted a within-group research design, where a controlled productive test and a receptive knowledge test were developed and administered to English learners of an intermediate level. Results suggested that acquisition of the inflections was significantly different from that of free morphs and derivatives in the controlled productive test, but no difference was found in the receptive knowledge test. Comparisons of the two tests for the three word groups showed that the only significant difference occurred in the inflection word group. The overall results revealed that learners experienced much more difficulty in acquiring inflectional psych adjectives. In light of the dissociation of associative memory and rule memory, two possible explanations for the learning problems were offered: 1) learners failed to represent the inflections in associative memory, or 2) they have not proceduralized the morphology rules in rule memory.
文摘This paper reports a case study that explores elementary learners' reading anxiety over Chinese as a second language (CSL). Two elementary CSL learners were chosen as research participants. Lived experience descriptions, think-aloud, retrospective interviews, field observations, and research journal writings were used to investigate the sources of elementary CSL learners' reading anxiety and the ways employed to reduce their reading anxiety. The data were analyzed by Moustakas' (1994) data analysis procedures, Creswell's (2007) three steps, and Bogdon & Biklen's (1992) data analysis methods. Results show that elementary CSL learners do have reading anxiety in their reading process and the sources of the anxiety include cross-linguistic differences between English and Chinese expressions, lack of previous knowledge, difficult and complex vocabulary, wrong guesses, and comprehension difficulties. Both participants tried to use strategies such as guessing, looking up words, understanding two character words based on the meaning of each character, skipping and keepitag reading, and using previous knowledge to predict the rest of the text to reduce their reading anxiety. The present study provides both theoretical and pedagogical implications in the field of CSL reading learning and teaching.