Pixel International Conferences

Keywords: comprehensible input, graded readers, second language acquisition

Methods of foreign language teaching that deliberately mimic the way children acquire their first language, such as Krashen's comprehensible input [4], have proven effective for a large number and variety of learners. As these methods rely heavily on knowledge of psychology and psycholinguistics, it comes naturally that new discoveries in the said fields should motivate their extension and, possibly, modification. Leung et al. claim that parents introduce complex vocabulary in a specific, fine-tuned manner, providing additional explanatory context to the child [5]. The present study will utilise corpus linguistics to test the hypothesis that abridged literature for language learners and young readers also exhibits this trait. For the purpose, original and abridged versions of literary works in several languages will be juxtaposed (including, among others, Alice in Wonderland, The Secret Garden and Let Miserables) in relation to the context in which they introduce complex vocabulary. Furthermore, the presence and prominence of the examined textual characteristic will be analysed by target reader age as well as by language, thus shedding light on what Krashen refers to as the “natural order” of language acquisition.

References

[1] Charyulu, G. M. (2018). Complications in Reading Abridged Texts: a Study on Cultural Destruction by ELLs in Meaning-Making Process, Review of Research 7, 9: 1-5.

[2] DuBay, W. H. (2007), The Classic Readability Studies, Clearinghouse.

[3] Gala, N., Todirascu, A., Bernhard, D., Wilkens, R. and Meyer, J.-P. (2020). Transformations syntaxiques pour une aide à l’apprentissage de la lecture : typologie, adéquation et corpus adaptés, Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Française, Montpellier, France.

[4] Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and Practices of Second Language Acquisition, Pergamon.

[5] Leung, A., Tunkel, A. and Yurovsky, D. (2021). Parents Fine-Tune Their Speech to Children's Vocabulary Knoweldge, Psychological Science, 32: 975–984

[6] Moje, E. B., Overby, M., Tysvaer, N. and Morris, K. (2008). The Complex World of Adolescent Literacy: Myths, Motivations, and Mysteries, Harvard Educational Review 78, 1: 107–54.

[7] Reading for Pleasure: A Research Overview. (2006). National Literacy Trust. https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/reading-pleasure-research-overview/.

[8] Rodriguez, A., Leonor, G. and Flórez, E. E. R. (2018). Using the Abridged Version of Some Novels as a Way to Encourage Students’ Written and Oral Production, GiST Education and Learning Research Journal, 16: 6-32.

[9] The Development and Psychometric Properties of LIWC-22. (2022). LIWC.https://www.liwc.app/static/documents/LIWC-22%20Manual%20-%20Development%20and%20Psychometrics.pdf.

[10] Xia, M., Kochmar, E. and Briscoe, T. (2016). Text Readability Assessment for Second Language Learners, Proceedings of the 11th Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications, 12-22.