2020 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
A usage-based approach to understanding L2 learners' knowledge of English affixes
| Project/Area Number |
20K00898
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| Research Institution | Tokyo University of Science |
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Principal Investigator |
スチュワート ジェフリー 東京理科大学, 理学部第一部教養学科, 准教授 (40536306)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
Mclean Stuart 桃山学院大学, 経営学部, 講師 (10624794)
ステクル ティモシー 新潟県立大学, 国際地域学部, 教授 (40601711)
Brown Dale 金沢大学, 外国語教育系, 准教授 (50781168)
ベネット フィリップ 新潟県立大学, 国際地域学部, 准教授 (70601714)
バティ アーロン 慶應義塾大学, 看護医療学部(藤沢), 准教授 (80406686)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
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| Keywords | vocabulary / derivations / affixes / word families |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Thus far, we have selected affixes for investigation after identifying their frequencies in English. These affixes will form the basis of our research. We then obtained a lemma-based wordlist with a good correlation to Japanese learners' vocabulary knowledge, identified all lemmas in the first 11,000 lemmas of that wordlist that contain each of the selected affixes, identified the headwords of those affixed forms and selected items for testing each the affixes as they appear in various combinations across several derivations. Going through this lemma list of 11,000 words one by one and cataloguing the various affixes they contain took the bulk of our time this year.
Next, We began writing test items to assess knowledge of these derivations. In many cases these derivations contain affixes which will in many cases be beyond the vocabulary levels of many learners within our sample, but which have headwords clearly within their vocabulary level, thereby helping reveal learners’ comprehension of affixes used in derivations, and learners' ability to deduce the meanings of derivations using knowledge of affixes.
The coronavirus crisis of 2020 consumed much of our time last year as we struggled to adjust to sudden changes at our institutions, causing a delay in the item-writing step. Therefore, the writing of the items is still ongoing.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Currently, we are completing the writing of items, and preparing to pilot the items with 30 learners who will take the entire set, with the goal of checking their quality and revising problematic ones. However, the current state of emergency regarding the coronavirus is slowing this process. It is difficult to conduct the pilot research with students given the current strict restrictions on on-campus student activity.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
After piloting the items, for our next step we will prepare a final test to determine learner vocabulary level. Our plan has been for 600 learners across five institutions to each take a sub-set of 50 items. And a group of 130 learners to take all items and act as anchors. However, coronavirus restrictions could greatly delay this process if universities are not fully reopened without restrictions by Fall of 2021. This could impact the time required to collect data and the size of the sample.
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| Causes of Carryover |
The coronavirus crisis of 2020 greatly hampered our research and travel plans for 2020. We hope to make full use of these funds after vaccinations are completed, the crisis lifts and we are able to freely research and travel again.
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