Word Coach - Pitt Sept 08

Tom Cobb
Université du Québec à Montréal
“ Does My Word Coach
coach words?”
http://mywordcoach.us.ubi.com/ This PPT at http://www.lextutor.ca/cv/ppt/pittsburgh.ppt

Video Game use – exponential increase
A great deal of some kind of learning no doubt happens
But can targeted learning be made to happen?
Can we exploit this trend rather than fight it?

Many learning claims get made

Few games have specific learning goals
Claims are about “new ways of learning,” not about any particular content
Few (any?) claims are based on empirical investigation
But more in glossy books than dull research papers

To design a game with concrete learning goals
Based on learning principles
In one’s own research area
And investigates its effects empirically
An interesting opportunity therefore…

Game contains all the non-specialist words of English
Sequenced by frequency/range in the BNC
Yes-no test determines start-point in sequence
Words are introduced in six coordinated word games
Games focus on
Form
Meaning
Verbal efficiency (speed of access)
Words are dropped only after six correct uses
Principled recycling
Games are integrated within a tutor-model
Choice of tutor
Goal setting, record keeping, error review
Game incorporates a level-appropriate dictionary
CALD
My Word Coach - description

Belief: Discovery is not a sufficient strategy to grow an L2 lexicon
Some type of vocab focus is demonstrably necessary
Computer /video game is an ideal start to this job
Although maybe not finish
My Word Coach - philosophy

Predecessors 1

Predecessors 2

Predecessors 3

Word Coach’s Pedagogy

Behind-the-scenes pedagogy

Word Coach’s Coaches

Content – 3 strands 1. Form of words

2. Meaning of words

3. Processing speed

All packaged in a small box … and announced to the world in a huge publicity campaign -
http://mywordcoach.us.ubi.com

Are more word meanings known
both immediately + after delay
Are more words used
in oral production
Are words accessed more quickly?
Research Questions Following substantial use of the game…

Grade 6 primary school in suburban Montreal
Feb-June 2007
Two intact classes, same teacher, n=50
Condition 1: both groups get to use game
Condition 2: testing sessions not to exceed 1 hr
60%+ immigrant children, some quasi-bi/tri-lingual
French, English, another
Instruction is in French,
2 hrs/wk ESL
Game is integrated into ESL classwork
Parents solidly behind experiment
DS players + game disks from Ubisoft
Subjects and setting

1. For meanings known
Paul Nation’s BNC-based 14k Levels test
10 levels used, then 5
2. For words used
Boy, dog and frog story (Mercer)
Analyzed with VP-kids
3. For word access
UNESCO method
Read words aloud from 60-word list in fixed time
Instruments

(60 words) 3

Research Design

Results To note first: Equal game use between groups (despite considerable variance)

Results 1 1a. Levels Test (pretest, both groups, no diffs) About 2350 word meanings known from first 5000 families but only just over half at key 1k level (600 words, SD 150)

Results 1b. Levels post-test
Significant gains for first 5 k-levels combined at T3

Results 1c. Levels Test (3 times, both groups)

Results – Levels Test - Summary Initial state: No significant difference Baseline (602, T1-T2): No significant difference Following game use 601: 459 words average gain, **sig – but at T3, not T2 602: 178 words average gain, * sig Note: These are average gains Incorporating wide range of variance

Results 2 2a. Frog stories – new words in use

Results 2b. Frog stories – where are these gains?

Results 2c. Frog stories – story size

Results 2c. Frog stories – the main difference

Listen & compare
Which Frog story is T1, and which is T3?
From same user
Just above average use-record
Francophone
but no code-switching issue
Press on to see VP-Kids profiles 

Results - 2e. Example

Results – 2f. Example

Results – Frog stories - Summary Initial state: No significant difference (n.s.d.) - In # families used - In # tokens (=story size) Baseline (602, T1-T2): n.s.d. Following game use Despite variance: - Average 3 new word families - Average 35 more word tokens - Average 45% reduction in # of L1 words used

Results 3 3. Access – number of words read in 1 min.

Results 3. Access – number of words read in 1 min.

Results – Lexical access - Summary Initial state: No significant difference (n.s.d.) Baseline (602, T1-T2): Small but sig gains * Practice effect Following game use Despite variance: - Av. 23 more words read/minute - Statistically significant **

Results 4 – qualitative + post-hoc 4a. Beyond our means

Results – qualitative + post-hoc 4b. Winning profiles

Results – qualitative + post-hoc 4b. Winning conditions

Are more word meanings known
both immediately + after delay
Are more words used
in oral production
Are words accessed more quickly?
Research Questions Following substantial use of the game…

For this population, results are significantly and meaningfully positive on all three measures
Esp. compared to baselines
e.g., Milton & Meara (1995): 550 wds/yr in classroom on recognition measure
But paradoxical
Lexical development is at opposite ends of the spectrum
Recognition – gains throughout first 5k
Production – gains in first 250 words
Conclusions

Source of productive gains unclear
Learning or activation of existing knowledge?
Apparent confirmation that lexical access is trainable
Small effect for practice with format; big effect for time-pressure processing
As known since SkiJump days but never widely exploited
First successful use of Levels Test as pre-post measure
Unsurprising since game and test derive from same wordlists
Conclusions 2

Significant prior vocab knowledge from somewhere
2350 known words at pretest
… but not in use Frog stories of 100 toks / 40 fams
(cf. age 6 NS: 350 toks / 91 fams,)
… and distributed so that half the words are unknown at key 1k + 2k levels (# 32)
Which explains weak reading levels
Which reflects neglect of lexis in MEQ curriculum
Conclusions 3 – Interesting portrait of Quebec ESL learner

Can Word Coach compensate for any of this?
Effects of moderate-to-heavy users of the game
Word knowledge : 1k and 2k levels rise to equivalent age native speaker (NS) levels (80% plus)
Word use : Story size of 250 word, pushing age= NS average of 350
Access : 85 words read aloud/minute is approaching NS average of 110
A lot of compensation in a short time!
Conclusions 3 – Interesting portrait of Quebec ESL learner

Two possible directions
More of the same
Game 2 which extends Word Coach approach into collocation, context, idioms, specialized domains
Integration of Word Coach principles (whole lexicon, sequence, recycle, review) into a full adventure narrative
“Look out ! They’re shooting from the balcony !!”
Next steps for Word Coach

“ Look out – the other one’s in a garbage can!”

Further reading 1
Frequency lists
Leech et al, Word Frequencies in Written & Spoken English
Lemmatization procedures
Nation, unpublished
20k as size of adult educated lexicon
Goulding, Nation & Read (1990)
Yes-No Test
Buxton & Meara (1987)
Spaced recycling
Mondria & Mondria-Wit de Boer (1993)
Reaction-time & practice
Snellings, van Geldeen, & de Glopper (2002)
Easy and hard spelling
Connor (c.1986), N. Ellis (c.1996), Cognitive processes in spelling

Further reading 2
Baseline 550 words/year classroom
Milton & Meara
Pet-200 study
Cobb, 1997
PET-2000 study
Cobb, 1999a+b
Francophones and cognates in Levels test
Cobb 2000
Notion of a fixed order of lex growth
Biemiller and Slonim, 200x
Need for delayed post in vocab studies
Cobb, 1999b

Goulden, R., Nation, P., & Read, J. (1990). How large can a receptive vocabulary be? Applied Linguistics 11 , 341-358.
Meara, P., & Buxton, B. (1987). An alternative to multiple choice vocabulary tests. Language Testing 4 , 142-154.
Nation, P. (2007). How large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening? Canadian Modern Language Review 63 (1), 1-12.
Mondria, J.-A. & Mondria-De Vries, S. (1993). Efficiently memorizing words with the help of word cards and 'hand computer': Theory and applications. System 22, 47-57.
Snellings, P., van Gelderen, A,, & de Glopper, K. (2002). Lexical retrieval: An aspect of fluent second language production that can be enhanced. Language Learning 52 (4), 723-754.

Cobb, T. (2000). One size fits all? Francophone learners and English vocabulary tests. Canadian Modern Language Review, 57 (2), 295-324.
Cobb, T. (1999a). Applying constructivism: A test for the learner-as-scientist . Educational Technology Research & Development, 47 (3), 15-33
Cobb, T. (1999b). Breadth and depth of vocabulary acquisition with hands-on concordancing. Computer Assisted Language Learning 12 , p. 345 - 360.
Cobb, T. (1997). Is there any measurable learning from hands-on concordancing? System 25 (3), 301-315.
This PPT at http://www.lextutor.ca/cv/ppt/pittsburgh.ppt

[email_address] www.lextutor.ca This PPT at http://www.lextutor.ca/cv/ppt/pittsburgh.ppt

Word Coach - Pitt Sept 08

by r21270 on Oct 27, 2008

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Word Coach - Pitt Sept 08 — Presentation Transcript