Frequency Effects on Spelling Error Recognition: An ERP Study

Spelling errors are ubiquitous in all writing systems. Most studies exploring spelling errors focused on the phonological plausibility of errors. However, unlike typical pseudohomophones, spelling errors occur in naturally produced written language with variable frequencies. We investigated the time course of recognition of the most frequent orthographic errors in Russian (error in an unstressed vowel at the root) and the effect of word frequency on this process. During ERP recording, 26 native Russian speakers silently read high-frequency correctly spelled words, low-frequency correctly spelled words, high-frequency words with errors, and low-frequency words with errors. The amplitude of P200 was more positive for correctly spelled words than for misspelled words and did not depend on the frequency of the words. Word frequency affected spelling recognition in the later stages of word processing (350-700 ms): high-frequency misspelled words elicited a greater P300 than high-frequency correctly spelled words, and low-frequency misspelled words elicited a greater N400 than low-frequency correctly spelled words. We observe spelling effects in the same time window for both the P300 and N400, which may reflect temporal overlap between mainly categorization processes based on orthographic properties for high-frequency words and phonological processes for low-frequency words. We concluded that two independent pathways can be active simultaneously during spelling recognition: one reflects mainly orthographic processing of high-frequency words and the other is the phonological processing of low-frequency words. Our findings suggest that these pathways are associated with different ERP components. Therefore, our results complement existing reading models and demonstrate that the neuronal underpinnings of spelling error recognition during reading depend on word frequency.

Investigating vocabulary in academic spoken English: Corpora, teachers, and learners

<p>Understanding academic spoken English is challenging for second language (L2) learners at English-medium universities. A lack of vocabulary is a major reason for this difficulty. To help these learners overcome this challenge, it is important to examine the nature of vocabulary in academic spoken English. This thesis presents three linked studies which were conducted to address this need. Study 1 examined the lexical coverage in nine spoken and nine written corpora of four well-known general high-frequency word lists: West’s (1953) General Service List (GSL), Nation’s (2006) BNC2000, Nation’s (2012) BNC/COCA2000, and Brezina and Gablasova’s (2015) New-GSL. Study 2 further compared the BNC/COCA2000 and the New-GSL, which had the highest coverage in Study 1. It involved 25 English first language (L1) teachers, 26 Vietnamese L1 teachers, 27 various L1 teachers, and 275 Vietnamese English as a Foreign Language learners. The teachers completed 10 surveys in which they rated the usefulness of 973 non-overlapping items between the BNC/COCA2000 and the New-GSL for their learners in a five-point Likert scale. The learners took the Vocabulary Levels Test (Nation, 1983, 1990; Schmitt, Schmitt, & Clapham, 2001), and 15 Yes/No tests which measured their knowledge of the 973 words. Study 3 involved compiling two academic spoken corpora, one academic written corpus, and one non-academic spoken corpus. Each contains approximately 13-million running words. The academic spoken corpora contained four equally-sized sub-corpora. From the first academic spoken corpus, 1,741 word families were selected for the Academic Spoken Word List (ASWL). The coverage of the ASWL and the BNC/COCA2000 in the four corpora and the potential coverage of the ASWL for learners of different vocabulary levels were determined. Six main findings were drawn from these studies. First, in the first academic spoken corpus, the ASWL and its levels had slightly higher coverage in certain disciplinary sub-corpora than in the others. Yet, the list provided around 90% coverage of each sub-corpus. It helps learners to achieve 92%-96% coverage of academic speech depending on their levels. Second, the BNC/COCA2000 is the most suitable general high-frequency word list for L2 learners from the perspectives of corpus linguistics, teachers, and learners. It provided higher coverage than the GSL and the BNC2000, and had more words known by learners and perceived as being useful by teachers than the New-GSL. Third, general high-frequency words, especially the most frequent 1,000 words, provided much higher coverage in spoken corpora than written corpora in both academic and non-academic discourse. Fourth, despite the importance of general high-frequency words, a reasonable proportion of the learners had insufficient knowledge of these words, which highlights the importance of a word list which is adaptable to learners’ proficiency like the ASWL. Fifth, lexical coverage had significant but small correlations with teacher perception of word usefulness and learner vocabulary knowledge. Sixth, the Vietnamese L1 teachers had the highest correlation between the teacher ratings of word usefulness and the learner vocabulary knowledge. Next came the various L1 teachers, and then the English L1 teachers. This thesis also provides theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological implications of these findings so that L2 learners can gain better support in their vocabulary development and achieve better comprehension of academic spoken English.</p>

Investigating vocabulary in academic spoken English: Corpora, teachers, and learners

<p>Understanding academic spoken English is challenging for second language (L2) learners at English-medium universities. A lack of vocabulary is a major reason for this difficulty. To help these learners overcome this challenge, it is important to examine the nature of vocabulary in academic spoken English. This thesis presents three linked studies which were conducted to address this need. Study 1 examined the lexical coverage in nine spoken and nine written corpora of four well-known general high-frequency word lists: West’s (1953) General Service List (GSL), Nation’s (2006) BNC2000, Nation’s (2012) BNC/COCA2000, and Brezina and Gablasova’s (2015) New-GSL. Study 2 further compared the BNC/COCA2000 and the New-GSL, which had the highest coverage in Study 1. It involved 25 English first language (L1) teachers, 26 Vietnamese L1 teachers, 27 various L1 teachers, and 275 Vietnamese English as a Foreign Language learners. The teachers completed 10 surveys in which they rated the usefulness of 973 non-overlapping items between the BNC/COCA2000 and the New-GSL for their learners in a five-point Likert scale. The learners took the Vocabulary Levels Test (Nation, 1983, 1990; Schmitt, Schmitt, & Clapham, 2001), and 15 Yes/No tests which measured their knowledge of the 973 words. Study 3 involved compiling two academic spoken corpora, one academic written corpus, and one non-academic spoken corpus. Each contains approximately 13-million running words. The academic spoken corpora contained four equally-sized sub-corpora. From the first academic spoken corpus, 1,741 word families were selected for the Academic Spoken Word List (ASWL). The coverage of the ASWL and the BNC/COCA2000 in the four corpora and the potential coverage of the ASWL for learners of different vocabulary levels were determined. Six main findings were drawn from these studies. First, in the first academic spoken corpus, the ASWL and its levels had slightly higher coverage in certain disciplinary sub-corpora than in the others. Yet, the list provided around 90% coverage of each sub-corpus. It helps learners to achieve 92%-96% coverage of academic speech depending on their levels. Second, the BNC/COCA2000 is the most suitable general high-frequency word list for L2 learners from the perspectives of corpus linguistics, teachers, and learners. It provided higher coverage than the GSL and the BNC2000, and had more words known by learners and perceived as being useful by teachers than the New-GSL. Third, general high-frequency words, especially the most frequent 1,000 words, provided much higher coverage in spoken corpora than written corpora in both academic and non-academic discourse. Fourth, despite the importance of general high-frequency words, a reasonable proportion of the learners had insufficient knowledge of these words, which highlights the importance of a word list which is adaptable to learners’ proficiency like the ASWL. Fifth, lexical coverage had significant but small correlations with teacher perception of word usefulness and learner vocabulary knowledge. Sixth, the Vietnamese L1 teachers had the highest correlation between the teacher ratings of word usefulness and the learner vocabulary knowledge. Next came the various L1 teachers, and then the English L1 teachers. This thesis also provides theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological implications of these findings so that L2 learners can gain better support in their vocabulary development and achieve better comprehension of academic spoken English.</p>

Impenetrable Eyes, Stealth and Surveillance: A Corpus Stylistic Study of Salient Adjectives in William Faulkner’s The Hamlet

Stylistics combines both a granular and global approach to works of literature. Through analysis of linguistic and semantic patterns in a text, stylistics explores how authors construct a fictional text world and populate it with vividly realized characters. In this article, I adopt a corpus-stylistic approach to William Faulkner’s The Hamlet. Through identification of high-frequency words and close reading of their concordances, I explore what the data reveals about Faulkner’s thematic concerns in the novel and how his linguistic strategies convey them to the reader.

The discursive strategy of news reports about Chinese leaders in the Russian media

В статье проведен анализ микротекстов новостных сообщений российских СМИ о китайских лидерах, изучены дискурсивные стратегии. В статье используется корпусный инструмент AntConc 3.4.3 для извлечения высокочастотных слов и анализа коллокаций (т.е. словосочетаний); используется метод системно-функцио-нальной лингвистики Хэллидея для анализа транзитивности, интертекстуальности текстов в корпусах. Результаты анализа показывают, что новостные сообщения о китайских председателях в российских СМИ имеют положительное значение в общем, имидж председателей Китая также является положительным. Расширение и углубление сфер китайско-российского сотрудничества и отношений между двумя странами всегда находятся в центре внимания российских СМИ. В новостных сообщениях о китайских председателях российские СМИ создают образ китайского председателя как друга и единомышленника России. От председателя Цзян Цзэминя до председателя Си Цзиньпина степень дружбы постепенно увеличивалась. Российские СМИ наиболее основательно создают имидж руководства Си Цзиньпина. С помощью прямых и косвенных цитат они подчеркивают лидерский имидж председателя Си Цзиньпина и его личные качества, которые помогают вести Китай к великому возрождению. This paper analyzes the microtexts of news reports of the Russian media about Chinese leaders, as well as to study the discursive strategy used by the Russian media in news reports about Chinese leaders. The article uses the corpus tool AntConc 3. 4. 3 to extract high-frequency words and analyze collocations (i.e. phrases); the Halliday method of system-functional linguistics is used to analyze transitivity, intertextuality of texts in corpora. The results of the analysis show that news reports about the Chinese presidents in the Russian media show a positive value in general and the image of the Chinese presidents is also positive. The expansion and deepening of the spheres of Sino-Russian cooperation and relations between the two countries are always in the center of attention of the Russian media. In news reports about the Chinese chairmen, the Russian media create the image of the Chinese chairmen as a friend and like-minded person of Russia. From Chairman Jiang Zemin to President Xi Jinping, the degree of friendship gradually deepened. The Russian media always create the image of the leadership of the Chinese presidents and most thoroughly create the image of the leadership of Xi Jinping. With the help of direct and indirect quotes, they emphasize the leadership image of President Xi Jinping and his personal quality in the process of leading China to a great revival.

Capturing the Trajectory of Psychological Status and Analyzing Online Public Reactions During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic Through Weibo Posts in China

When a major, sudden infectious disease occurs, people tend to react emotionally and display reactions such as tension, anxiety, fear, depression, and somatization symptoms. Social media played a substantial awareness role in developing countries during the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study aimed to analyze public opinion regarding COVID-19 and to explore the trajectory of psychological status and online public reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic by examining online content from Weibo in China. This study consisted of three steps: first, Weibo posts created during the pandemic were collected and preprocessed on a large scale; second, public sentiment orientation was classified as “optimistic/pessimistic/neutral” orientation via natural language processing and manual determination procedures; and third, qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted to reveal the trajectory of public psychological status and online public reactions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public psychological status differed in different periods of the pandemic (from December 2019 to May 2020). The newly confirmed cases had an almost 1-month lagged effect on public psychological status. Among the 15 events with high impact indexes or related to government decisions, there were 10 optimism orientation &gt; pessimism orientation (OP) events (2/3) and 5 pessimism orientation &gt; optimism orientation (PO) events (1/3). Among the top two OP events, the high-frequency words were “race against time” and “support,” while in the top two PO events, the high-frequency words were “irrationally purchase” and “pass away.” We proposed a hypothesis that people developed negative self-perception when they received PO events, but their cognition was developed by how these external stimuli were processed and evaluated. These results offer implications for public health policymakers on understanding public psychological status from social media. This study demonstrates the benefits of promoting psychological healthcare and hygiene activity in the early period and improving risk perception for the public based on public opinion and the coping abilities of people. Health managers should focus on disseminating socially oriented strategies to improve the policy literacy of Internet users, thereby facilitating the disease prevention work for the COVID-19 pandemic and other major public events.

Good-enough production: Selecting easier words instead of more accurate ones

While many implicit decisions are the result of a trade-off, trade-offs in word use, such as whether a producer meant to convey a message more aligned with kitten despite saying a more accessible word like cat, are difficult to measure. To test the trade-off between message alignment and accessibility, we designed an artificial lexicon where word meanings corresponded to angles on a compass. In a novel language communication game, participants trained on some words more than others (high- vs low-frequency), and then earned points by producing words, often requiring an implicit decision between a high- vs low-frequency word. A trade-off was observed across four experiments, such that high-frequency words were produced even when less aligned with messages. Since high-frequency words are more accessible, these results suggest that implicit decisions between words are impacted by accessibility. Of all the times that people have said cat, many times they likely meant kitten.

Combating the Infodemic: A Chinese Infodemic Dataset for Misinformation Identification

Misinformation posted on social media during COVID-19 is one main example of infodemic data. This phenomenon was prominent in China when COVID-19 happened at the beginning. While a lot of data can be collected from various social media platforms, publicly available infodemic detection data remains rare and is not easy to construct manually. Therefore, instead of developing techniques for infodemic detection, this paper aims at constructing a Chinese infodemic dataset, “infodemic 2019”, by collecting widely spread Chinese infodemic during the COVID-19 outbreak. Each record is labeled as true, false or questionable. After a four-time adjustment, the original imbalanced dataset is converted into a balanced dataset by exploring the properties of the collected records. The final labels achieve high intercoder reliability with healthcare workers’ annotations and the high-frequency words show a strong relationship between the proposed dataset and pandemic diseases. Finally, numerical experiments are carried out with RNN, CNN and fastText. All of them achieve reasonable performance and present baselines for future works.

A Quantitative Analysis of Vocabulary Taught in Japanese EFL Textbooks

This research evaluates vocabulary taught in government-approved Japanese EFL textbooks intended for senior high school students in two different ways: by calculating the proportion of high-frequency words in textbooks and by calculating how many types of core high-frequency words are taught in textbooks. To this end, vocabulary words in textbooks are compared to those in the New General Service List (NGSL), which consists of the top 2,801 high-frequency words in general English. Results show that textbooks are largely made up of words in the NGSL at a statistically significant level with larger than 92% lexical coverage; however, textbooks do not sufficiently cover words in the NGSL at a statistically significant level with up to 38%. Overall, research findings indicate that vocabulary words textbooks provide may be what learners frequently come across in the real world, but those words cannot suffice in order for learners to read English texts intended for native speakers. Therefore, language teachers need to give learners additional input of core words through homework or classroom activities to widen their vocabulary size.

High Frequency Words Produced by Typically Developing Mandarin-Speaking Children Between 3 and 6 Years of Age

The purpose of this study was to provide high frequency word lists for Mandarin-speaking children between 3 and 6 years of age and to explore the differences between each part of speech (POS) category among different age groups. Participants were 209 typically developing native Mandarin speakers aged between 3 and 6 years, born in Taiwan, and recruited from Mandarin-language preschools in Taipei, New Taipei City, and Miaoli. Language samples were collected through conversations, free play, and story retelling. The researchers then transcribed the samples, segment utterances, and words, tagging the POS corresponding to each word. The frequencies of word occurrences were then analyzed and ranked to generate a high frequency word list. The mean frequency of each POS category was calculated to identify significant differences between age groups. The results showed high frequency word lists, including the corresponding POS tagging. Significant differences were found in 10 of the 11 POS categories among age groups. The results of this study presented preliminary information concerning high frequency words produced by Mandarin-speaking children aged between 3 and 6 years and the development of their use of each POS category.