Contrasting Similar Words Facilitates Second Language Vocabulary Learning in Children by Sharpening Lexical Representations.

ABSTRACT: This study considers one of the cognitive mechanisms underlying the development of second language (L2) vocabulary in children: The differentiation and sharpening of lexical representations. We propose that sharpening is triggered by an implicit comparison of similar representations, a process we call contrasting. We investigate whether integrating contrasting in a learning method in which children contrast orthographically and semantically similar L2 words facilitates learning of those words by sharpening their new lexical representations. In our study, 48 Dutch-speaking children learned unfamiliar orthographically and semantically similar English words in a multiple-choice learning task. One half of the group learned the similar words by contrasting them, while the other half did not con

SUBMITTER: Baxter P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8290082 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature