Around twenty thousand adult learners enrol onto Welsh language classes each year, but many do not progress beyond "Mynediad level" (= Entry, CEFR A1). The study reported here explored techniques to maintain early learning momentum, maximise learners' returns for their learning efforts, and accelerate initial vocabulary acquisition.…

Many researchers suggest that text-reading should be followed by an activity that requires learners to use the new vocabulary, before they read the text again. This article demonstrates the benefits of post-reading word-focused activity on vocabulary learning in an environment when there is no instructor support, particularly for second language…

Several studies have examined the content of Japanese junior high school textbooks in relation to various frequency-based word lists such as the New General Service List (NGSL) (Browne et al., 2013) (e.g, Nakayama, 2022a,b) and the British National Corpus (BNC) (e.g, Wongsarnpigoon, 2018), and have identified potential issues in terms of lexical…

Knowledge of derivational affixes makes an important contribution to second language learners' success when reading. Yet while the effects of some learner variables (L2 proficiency, L1 background) have been investigated, there has been little research addressing the effects of varying characteristics of affixes on their acquisition. The goal of…

This paper is part 5 of a series of workshops that examines the properties of some simple models of vocabulary networks. While previous workshops dealt with activating words in the network, this workshop focuses on vocabulary loss. We will simulate two possible ways of modelling attrition: (a) explicitly turning active words OFF, and (b) raising…

Since its emergence, generative AI has significantly impacted various fields, including English language education. Numerous academic studies have investigated its capabilities in grammar correction, writing evaluation, and dynamics of user interaction. However, there have been insufficient investigations into whether texts generated by such AI…

The present study investigates the use of generative strategies and their effect on second language (L2) vocabulary retention and learner confidence in vocabulary knowledge over time. Generative strategies (or generation) are one in a group of learning methods known as desirable difficulties -- strategies that improve long-term learning by adding…

VocQGen is an automated tool designed to generate multiple-choice cloze (MCC) questions for vocabulary assessment in second language learning contexts. It leverages several natural language processing (NLP) tools and OpenAI's GPT-4 model to produce MCC items quickly from user-specified word lists. To evaluate its effectiveness, we used the first…