Acquisition of Novel Vocabulary by Diverse Learners

Dear Colleagues,

Vocabulary knowledge in children is heavily tied to language, literacy, and academic outcomes, making vocabulary acquisition one of the most critical aspects of language development. The study of vocabulary acquisition spans disciplines, including, but not limited to, philosophy (Rapaport & Kibby, 2007, 2002), psycholinguistics (Dóczi & Kormos, 2016; Atkins & Baddeley, 1998; Channell, 1990), speech-language pathology (Alt et al., 2020; Dada & Alant, 2009; Lugo-Neris, Jackson & Goldstein, 2010), education (Motlagh et al., 2020; Nicolay & Poncelet, 2013; van Parreren, 1992), and neuroscience (Abel, Sharp & Konja, 2020; Lee et al., 2007; Ullman, 2005). A recent focus has been on the acquisition of novel vocabulary by children with diverse learning experiences, such as children who are bilingual/multilingual, children from low socioeconomic status homes, and children with language impairments. Investigating how these children learn novel words can elucidate the influence factors such as input, language exposure, and related cognitive and linguistic skills have on the process of vocabulary acquisition.

For this Special Issue, we invite papers focusing on how different skills and experiences affect vocabulary acquisition across children of all ages (birth–high school) with diverse language experiences. Studies using a variety of methodologies (statistical learning, behavioral methods, neurophysiology) are welcome.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors ([email protected] and [email protected]) or to /Languages/ editorial office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

The tentative completion schedule is as follows:

• Abstract submission deadline: May 31, 2021
• Notification of abstract acceptance: June 30, 2021
• Full manuscript deadline: December 31, 2021

References

Abel, A. D., Sharp, B. J., & Konja, C. (2020). Investigating Implicit and Explicit Word Learning in School-age Children Using a Combined Behavioral-Event Related Potential (ERP) Approach. Developmental Neuropsychology, 45(1), 27-38.

Alt, M., Mettler, H. M., Erikson, J. A., Figueroa, C. R., Etters-Thomas, S. E., Arizmendi, G. D., & Oglivie, T. (2020). Exploring input parameters in an expressive vocabulary treatment with late talkers. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 63(1), 216-233.

Atkins, P. W., & Baddeley, A. D. (1998). Working memory and distributed vocabulary learning. Applied psycholinguistics, 19(4), 537-552.

Channell, J. (1990). Vocabulary acquisition and the mental lexicon. Meaning and lexicography, 21-31.

Dada, S., & Alant, E. (2009). The effect of aided language stimulation on vocabulary acquisition in children with little or no functional speech. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 50-64.

Dóczi, B., & Kormos, J. (2016). Longitudinal developments in vocabulary knowledge and lexical organization (pp. vii+-222). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lee, H., Devlin, J. T., Shakeshaft, C., Stewart, L. H., Brennan, A., Glensman, J., ... & Green, D. W. (2007). Anatomical traces of vocabulary acquisition in the adolescent brain. Journal of Neuroscience, 27(5), 1184-1189.

Lugo-Neris, M. J., Jackson, C. W., & Goldstein, H. (2010). Facilitating vocabulary acquisition of young English language learners. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 314-327.

Motlagh, H. S., Khafaie, H., Arastoo, A. A., Cheraghi, M., & Khafaie, M. A. (2020). Application of social network in traditional sciences education on the vocabulary acquisition of secondary English learner students. Education and Information Technologies, 1-15.

Nicolay, A. C., & Poncelet, M. (2013). Cognitive advantage in children enrolled in a second-language immersion elementary school program for three years. Bilingualism, 16(3), 597.

Rapaport, W. J., & Kibby, M. W. (2007). Contextual vocabulary acquisition as computational philosophy and as philosophical computation. Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, 19(1), 1-17.

Rapaport, W. J., & Kibby, M. W. (2002). Contextual vocabulary acquisition: A computational theory and educational curriculum.

Ullman, M. T. (2005). A cognitive neuroscience perspective on second language acquisition: The declarative/procedural model. Mind and context in adult second language acquisition, 2005, 141-78.

van Parreren, C. S. (1992). Individual differences in vocabulary acquisition: A qualitative experiment in the first phase of secondary education. In Vocabulary and applied linguistics (pp. 94-101). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Dr. Alyson D. Abel
Dr. Julie M. Schneider
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• word learning
• vocabulary acquisition
• language exposure
• bilingual learners
• child language
• socioeconomic status
• language impairment