3nd SSU Conference, Osaka, Japan,October 14, 2019

FINE-TUNING WORD MEANINGS THROUGH
ONLINE AND MOBILE APP TECHNOLOGIES:
A CLOSE-UP LOOK AT SUCCESSFUL AND
UNSUCCESSFUL STRATEGY USE
Andrew D. Cohen

Isobel Wang

Professor Emeritus

Research Fellow

University of Minnesota

University of Grazadcohen@umn.edu

kaihui.wang@uni-graz.atz.umn.edu/adcohen

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FOCUS OF TALKTo discuss strategies used by a hyperpolyglot
aimed at fine-tuning (F-T) word meanings inChinese,To apply a close-up lens to the process of F-T
vocabulary,To investigate the extent to which newtechnologies assist learners in arriving ataccurate understandings of target-language(TL) vocabulary,To provide insights for researchers andteachers regarding strategies for accessing
technology aimed at enhancing vocabularyknowledge.
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REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Looking up words in a dictionary (Neubach &Cohen, 1988; Quigley, 2018) – not so easy.

Strategies for dealing with TL vocabulary(Wang, 2018; Cohen & Wang, 2018a, 2018b) –complex.

Mobile apps and online dictionaries forvocabulary lookup and translation – a surveyby Mavrommatidou, Gavriilidou, & Markos(2019) – informative, but lacking inoperationalizable strategy descriptions usefulfor teachers and learners.

3Learning Chinese vocabulary throughmobile apps and online programs (Qian etal., 2018) – general descriptions, lacking indetail.

Cohen and Wang’s (2019) case study onstrategies for F-T of word meanings – thebasis for this talk.

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RESEARCH QUESTONS
1. What strategies does a hyperpolyglot use
when engaging with mobile apps, online
programs, or a tutor in an effort to fine-tune
his understanding of Chinese vocabulary?
2. To what extent are these strategies used
separately, in sequence, in pairs, or inclusters?
3. What is the relative effectiveness ofstrategies for fine-tuning word meanings
through the use of vocabulary resources?
5RESEARCH DESIGN– A hyperpolyglot who was studying Chinese as his
13th language with high proficiency in Spanish,French, Portuguese, and Hebrew.
– An expert in LLS and intercultural pragmatics.
– Beginning study ofandChinese at
at the time of thestudy.
– Studying in an
learning context –minimal contactwith the TL.
–: writing
weekly blog entries
on topics of interest.

– Restricting his
use of Chinese towriting a blog.
– Learning Chinese.
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INSTRUMENTATIONThe blog topics
 The subject wrote an ongoing blog on politics, health,home fix-it projects, and what sparked joy in his life.

 The topics for the study were:#1 Revelations about Trump's longtime lawyer,#2 A handyman for his daughter's home,#3 Baking bread with teff flour given his special diet,#4 Earthquake-proofing a neighbor's condo,#5 LED light therapy for treating his neuropathy.
 He sought vocabulary best describing the issues,

however technical, rather than simplifications.

7Dictionary resources
Accessing bilingual dictionaries only, not monolingual or bilingualizedones: The online MDBG Chinese-English Dictionary – on thelearner's desktop computer and his first choice.

 Google Translate – in need of verification.
 The Pleco phone app – helping in analysis of morphemes

and in finding other similar words.
 The Line Dictionary phone app – providing English-Chinese
definitions in pinyin, with collocations and sample sentences.
 The Collins Reverso Dictionary – providing collocations andparts of speech.
 The Google search engine – using it occasionally to check if
two words in pinyin had similar meanings
 Personalized dictionary, referred to as BYKI (Before You Know) – the subject provided his own
It fromentries in pinyin by grammatical category (nouns, verbs,adjectives, function words, and measure words).
 The NS tutor – when the learner was not sure if his F-T wasaccurate, even after consulting various dictionary resources.

8Videotaping
 Videotaping entailed using theWindows 10.

in The subject stored the videotaped sessions on hisGoogle drive.

 He then sent the link to his co-investigator/tutor

for analysis.

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DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES
Step 1: The subject wrote 5 blog entries and videotaped verbal
report (VR) + written summary of F-T strategies, indicating
difficulties.
Step 2: Upon receiving the blog and videotaping, the tutor
identified instances where the subject was unclear with regard tohis intended meaning.
Step 3: The tutor flagged Chinese concepts in need of F-T by thesubject.
Step 4: The subject provided VR as to the strategies used to arriveat understanding of the Chinese words flagged by the tutor.
Step 5: The tutor watched the subject’s videos and determined
the successfulness of his strategy use.
Step 6: The subject and his tutor had a Skype session, going overeach blog topic, with the tutor providing further explanations
about words, as well as tips on how to use the various resources.
Step 7: The subject reviewed his blogs, identifying the words inneed of further F-T and asked the tutor for further distinctions.
Step 8: Based on feedback from the tutor, the subject recorded
the distinctions in his personal dictionary, BYKI.
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DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURES
 The co-investigator/tutor analyzed the VR Largely inductive, involving identification of F-T strategies
 Quantitative statements (%s) re: the subject's patterns of strategy use,
 success at vocabulary F-T, and awareness of the effectiveness of his strategic efforts.
 When the subject reported using more than one strategy, the strategy

configuration was determined (Wang, 2018):
a strategy sequence,a strategy pair,a strategy cluster.

 The criteria used to determine the subject’s relative success at F-T:

(1) whether his strategy use led to a correct understanding of themeaning for the word or phrase in the given context, and(2) whether his strategy use provided him a sense as to acceptable
collocations, appropriate use of register, and the formality of the wordor phrase.

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RQ2. The extent to which strategies were used
separately, in sequence, in pairs, or in clusters
The subject deployed a complex set of strategies.
17% – strategies used separately,
49% – sequences of strategies,
29% – paired strategies,
5% – strategies in clusters.
RQ3. The relative effectiveness of strategies for finetuning word meanings through the use ofvocabulary resources
The subject fine-tuned 56 vocabulary items.
This highly-skilled language learner was successful
at F-T of 57% of the vocabulary items andunsuccessful with 43%.
15Discussion
 The subject’s organization and use of strategies
was flexible, individualized, and dynamic.
 F-T of Chinese vocabulary meaning
demanded a high level of strategic
awareness, personal effort, and time.
 Even this skilled strategy user sometimes

inadequately mobilized technology in efforts tofine-tune his vocabulary knowledge.
 Implication: We probably need to qualify
statements about the impact of newtechnologies on learners’ fine-tuning of word
meanings.
 The F-T of word meanings may be a challenge,
especially when the TL differs in many ways fromother languages the learner has dealt with.
16The subject preferred using strategies insequence, consistent with his cognitive
style preference of being concretesequential.

His utilization of just a few strategy clusters

may have been in order to avoid fatigue.

The study also showed that the subject’s

success was in part influenced by thenature of specific dictionary entries.

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Suggestions for future researchA bigger group of polyglots, representing arange of ages.

Half could be learning through pinyin and theother half through Chinese characters.

Including learners in both an FL and an L2context.

Replicating this vocabulary study focusing onspeaking, listening, or reading.

Further exploration of ways to raise learners’

awareness as to how effective their strategy
use is in arriving at the desired F-T.
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Asking subjects to comment on theirreasons for preferring a particular
combination of strategies in dealing with agiven F-T task.

Basing the strategy categorizations on

rigorous piloting so as to avoid fuzzycategories which are uninformative about
actual strategy use for the given language
skill.

Investigating the extent to which the F-T ofvocabulary by polyglots is informed bylanguages other than their L1.

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Asking subjects to comment on theirreasons for preferring a particular
combination of strategies in dealing with agiven F-T task.

Basing the strategy categorizations on

rigorous piloting so as to avoid fuzzycategories which are uninformative about
actual strategy use for the given language
skill.

Investigating the extent to which the F-T ofvocabulary by polyglots is informed bylanguages other than their L1.

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Pedagogical implications
Teachers or tutors could consider assistinglearners more in accessing dictionaryresources – in, for example:
extracting grammatical info re the use ofverbs, prepositions, and other parts ofspeech.
cutting and pasting info from a dictionary
entry in one app to another.
finding “usage examples” even if thescreen says “no search results.”
tips on accessing bilingual,bilingualized, and monolingual
dictionaries and translation programs.
21 Teachers could provide strategy instruction forlearners (see Chamot & Harris, 2019) – especiallyre how they: select F-T strategies most appropriate for them,
 combine strategies effectively,
 sustain motivation over time in the face offrustration in dealing with language tasks.

 Even accomplished language learners canbenefit from strategy instruction on accessing
vocabulary resources through mobile apps andinternet programs.
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Conclusions
 This study illustrated the value of in-depth

qualitative investigation, using VR as animportant complement to the more typicalquestionnaire-based, quantitative analysis ofreported strategy use (see also Wang, 2018).

 A general research recommendation going

forward would be to include more detailed
descriptions of strategy use by learners as they
go about accomplishing language tasks.

 It is now easier than ever to collect videotaped

data of subjects engaged in VR and to sharethese data with others.

 The ultimate purpose is to improve feedback tolearners so as to enhance their TL learning.

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REFERENCES CITED
Cohen, A. D., & Wang, I. K.-H. (2018a). Fluctuation in the functions of language
learner strategies. System, 74, 169–182. / Cohen, A. D., & Wang, I. K.-H. (2018b).
Corrigendum to “Fluctuation in the functions of language learner strategies”
System, 78, 256–265.
Cohen, A. D., & Wang, I. K.-H. (2019). Fine-tuning word meanings throughmobile app and online resources: A case study of strategy use by ahyperpolyglot. System, 85, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2019.102106
Mavrommatidou, S., Gavriilidou, Z., & Markos, A. (2019). Development andvalidation of the Strategy Inventory for Electronic Dictionary Use (S.I.E.D.U.).
International Journal of Lexicography. doi 10.1093/ijl/ecz015
Neubach, A., & Cohen, A. D. (1988). Processing strategies and problemsencountered in the use of dictionaries. Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary
Society of North America, 10, 1–19.
Qian, K., Owen, N., & Bax, S. (2018). Researching mobile-assisted Chinesecharacter learning strategies among adult distance learners. Innovation in
Language Learning and Teaching, 12, 56–71.
Quigley, A. (2018). Closing the vocabulary gap. Abingdon, UK/NY: Routledge.
Wang, I. K.-H. (2018). Learning vocabulary strategically in a study abroad
context. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

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