CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
This study attempts to probe into the subjects' lexical encoding by comparing the collected final term exam errors and immediate word-recall experiment responses. The results are discussed in terms of the three lexical error types: sound association, meaning association, and random guessing. The sound-associated errors are further analyzed and discussed in the light of preserved phonological features. Based on data from the term exam error transcription and word-recall experiment responses, this chapter aims to provide a plausible explanation for the lexical errors and explore the pedagogical implications of the results.
5.1 Implications of the Term Exam Errors 5.1.1 Sophomore vs. Freshman
Compared with the sophomore group, the freshman group ascribes significantly higher percentages of errors to sound-association and lower percentages of errors to meaning association and random guessing. One possible explanation is that lower-level EFL learners tend to focus more on sound while higher-level learners employ more meaning association and random guessing strategies in their recall of vocabulary words in the term exam. Another possibility is that the freshman group simply has a smaller vocabulary with which to use for vocabulary meaning association. The
difference between the two age groups in the lexical storage and retrieval strategies may also be due to different levels of proficiency and the
difference in years of classroom EFL instruction they have received. The effect of EFL vocabulary teaching and learning is confirmed through the higher percentages of meaning-associated errors of the sophomore group.
If we take it a step further factor in the role of personality traits, we can see that the sophomore group shows a stronger tendency toward risk-taking and this contributes to higher percentages of random guessing errors.
5.1.2 Male vs. Female
The overall distribution rank of error types is the same in both gender groups. Sound-associated errors account for the largest percentages of exam errors, followed by random guessing errors and then
meaning-associated errors. A notable feature is that the female group displays greater fluctuation in the distribution of error types than the male group. In addition, the female group distinguishes themselves from the male subjects by having a much higher percentage count of
sound-associated errors; the male group, on the other hand, leads the female group in meaning association and random guessing errors.
A possible explanation for this can be sought via the percentages of random guessing errors and sound-associated errors. The female subjects make fewer random guessing errors than the male subjects, which lead to the following probable interpretation. First, the female subjects take a
more serious attitude toward exams than the male subjects. A number of studies have found that within a given socioeconomic class, female
speakers are more likely to use standard forms than male speakers (Parker
& Riley, 1994: 169). Second, with a more serious attitude toward exams, the female subjects may confine themselves to the phonological structure hinted at in the test, since a typical vocabulary test section on a term exam provides the first and the last letter of a target word (See Appendix 1).
In order to provide a detailed description of the term exam results, in the following sections, the exam errors are further analyzed with both age and gender taken into consideration.
5.1.3 Male Sophomore vs. Male Freshman
Two major trends are evident in this set of data. On the one hand, the male freshman group has a higher percentage of sound-associated errors than their sophomore counterparts. On the other hand, the male
sophomore group resorts more to random guessing and meaning association than the freshman group.
There are plausible interpretations for the differences between these two age groups of the same gender. First, a predominance of sound association in the lexical storage and retrieval strategies of the male freshman group suggests that male freshman subjects are most likely to resort to or be limited to phonological representations of vocabulary items, because they have fewer means to make meaning associations. Second, higher percentages of random guessing errors suggest that the male
sophomore subjects are more inclined to take risks in exams. Furthermore, the male sophomore subjects probably have a larger vocabulary, which accounts for the larger percentage of meaning-associated errors than that of the freshman group. The differences between the two groups reflect the changes in learning style and learning strategy that learners may go
through as they get older or receive more foreign language instruction at school.
5.1.4 Female Sophomore vs. Female Freshman
Similar to the previous group, we see two major trends in this set of data. On the one hand, the female freshman group has a higher percentage than their sophomore counterparts in sound-associated errors. Compared with the female freshman group, the female sophomore group shows larger percentages in meaning-associated errors and random guessing errors. Also, the female sophomore group does not display as great a degree of variation in the percentages of the three lexical error types as the female freshman group.
There are plausible interpretations for the differences between the two age groups of the same gender. First, the predominance of sound
association in the lexical storage and retrieval strategies of the female freshman group suggests that female freshman subjects are most likely to appeal to phonological representations of vocabulary. The quite small percentages of meaning-associated errors suggest that the female
freshmen probably have a smaller vocabulary at their disposal or they are greatly confined within the phonological limitations hinted at in the test (See Appendix 1). The female sophomore group, on the other hand,
probably has a larger vocabulary, which explains why meaning-associated errors take precedence over sound-associated errors. The difference
between the two groups reflects the change in learning style and learning strategy that learners may go through as they get older or receive more language instruction at school.
5.1.5 Male Sophomore vs. Female Sophomore
In the sophomore group, male and female subjects show great
discrepancy in sound association and random guessing error percentages.
The male sophomore relies the most on random guessing while the female sophomore depends the least on random guessing. The male subjects rely the least on sound association while the female subjects depends the most on sound association. This implies that the male sophomores are more willing to take risk in an exam setting while the female sophomores pay more attention to or are more confined to the phonological codes of words.
It also confirms the findings of many previous studies that female
speakers are more likely to use standard forms than male speakers (Parker
& Riley, 1994: 169).
5.1.6 Male Freshman vs. Female Freshman
The freshman subjects show similarity in the distribution of the three error types, with sound association taking up the largest percentage and meaning association taking up the smallest percentage. This indicates that the freshman subjects, regardless of gender, employ similar lexical recall and retrieval strategies. Comparing the two genders, the female freshman subjects rely slightly more on sound association than their male counterparts; consequently the male freshmen resort to meaning association and random guessing more than their female counterparts.
This is consistent with the comparison between male and female
sophomore groups. The comparison between male and female freshman groups indicates that the male freshmen are more willing to take risk in an exam setting while the female freshmen pay more attention to or are more confined to the phonological codes of words. It further confirms the findings of many previous studies that female speakers are more likely to use standard forms than male speakers (Parker & Riley, 1994: 169).
5.2 Implications of the Term Error Percentage Distribution
The differences presented above pose some questions and bring to light some possible speculation on the causes of shift in lexical storage and retrieval strategies in EFL learners as they proceed through different learning stages. Could it be that higher-level EFL learners are more inclined to apply a number of different lexical storage and retrieval strategies while lower level EFL learners more inclined to focus on phonological codes, as the change in sound-associated error percentages here seem to suggest? Are higher-level EFL learners less enthusiastic about memorizing vocabulary words or the phonological encoding of words and more willing to take risks, as the higher percentage of meaning-associated errors and random guessing errors in the sophomore group seem to imply?
How do EFL learners experience and develop the gradual shift in lexical recall and retrieval strategy? The overall percentages collected from the term error analysis lead to the following conclusion.
First, the freshman group shows a greater tendency toward memorizing the phonological encoding of words, and probably has a better command of phonological structure of words than the sophomore
group. The sophomore group employs more meaning association and random guessing strategies in their recall of vocabulary words.
Second, the female group distinguishes themselves from the male subjects by a showing a higher percentage count of sound-associated errors.
Third, notably the male sophomore group displays the least inclination toward sound-associated errors and the greatest tendency toward random guessing errors.
The aforementioned comparison and contrast between the year-level groups and gender groups lead to speculation on the monitor working factors summarized in Figure 22.
Figure 22. Factors in EFL learner's lexical storage and retrieval
Internal Processing
Learner's Monitor Learner's Performance
EFL Instruction First Language
Personality Age
Dulay et al. point out that the monitor is the part of a learner's internal system that seems to be responsible for conscious linguistic processing.
The monitor is used depending on: (1) the learner's age, (2) the amount of
formal instruction the learner has experienced, (3) the nature and focus required by the task, and (4) the individual personality of the learner.
(Dulay et al., 1982: 58, 59) The task factor is not of concern to us since the subjects are performing identical tasks (i.e. taking their final exam). The author adds another factor: first language.
The data collected from our term exam errors confirm that individual personality and amount of formal EFL instruction exercise notable effect over the subjects' lexical storage and retrieval strategies in a final term exam setting. We can attribute to differing personality traits the
sophomore group’s stronger tendency toward risk-taking, which
contributes to higher percentages of random guessing errors. Furthermore, the tendency for lower-level EFL learners to focus more on sound while higher-level EFL learners employ more meaning association and random guessing strategies in their recall of vocabulary words may be attributed to different lexical storage and retrieval strategies resulting from the different duration of classroom EFL instruction received by the two groups. It can be inferred that the sophomore group has a larger vocabulary with which to make meaning associations. The effect of EFL vocabulary teaching and learning is confirmed through the higher percentages of
meaning-associated errors in the sophomore group. These different tendencies in the freshman and sophomore groups point to the relevance of prior language exposure and personality traits in EFL learning.
The higher frequency count of sound-associated errors in the
freshman group and the female group has implications for pedagogy. A typical EFL class in a senior high school in Taiwan proceeds with the
students listening to the teacher, looking at the printed word in the textbook or on the blackboard, and repeating after the teacher. This enables learners to pair the phonological codes with the meanings of the words in memory (Chang 2000: 38). Our exam error analysis suggests that this typical EFL teaching style may work better with high school freshman learners than with sophomores, and may work better with female learners than the male learners.
5.3 Phonological Features of Sound-Associated Term Exam Errors Sound-associated test errors collected from the term exam in January 2003 are further analyzed and categorized with a focus on phonological features: word-initial segments, word-final segments, stressed vowel, and number of syllables.
5.3.1 Sophomore vs. Freshman
The two groups do not differ significantly from each other in terms of phonological feature distribution. In the lexical encoding of the two
groups, word-initial and word-final segments play more dominant roles than stressed vowel and number of syllables. As for group differences, the tendency to ignore stressed vowel and number of syllables is most distinct in the sophomore group. The sophomore group's mean percentage for preserved stressed vowel and number of syllable features are barely half of those of preserved word-initial segment and word-final segment.
5.3.2 Male vs. Female
Focusing on gender, we see that the male and female groups display a certain similarity in overall tendency. Preservation of word-initial and word-final segments take precedence over preservation of stressed vowel and number of syllables in both male and female groups. The two groups are slightly different in their ranking order of the four preserved
phonological features. For the male group, the ranking order is: (1) word-initial segment, (2) word-final segment, (3) stressed vowel, and (4) number of syllables. For the female group, the ranking order is: (1)
word-final segment, (2) word-initial segment, (3) number of syllables, and (4) stressed vowel.
5.3.3 Male Sophomore vs. Male Freshman
Looking at overall mean percentages, it appears that in both the male sophomore and male freshman group, preservation of word-initial
segments and word-final segments takes precedence over stressed vowel and number of syllables.
Regarding specific group differences, the male sophomore group outperforms the male freshman group in preserving word-initial segment and word-final segment while the male freshman group leads their
sophomore counterparts in preserving stressed vowel and number of syllables. The male sophomore group displays greater fluctuation in the percentages of preserved phonological features, with a maximum
difference of 55.32% while the maximum difference for the male freshman group is 18.57%.
5.3.4 Female Sophomore vs. Female Freshman
The female sophomore group and the female freshman group display the exact same ranking order for the four preserved phonological features:
word-final segment > word-initial segment > number of syllables >
stressed vowel. There is a difference however in overall group percentage.
The female sophomore group shows greater fluctuation in the mean percentages of phonological feature preservation, with a maximum
difference of 55.26% while the maximum difference in the freshman group is 20.00%. Furthermore, the female freshman group leads the female
sophomore group in preserving stressed vowel and number of syllables.
Specific group difference aside, both the female sophomore group and the female freshman group value word-initial segment and word-final segment more than stressed vowel and number of syllables.
5.3.5 Male Sophomore vs. Female Sophomore
The male and female subjects in the sophomore group do not show significant differences in the distribution of preserved phonological features. In both groups, the ranking order of preserved phonological
features is (1) word-final segment, (2) word-initial segment, (3) number of syllables, and (4) stressed vowel. The male sophomore group, however, shows higher percentages than female sophomores in the preservation of all phonological features except number of syllables.
5.3.6 Male Freshman vs. Female Freshman
The male freshmen appear to be better than their female counterparts in preserving stressed vowel and number of syllables. The mean
percentage of preserved stressed vowel in the female freshman group is barely half of that in the male freshman group. In terms of overall mean percentages, the two groups are similar, with word-initial segment and word-final segment taking the lead.
5.4 Implications of Phonological Feature Preservation Tendencies in Term Exam Errors
5.4.1 Differences in Group and Feature
In all groups studied, preservation of word-initial segment and word-final segment take precedence over stressed vowel and number of syllables.
Preservation of word-initial and word-final segments in word recall is known in the literature as the "bathtub" effect: people remember the
beginnings and ends of words better than the middles, as if the word were
a person lying in a bathtub, with their head out of the water at one end and their feet out at the other (Aitchison 1994: 134). In this respect, the Taiwanese students behave similarly to their English native speaker counterparts.
That word-initial segments and word-final segments take precedence over stressed vowel and number of syllables in Taiwanese EFL learners supports the assumption that some phonological characteristics of a word are more salient than others in lexical storage and retrieval. Dulay et al (1982:32) makes clear that salience refers to the ease with which a structure is heard or seen. Some researchers find that children pay more attention to items in final position than in the middle of a sentence (Slobin, 1971;
Ervin-Tripp 1974; both cited in Dulay et al., 1982: p.33). In addition, adult native speakers of English give higher priority to the initial consonant than children, whereas children value the syllabic rhythm of a word more than adults (Aitchison and Straf 1982: 211). In this respect, Taiwanese high school learners appear to opt for the strategy adopted by native speaker adults.
Furthermore, an explanation for the different percentages of freshman and sophomore groups in preserving number of syllables and stressed vowel is sought through a comparison of target vocabulary words in the final term exam.
Table 47. Comparison of target vocabulary words on the term exam
Grade Vocabulary Stressed Vowel Number of Syllables
Sophomore identification e 6
Sophomore combination e 4
Sophomore seize i 1
Sophomore attain e 2
Sophomore destroyed 2
Sophomore communicate ju 4
Sophomore generation e 4
Sophomore desire a 2
Sophomore release i 2
Sophomore disappeared 3
Freshman opposed o 2
Freshman captured æ 2
Freshman audience 3
Freshman plastic æ 2
Freshman ordinary 4
Freshman nature e 2
Freshman increasing i 3
Freshman drugstore 2
Freshman solid a 2
Freshman appearance 3
Freshman temperature 4
Freshman outdoors a 2
Eckman (cited in Brown 2000: 213) proposes the use of markedness theory in second language acquisition, which accountd for relative degrees of difficulty by means of principles of universal grammar. The marked member of a pair contains at least one more feature than the unmarked one. The unmarked member is the one with a wider distribution. As Parker and Riley point out (1994: 227), those properties of the L2 which differ from the L1 and are more marked than the L1 will be difficult. The target vocabulary words for the sophomore group are more difficult in that they often contain vowels absent in the Chinese vowel chart (see Section 2.5) and have a larger number of syllables. On average, the
“number of syllables" of the target vocabulary words in the sophomore group (3.00) is bigger than that in the freshman group (2.58). This poses certain constraints on the memory capacity of the sophomore group and accounts for the poorer performance of the sophomore group in
preserving the number of syllables of target vocabulary words. In addition, 60% of the "stressed vowel" in the target words for the sophomore group is absent in Chinese vowel chart while only 41.67% of the "stressed vowel" in the target words for the freshman group is absent in Chinese vowel chart, making vowel detection relatively more difficult for the sophomores.
5.4.2 Difficulty with Consonant Clusters
Many of the collected term exam errors suggest difficulty with consonant clusters. Table 48 lists collected term exam errors with consonant cluster problems.
Table 48. Difficult consonant clusters and errors on the term exam
Group Intended Word Error Percentage
Freshman plastic parlic paslic
pastic * 2 pertic poletic practic praffic practic praic pristec pristic
57.89%
Freshman drugstore dipstore drovestore
drungstore dugestore dugstore durgstore *4 durngstore
80.00%
Freshman temperature tamerature tamperture *3 tanperture temparature *2 tempareture temparture tempature temper temperate *2 temperational temperiture tempernature
83.33%
temperoture temperture *13 temproture tempture *3 Sophomore destroyed destoryed * 21
destpryed distoried * 7 droyed
96.97%
The consonant cluster that poses the greatest difficulty is the one in the target vocabulary word "destroy" in the sophomore group. For one thing, the subjects have difficulty with English consonant clusters in general, most of which are not compatible with Chinese phonotactics. We noticed that many of the subjects replace this particular consonant cluster with "story", which is a more familiar segment/vocabulary word for the subjects.
The consonant cluster that takes up the second largest percentage of consonant cluster error occurs in the word "temperature". Here, the
subjects seem to have problems with the "pr" sequence. They tend to insert a vowel or substitute a consonant on the one hand, and on the other, they often have problems distinguishing "pr" from "pl", which is also evident from the errors in the target word "plastic". The subjects replace "l" with "r"
or simply drop the "l" segment. The problems with the "r" segment are also seen in the errors for the target word "drugstore". Most subjects replace the
"dr" segment with "d+vowel" or drop the "r" segment.
In summary, the term exam errors seem to show that the subjects
have problems with consonant clusters "pl-", "dr-", "pr-", and "tr-", and have confusion over the "l" and "r" sounds.
5.5 Implications of Immediate Word-Recall Responses 5.5.1 Sophomore vs. Freshman
When viewing the overall mean percentages of the two age groups, we can see that the sophomore group has higher preservation percentages for all four phonological features than the freshman group. Obviously, the sophomore group has received more formal EFL instruction than their freshman counterpart, leading us to infer that the sophomore group has better knowledge of the peculiarities of English phonological structure.
Specifically, the features that the sophomore group preserves better than the freshman group are stressed vowel and number of syllables. The finding that the sophomore group retains more phonological information than the freshman group is proof of the effectiveness of EFL instruction.
For both groups, word-initial segment and stressed vowel are the largest and the second largest category of preserved phonological feature.
But the preservation percentages for stressed vowel and number of syllables are much higher in the sophomore group than in the freshman group.
5.5.2 Male vs. Female
Male and female subjects display great similarity in the distribution of preserved phonological features. Both male and female groups preserve word-initial segment and stressed vowel better than word-final segment and number of syllables. No significant difference is found between the two gender groups. Yet interestingly, the female group exhibits greater reliance on phonological features in encoding words, with three of the four phonological feature mean percentages being higher than those of the male group.
5.5.3 Male Sophomore vs. Male Freshman
Notably, with group differences taken into consideration, the male sophomore group outperforms the male freshman group in all the mean percentages of phonological feature preservation, especially in the preservation of number of syllables and stressed vowel. Obviously, the male sophomore group has received more formal EFL instruction than their male freshman counterpart, leading us to believe that the male sophomore group has better knowledge of the peculiarities of English phonological structure. Specifically, the features that the sophomore group preserve better than the freshman group are stressed vowel and number of syllables.
With regard to phonological feature mean percentages, word-initial
segment and stressed vowel outnumber word-final segment and number of syllables in both male sophomore and male freshman groups.
5.5.4 Female Sophomore vs. Female Freshman
The female freshman group outperforms the female sophomore group in preserving word-initial segment and word-final segment while the female sophomore group leads in preserving stressed vowel and number of syllables. However, upon closer examination, the mean percentage differences between the two groups are quite close in the preservation of word-initial segment, word-final segment, and number of syllables, with a maximum percentage difference of only 2.61%. The only exception is the preservation of number of syllables. The sophomore group performs much better than the freshman group in preserving number of syllables, with a percentage difference of 12.40%. It can be inferred that the female
sophomore group shows greater phonological awareness of number of syllables and has better knowledge of the prculiarities of English phonological structure.
5.5.5 Male Sophomore vs. Female Sophomore
As a group, the male sophomores outperform the female sophomores in the preservation of all types of phonological features. As for the
distribution of preserved phonological features, the ranking order in each group is the same. Word-initial segment and stressed vowel preservation take the lead in both groups.
5.5.6 Male Freshman vs. Female Freshman
The female freshman group scores higher than the male freshman group in the preservation of all phonological features. The phonological features that received more retention in male and female freshman groups are word-initial segment and stressed vowel.
5.6 Implications of the Word-Recall Error Responses
5.6.1 Phonological Feature Distribution
An overview of preserved phonological features shows that word-initial segments and stressed vowel are the features most likely to be preserved in recall errors. The "bathtub" effect is an explanation for the higher mean percentage of the word-initial segment. The fact that word-initial segments are better preserved than word-final segments is in line with the findings of previous research on the subject. Studies of "tip of the tongue" phenomena have shown that people tend to recall the beginnings of a word, and endings of words to a lesser extent. (Aitchison 1994: 135). Aitchison further elaborates that just as in a bathtub, the head is further out of the water and more prominent than the feet, so the beginnings of words are, on average, better remembered than the
ends.
That the stressed vowel takes up the second largest mean percentage of distribution may be due to the fact that stressed vowels are inherently louder than consonants because of the greater amount of energy used in production (Pennington, 1996: 89). In the words of Werker and Polka (1993, cited in Pennington 1996: 89), vowels are articulated more slowly, have more prominent and long-lasting acoustic cues, and can be used to provide more prosodic information than consonants. The slow and deliberate articulation of the stressed vowel is especially true in the recording played to the students, in which a native speaker recites each vocabulary word in English three times.
5.6.2 Group Differences
As a whole, the sophomore group outperforms the freshman group in preserving key phonological features. This confirms the effectiveness of EFL instruction. Having had more formal EFL instruction, the more advanced EFL learners have appear to have a better grasp of English phonological structure.
The performance of the male sophomore group in the word-recall experiment is worth noting. Recall that the male sophomore group
outperformed the female sophomore group in the preservation of all types of phonological features in the term exam. Similarly, in the word recall experiment, the male subjects also outperformed the females in the preservation of all the phonological features except number of syllables.
Our previous analyses of term exam errors showed that the male
sophomore relies the most on random guessing while the female
sophomore depends the least on random guessing. The larger percentages of random guessing errors is evidence of the risk-taking willingness and extroversion in the male sophomore group, and may be the reason why the male sophomore group performs better than its female counterpart in phonological feature preservation. For, as Larsen-Freeman & Long (1997:
188) pointed out, good language learners are willing to guess and willing to use whatever knowledge they do have of the target language
(Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1997: 188). Dulay et al (1982: 75) also believe that successful L2 acquisition is associated with lower anxiety levels and a tendency to be outgoing. Brown (2000: 150) similarly states that language learning success lies in reaching an optimum point where calculated guesses are ventured.
5.6.3 Percentages of Correct, Incorrect, and Blank Responses
The vocabulary items with the highest percentage of correct answers are all monosyllabic. The items with the highest percentage of incorrect or blank responses all have three syllables.
In Mandarin Chinese, virtually all morphemes are monosyllabic. This may result in Chinese EFL learners’ poorer grasp of "number of syllable"
in polysyllabic English words. Furthermore, many of the target vocabulary words of high percentage incorrect and blank responses have vowels, such as /æ/, / /, and /e /, which pose greater difficulty for Chinese students
because Mandarin Chinese has only one vowel in that region. In the study of interlanguage phonology, this is known as negative L1 transfer. In the words of Parker and Riley (1994: 227), those properties of the L2 which differ from the L1 and are more marked than the L1 will be difficult.
5.6.4 Difficulty with Consonant Clusters
Many of the error responses collected from the experiment suggest difficulty with consonant clusters. This may be due to the fact that the Mandarin sound system does not have consonant clusters. Taiwanese EFL learners have greater problems with consonant clusters. They either delete or substitute certain consonants. Table 38 summarizes the error responses with consonant clusters in the experiment.
Table 49: Difficult consonant clusters and errors on the experiment
Experiment Intended Word Error Percentage
Session 1 squabble abbe
abble *3 able
aguabble aquabble *2 aquabble bble *4
e
gua bble oq
75.93%
oquabble *2 q
qs bb s *2 s bble s abble sa able scuable sgrabble spoqquable sq
sq bb
sq bble *2 sqabble *3 sqra
suabble
sugrobble suqabble
surabble susi bb
Session 1 abrogate a *3
ab *8 abate abb
abbugate abelgate
abga abogate abor aborate aborgate *3 abquate abso
85.71%
abundate ad g
adorate adrogate *2 adrougate aquadant ar
bro
gaate gate *6 m ob
ob gate orgate s g
scquagate tic
trogate
Session 2 prodigious dig
digi
digious *2 gendigious gious *2 ious
p
p gility
20.00%
Session 3 dwindle d *6
d l din *2 dis disedow diw diwidle
57.78%
diwind dle dow dowinly drewdle iwindle q le wi wind windle Session 3 loquacious l ious
lecoq ligucious lo *4
lo rous lo ty log
log ous log ious
logacious logecious lognorment logu
logucigad loqcaious lou g
lougcious nol
ous
70.97%
Session 4 oblivious a e ab *2 abivious dlivious ious
livious *2 o *4
72.5%
o ious ob *3 ob s ob cious obi ious obilivious obivious *4 oulivcious ous
snolivious vilicical
vious voli
Session 4 slink alink
selink shink silnk sinlk
45.45%
Session 5 flagging f g accing cogging fagging *2 fi gging *2 fragging *2 fragling franing gging *2 ggish glassing ing *2 lagging slagging tagging
68.97%
Session 6 stunt atunt
s und saunt
30.77%
shunt sount sunt *3
As Table 38 reveals, the subjects have problems with consonant clusters, squ-, br-, pr-, dw-, qu-, bl-, sl-, fl-, and st-. The consonant cluster that poses the greatest difficulty is the one in the target vocabulary word
"abrogate" in Experiment Session 1. Many of the subjects replace the
“abr-“ sequence with "ad-", which is a more familiar segmental sequence for the subjects. The consonant cluster that takes up the second highest percentage of consonant cluster errors is the one in "squabble". In addition, the subjects have problems distinguishing between clusters with "l" vs. "r"
segments, an example of which is the target word "flagging". The subjects replace "l" with "r" or simply drop the "l" segment.
In summary, our word recall experiment shows that Taiwanese EFL learners have problems with consonant clusters such as squ-, br-, pr-, dw-, qu-, bl-, sl-, fl-, and st-, and have trouble distinguishing between "l" and
"r", both of which can be explained via markedness and negative L1 transfer.
5.7 Conclusion
From the previous discussion, we can conclude that gender, personality, L2 proficiency level, duration of formal EFL instruction, and L1 transfer all have an effect over EFL learners' lexical storage and retrieval strategies.
First, the freshman group shows a greater tendency toward sound association than the sophomore group do on the term exam. The sophomore group employs more meaning association and random
guessing strategies in their recall of vocabulary words. The sophomore group probably has a larger vocabulary, which explains why meaning-associations outnumber sound-associated errors in the sophomore group. The difference between the two age groups indicates the change and progress in learning styles and strategies that learners may go through as they get older, build up vocabulary, or receive more formal EFL instruction at school.
Second, higher percentages of random guessing errors on the term exam suggest that the male sophomore subjects are more inclined to take risk in exams. As exam errors and word-recall responses in the male sophomore group show, the larger percentage of random guessing errors point out the risk-taking willingness and extroversion in the male sophomore group. Subsequently, the better performance of the male sophomore group than their female counterparts in phonological feature preservation further illustrates the importance of extroversion or willingness to take risk in language learning.
Third, that the subjects have problems with vowels and consonant clusters in this study supports claims by proponents of the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis. This is a theory first proposed by Stockwell, Bowen, and Martin (1965, cited in Brown 2000: 209), which states that contrasts in the phonological systems of two languages can be used to build a hierarchy of difficulty using which a teacher or linguist could make a prediction of the relative difficulty of a given aspect of the target language for the second language learner.
Fourth, our results seem to suggest that word-initial segments and
word-final segments are more easily remembered in long-term memory retention (term exams), while word-initial segments and stressed vowels are more salient in short-term memory retention (immediate word recall experiment).
5.7.1 Pedagogical Implication
Building up vocabulary is a complicated process and one that takes a long time (Eve Clark, cited in Carter 1998: 184). In Taiwanese EFL classrooms, many learners confess that the most difficult aspect of learning a second language is vocabulary acquisition. When asked to write English compositions or make sentences, Taiwanese EFL students often complain that they do not have large enough vocabulary to serve the task. In response to the growing need for effective vocabulary teaching and learning, Carter (1998: 195) states that learning vocabulary effectively is closely bound up with a teacher's understanding of, and a learner's perception of, the difficulties of words. Again this brings to focus the importance of learner errors and EFL teachers’ collection, observation, and interpretation of learner errors.
As the performance of our male sophomore group shows, good language learners, not necessarily those who do better at exams, are willing to guess and use whatever knowledge they have of the target language (Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1997: 188). Successful L2 acquisition is associated with lower anxiety levels and a tendency to be outgoing (Dulay et al., 1982: 75). In light of this, EFL teachers should get learners to take
calculated risks in attempting to use language (Brown, 2001: 63). This teaching principle of Brown’s strikes at the heart of educational philosophy in Taiwan, where correctness, right answers and withholding guesses are valued and encouraged in classroom settings. From the performance of the male sophomore group, it can be inferred that learners should be encouraged to make their own lexical associations when they are actively learning new vocabulary (Channell, J. in Carter and McCarthy ed. 1988: 94), though there should be moderate rather than excessive risk-taking.
For Chinese EFL learners, the vocabulary items that have a high percentage of correct responses are all monosyllabic words. The ones that have a high percentage of incorrect and blank responses all have three syllables. English permits syllables of considerable complexity while virtually all morphemes are monosyllabic in Mandarin Chinese. This may result in Chinese EFL learners’ poorer grasp of "number of syllable" in polysyllabic English words. To remedy this shortcoming, Chinese EFL learners should be provided with more opportunities to practice polysyllabic English words, so as to develop phonological awareness of this aspect of the English language. For as Corder (1967: 169) put it, language cannot be taught -- teachers can only create conditions in which it will develop spontaneously in the mind in its own way. This perhaps can serve as a guiding principle for the remedy of all aspects of English phonological awareness studied in this thesis in which Chinese EFL learners experience difficulty.
