Wellington Vocabulary Research Summer School 2023: 11 and 12 December 2023

Kia ora koutou! Join us for a two-day series of workshops and roundtables on vocabulary research in our first ever Wellington Vocabulary Research Summer School. The aim of the Summer School is to bring together experienced scholars, early career researchers and anyone wondering how vocabulary researchers might actually do research to discuss a range of methodological approaches to vocabulary research. The Summer School will take place on our Kelburn Campus at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington, just before Vocab@Vic 2023 (13-15 December, Rutherford House, Pipitea Campus, Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand). Might as well fill your boots!
Confirmed speakers in no particular order:
  • Dr. Geoff Pinchbeck, Carleton University - https://carleton.ca/slals/people/pinchbeck-geoff/
    • Combining knowledge-based and corpus-based word list information in language pedagogy
      Corpus-based word lists are often used to provide information about the real-world usefulness of lexical forms for second-language learners. Knowledge-based word lists, in contrast, rank words according to what learners are likely to know or not know, which is germane to text readability estimation. A strategic approach to lexical pedagogy should select the most useful target forms that the learners don’t already know. This session will provide an introduction to and a practical workshop on 1) text-difficulty estimation using knowledge-based lists, and then 2) selection of lexical items from course texts for vocabulary pre-teaching and for subsequent explicit focus-on-form activities.
  • Professor Laurence Anthony, Waseda University - https://www.laurenceanthony.net/
    • Applications of corpus methods in vocabulary research and teaching: From word lists to large language models (LLMs)
      Corpus methods have been widely used in vocabulary research and teaching to investigate the frequency, distribution, and collocation patterns of words in different contexts. This workshop introduces various applications of corpus methods, ranging from word list creation and vocabulary profiling to more advanced techniques such as collocation analysis, semantic analysis, and the use of large language models (LLMs). During the workshop, participants will be introduced to several free and easy-to-use software tools that can be used by researchers, teachers, and learners to gain deeper insights about vocabulary use inside and outside of the language learning classroom.
  • Dr. Simon De Deyne, University of Melbourne - https://simondedeyne.me/
    • An introduction to multi-scale semantic network analysis
      Language is inherently relational, and semantic networks that represent nodes as words and edges as semantic relations provide an intuitive way to represent the mental lexicon. This workshop will introduce semantic network analysis as a tool for studying the organization of the mental lexicon at multiple scales. Participants will learn how centrality and similarity measurements at different scales can inform us about lexical processing efficiency and the organization of meaning. At the microscopic scale, semantic network analysis allows for the investigation of direct connections between a word and its neighbours, which results in centrality measures that predict word processing. At the mesoscopic level, community detection can reveal how words cluster into hierarchically organized meaningful categories and domains. At the macroscopic level, the small-world structure of the network gives insight into how efficiently information is retrieved. Recent empirical work from the Small World of Words project will be used to illustrate these concepts.
  • Professor Tess Fitzpatrick, Swansea University - https://www.swansea.ac.uk/staff/t.fitzpatrick/
    • What can word association data reveal about the mental lexicon?
      Studies have suggested that word association tasks can reveal differences in how individuals process language and construe meaning. Researchers have variously claimed that word association response patterns can discriminate variables including age, cognitive function, second language proficiency, personality, psychoses, and attitude/perspective. However, stable patterns are elusive, results contradictory, and methodological approaches inconsistent. Here we will apply some novel analytic techniques to data from respondents with distinct characteristics including sensory impairment, cognitive impairment, language use and genetic relatedness. We will examine the data for emergent patterns, and will consider whether word association methods warrant a place in our linguistic toolkit.
  • Dr. Stephen Skalicky, Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington - https://people.wgtn.ac.nz/stephen.skalicky
    • Learning NLP with Python in 90 Minutes: Colab, NLTK, and spaCy
      This hands-on workshop introduces participants to natural language processing using the Python programming language. Participants will learn how to create and use Google Colab notebooks in a web browser to begin coding with Python. Participants will then explore how the Natural Language Tool Kit (NLTK) and spaCy Python libraries can analyse text data for various lexical properties (e.g., tokenizing, part of speech tagging). To ensure the best experience, participants should have a Google drive account (drive.google.com) and bring their own laptop. No prior knowledge of programming is assumed.
  • Associate Professor Irina Elgort, Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington - https://people.wgtn.ac.nz/irina.elgort
    • How can I use eye-tracking to study vocabulary?
      Eye-movement research is rapidly gaining momentum in the field of L2 and bilingual vocabulary studies. Recording eye movements (eye-tracking) offers a non-invasive way of testing hypotheses about factors that affect word, phrase and sentence processing and comprehension. Multiple eye-movement measures can be extracted from the recorded reading data to zoom in on lower-order and high-order cognitive processes. In this session, I will outline some key affordances and limitations of experimental eye-tracking approaches to study visual word processing. Participants will compare different research designs and work in pairs or small groups to start designing their own eye-tracking studies. (No prior knowledge of eye-tracking is assumed).

The draft summer school programme can be found here. Including roundtable discussions led by Professor Frank Boers (Something to help you remember: Making it stick, day one) and Emeritus Professor Paul Nation (Pedagogical use of vocabulary lists, day two).
Each day will begin at 9.15am with registration and a short welcome. There will be four sessions per day: 9.30-11.00am; 11.30-1.00pm; 1:15-2.00pm; and 2.15-3.45pm. Full registration includes all Summer School sessions, morning tea and lunch. One day registration includes all the sessions on the day of registration, and morning tea and lunch on that day.
Venue: Alan McDiamid Building (AM), Kelburn Campus, Te Herenga Waka -Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand. Alan McDiamid Building (AM) is at H13 on this map: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/about/campuses-facilities/campuses/kelburn/kelburn-campus-map.pdf

Registration: https://vuw.eventsair.com/vocabvic-2023/vocabvic-register

  • $75.00 NZD full registration for both days or
  • $50.00 NZD for a one day registration
  • Includes morning tea and lunch.
  • Closes on November 30, 2023


We are very grateful for the generous support of the Ian Gordon Fund.

More information to come!

Heoi anō tāku mō nāianei – that’s all for now. Any questions? Email: VocabAtVic@vuw.ac.nz
​
Averil Coxhead and the Vocab@Vic crew