Developing a useful measure of French-English cognate aware - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Developing a useful measure of French-English cognate awareness

Marlise Horst – Concordia UniversityTom Cobb – Université du Québec à MontréalJoanna White - Concordia UniversityAAAL, March 2013Slide2

Acknowledgements

2

We thank our research associate

Randall Halter

And our graduate and undergraduate research assistants, students at Concordia University and UQAM

Juliane

Martini

Tayebeh

Shalmani

Victoria Dwight

Jessica Bate

David Bertrand

Andrew

Chevrier

Karine

Valliquette

We are also grateful to

ESL teachers and students in Montreal area secondary schools

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of CanadaSlide3

Overview of the presentation

3Context of the researchA new measure of French-English cognate awareness

Findings

Do Quebec ESL learners recognize helpful cognates?

How does cognate density affect reading comprehension?

A new measure of cognate density

Conclusions Slide4

Background

Why do we need a test of cognate awareness?Awareness of L1-L2 cognates can offer learners a huge reading comprehension advantageThere are thousands of helpful French-English cognatesBut we don’t know the extent to which Quebec secondary learners of English canRecognize cognates

Deploy cognate knowledge in understanding texts

4Slide5

Background

Our study of primary ESL learners shows that cognate instruction increases cognate awareness (White & Horst, 2012) A test might also show us whether instruction might benefit secondary learnersBut no cognate awareness measure for French-English cognates exists…

5Slide6

Developing a cognate test

Existing measures of cognate awareness?Cognate Awareness Test for Spanish-speaking learners of EnglishAugust, Kenyon, Malabonga, Longuit,

Caglarcan

& Carlo, 2001

We looked for an alternative to their multiple-choice format to avoid

Scope for guessing

Answers requiring knowing English

Part 1 of our test has 40 English words to

translate

directly into French

16 cognates, 16 non-cognates, 8 ‘easy’ words

6Slide7

7

Part 1.

Translate the

underlined

word into French. If you don’t know the word, check “I don’t know.”

1. That noise is

loud

. …………………………………………………. ___ I don’t know.

2. What is the

consequence

? …………………………………………………. ___ I don’t know.

3. We

condemn

them. …………………………………………………. ___ I don’t know.

4. We have a new

president

. …………………………………………………. ___ I don’t know.

5. We have the

address

. …………………………………………………. ___ I don’t know.

6. He can

heal

you. …………………………………………………. ___ I don’t know.

7. What is the

origin

of this? …………………………………………………. ___ I don’t know.

8. There was

lightning

. …………………………………………………. ___ I don’t know.

Etc.Slide8

The 16 cognates and 16 non-cognates are comparable

As much as possible, each cognate item has a comparable non-cognate counterpartSame part of speechSame rough frequency in English according to frequency lists based on the BNC (Nation, 2006)

8Slide9

Test-takers also deploy

cognate awarenessPart 2 of the test: reading comprehension task with guessing unknown words from contextTask: Translate into French A cognate-rich textA cognate-impoverished text

Each text contains 3 infrequent, non-cognate words (underlined)

9

COGNATE HIGH

The white

colour

of our apartment was totally uninteresting to me. My mom permitted me to paint it the

hue

I most preferred. I chose orange. But while I was painting the ceiling I suddenly lost my balance and fell. As a result, I created a giant orange

scribble

on the white wall. I thought the new decoration was fantastic but my mom

loathed

it.

COGNATE LOW

I thought my plain white bedroom walls looked boring. My mom said she would let me paint them any

hue

I liked. So I picked orange. But while I was painting the ceiling , I started to fall off the ladder. Paint splashed everywhere and I made a huge orange

scribble

on the white wall. I thought it looked rather lovely but my mom

loathed

it.Slide10

10

PAINTING -- COGNATE HIGH

The white colour of our apartment was totally uninteresting to me. My mom permitted me to paint it the

hue

I most preferred. I chose orange. But while I was painting the ceiling I suddenly lost my balance and fell. As a result, I created a giant orange

scribble

on the white wall. I thought the new decoration was fantastic but my mom

loathed

it.

PAINTING -- COGNATE LOW

I thought my plain white bedroom walls looked boring. My mom said she would let me paint them any

hue

I liked. So I picked orange. But while I was painting the ceiling , I started to fall off the ladder. Paint splashed everywhere and I made a huge orange

scribble

on the white wall. I though it looked rather lovely but my mom

loathed

it.Slide11

Texts were counterbalanced for topic

Version A

Version B

Painting

(Cognate

High)

Gift

(Cognate

High)

Gift

(Cognate

Low)

Painting

(Cognate Low )

11Slide12

12

GIFT -- COGNATE HIGH

I have a

favourite

aunt who adores me. When I finished secondary school, she presented me with a diamond bracelet. It was a valuable family treasure and my

siblings

were so jealous of me. The next day I was walking in a

meadow

, and it fell off my arm. I searched for many hours but the

heirloom

had disappeared. I am still inconsolable.

GIFT -- COGNATE LOW

I have an aunt who is close to me. When I finished high school she gave me a gold ring. It was an

heirloom

and worth a lot. My

siblings

had always loved it dearly. The next day I was walking in a

meadow

, and it fell off my hand. I looked for the ring for a long time but I never found it. I still feel the loss.Slide13

Testing the test

Participants343 secondary ESL students in French medium schools in the Montreal area14 classes5 levels: Secondary 1, 2, 3, 4, 5Age ±13-18

13Slide14

Results of the cognate testing

Do Quebec ESL learners recognize helpful cognates?14Slide15

Part 1

40 items to translaterandom mixture of 16 cognates16 non-cognates8 ‘easies’

15Slide16

Part 1.

Translate the

underlined

word into French. If you don’t know the word, check “I don’t know.”

1. That noise is

loud

. …………………………………………… ___ I don’t know.

2. What is the

consequence

? …………………………………………… ___ I don’t know.

3. We

condemn

them. …………………………………………… ___ I don’t know.

4. We have a new

president

. …………………………………………… ___ I don’t know.

5. We have the

address

. …………………………………………… ___ I don’t know.

6. He can

heal

you. …………………………………………… ___ I don’t know.

7. What is the

origin

of this? …………………………………………… ___ I don’t know.

8. There was

lightning

. …………………………………………… ___ I don’t know.

9. He has

never

met her. …………………………………………… ___ I don’t know.

10. I saw his

face

. …………………………………………… ___ I don’t know.

11. The

tub

is over there. …………………………………………… ___ I don’t know.

12. He started to

slump

. …………………………………………… ___ I don’t know.

13. It is very

spicy

. …………………………………………… ___ I don’t know

Etc.

Scoring

16

Answers were rated right (1 point) or wrong (0 points)

In consultation with a fluent bilingual, a native speaker of Quebec French

“I don’t know” = 0 pointsSlide17

Results

17

75%

25%

Means: 16 non-cognates vs. 16 cognates (

N

= 343

)Slide18

Results

18

Means: 16 non-cognates vs. 16 cognates by yearSlide19

Results

19

Correct = 1

Incorrect = 0

Means by word – 16 CognatesSlide20

What do we see?

Cognates with exact or close resemblance to French are easily recognizedconsequence, liberty, originRecognition decreases with school/école patternsponge, spicy, slave, strangled, stun, spouse Scope for awareness raising instruction here

20Slide21

Results

21

Means by word – 16 Non-cognatesSlide22

What do we see?

The most known non-cognate is flightA common experience for young Quebeckers?Some of the least known ones were confused with sound-alikes rod / roadwealthy / healthy

22Slide23

Results

23

Means by word – 8 easy (1k) words

Correct = 1

Incorrect = 0Slide24

Results of the cognate testing

How does cognate density affect reading comprehension?24Slide25

Part 2

2 texts to translateOne cognate high, one cognate lowOne about painting, one about a giftCounterbalanced (Versions A & B)

25Slide26

Rating the translated texts

All translations were rated twiceby two French-English bilingualsDisagreements were discussed, resolvedScoring3 = perfect, near perfect with sensible guesses2 = comprehensible but avoidance of 2 or 3 targets1 = minimal, partially complete

0 = not attempted

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Sample translation rated 3

27Slide28

Results

28

Means - text translations (max score =3)Slide29

Summary

Performance on single-word cognates (Part 1) was substantially better than on comparable non-cognatesPerformance on cognates (12/16) allows scope for improvement (via classroom awareness raising)But comprehension of a cognate-rich text (Part 2) was facilitated by cognates in version B only

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Why was the expected advantage for cognate-rich texts not (consistently) found?

30Slide31

To consider…

Q: What makes an English text easier to read?Lots of French-English cognates – usually less frequent English words? I have a favourite aunt who adores me.

OR

Lots of very

frequent

English words – often Anglo-Saxon non-cognates?

I have a

dear

aunt who is

close

to me.

We need a way of assessing texts that takes

both

cognate richness and frequency into account

31Slide32

Ideal for this experiment would have been

Cognates: Text X > Text YFrequent words:

Text

X =

Text

Y

Q: Is

there

a simple,

reliable

way

to

judge

texts

for

these

two

factors

?

One of the goals of

this

research

is

to

develop

a computer-

based

text

assessment

tool

along

the

way

Like

Lextutor’s

«

Vocabprofile

 »

What

we

have

got

so

far

…



32Slide33

33

We know that

more frequent

words =

more comprehensibility

-- but frequency does only part of the jobSlide34

Two spoken texts, both at K1>90%

A child speaking about baseballAdults speaking about writing assessment

I

like baseball, it is fun, when I play it I hit homeruns. I like baseball because you, you get to get people out. That's all, baseball is easy what you do is you, you, if there is a fly ball and you're running on the base you go halfway and if they catch it you are out and if they drop it you are not out, you just keep running. If you do an overthrow you only can go one base. If you were playing out in the outfield you must pay attention so the ball won't hit you in the head.

DEMOS lextutor.ca/

vp

/

bnc

/

I

can't recall when, but it was for the writing assessment. And one of the concerns at that point is what happens if students have more time?

And so in that assessment, it was a comparison of 20 minutes and 15 minutes to see if in fact the additional time made a difference.

I'm mentioning this here not because it's writing, but people might have been concerned about how much time was given to the students to read and then write the extended passage.

34Slide35

35

Speech (

both

kids and adults) is almost entirely high frequency (1k) words Slide36

36

L

ist carve-up

(

 1k)

SO WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

The kid and adult speech both use lots of frequent words BUT the adult uses more cognates (GL items).

Frequency profiles alone don’t capture this.

We need a cognate /non-cognate carve-up of the frequency listsSlide37

Building a new cognateness-of-texts measure

 VPCOGNATESAll families on BNC frequency lists 1k-10k were judged as either

GL: More “Greco-Latin” (cognate)

AS: More “Angl0-Saxon” (non-cognate)

Easy cases

English

video

/ French

vidéo

= cognate

English

horse

/ French

cheval

= non-cognate

But how to classify

actual /

actuel

?

English actual = real

French

actuel

=

1.

current, ongoing

2.

real

37Slide38

Building a new cognateness-of-texts measure

 VPCOGNATES

Many previous attempts to harness the reality of cognates

pedagogically

Séguin

, H. &

Tréville

, M.-C. (1992

);

Tréville

(1993)

Friel

&

Kennison

(2001) “… methodological issues and descriptive norms”

… have foundered or become too complex for use

on the problem of classifying words as cognate

Our approach: make principled decisions

Build a large scale testing environment for these decisions

Then test and revise

And test and revise…

38Slide39

Our principles for classing words of varying degrees of cognateness – GL or AS

FORM (

ortho

)

M

E

A

N

I

N

G

SIMILAR

DIFFERENT

SIM-

ILAR

(1)

video

(

vidéo

)

(2)

school

(

école

)

DIFF-

ERENT

(3)

actual

(

actuel

)

(4)

impeach

(

empêcher

)

39

0-1 difference in form, 0-1 difference in meaning = cognate (with training)

Slide40

`

GRECO-LATIN FAMILIES - 1ka

able absolute accept account act active actual address admit affect age agent air

amount

and another apart apparent appear apply appoint approach appropriate argue arrange art associate assume at attend authority baby balance ball bank bar base basis beat beauty benefit blue boat bottle box brief brilliant

budget

bus buss by card case cat cause cent centre certain chair chance change character charge choice choose

claim

class clear client club coffee colleague collect college colour comment commit committee common community company compare complete concern condition confer consider consult contact continue contract control converse copy correct cost council count county couple course court cover create current cut danger date debate decide decision definite degree department depend describe design detail develop difference difficult dinner direct discuss district divide doctor document double doubt due during each east economy educate effect elect electric employ

encourage

enjoy enter environment equal especial

exact

example except excuse

exercise

exist expect expense experience explain express extra eye face fact family farm favour figure film final finance fine finish force form

fortune

function fund future garden gas general govern grand group guy hate have he history honest hospital hour hullo idea identify imagine important include individual industry inform insure interest introduce invest issue item

join

judge just key labour language large law letter limit line link list local

long

machine major mark market marry matter measure member mention mile million minister minute mister moment motion

music …

40Slide41

`

ANGLO-SAX FAMILIES - 1k about achieve across add advertise afford after afternoon again against ago agree all allow almost along already alright also although always answer any area arm around as ask available aware away awful back bad bag be bear because become bed before begin behind believe best bet between big bill birth bit black bloke blood blow board body book both bother bottom boy break bring brother build business busy but buy cake call can car care carry catch chairman chap cheap check child church city clean clock close clothe cold come compute cook corner could country cross cup dad day dead deal dear deep die do dog door down draw dress drink drive drop dry early easy eat egg eight either eleven else end engine enough even evening ever every evidence fair fall far fast father feed feel few field fight file fill find fire first fish fit five flat floor fly follow food foot for forget forward four free Friday friend from front full fun further game get girl give glass go god good goodbye grant great green ground grow guess hair half hall hand hang happen happy hard head health hear heart heat heavy hell help here high hit hold holiday home hope horse hot house how however hundred husband if improve in income increase indeed inside instead into involve it job jump keep kid kill kind king kitchen knock know lad lady land last late laugh lay lead learn leave left leg less let level lie life light like likely listen little live load lock look lord lose lot love low luck lunch main make man manage many match may maybe mean meaning meet middle might milk mind minus miss Monday money month more morning most mother move

mrs

much must …

ALL 1k + 2k INCORPORATED INTO VOCABPROFILE



41Slide42

42

The difference between the kids’ and professors’ same-k texts becomes clear Slide43

Can we test the combined effect of Frequency x Cognateness?

MINI-EXPERIMENTClass task, TESL course in teaching of reading 40 teachers in training, 2011 and 2012

Each student prepared ~

Two

sequential

texts from a

Bookworm

graded reader

Starting from a

very

high A-Sax component

Text 1 = original text (98% of lexical words = 1k+2k)

Text 2 = cognate text (GL-level 10% increased)

Sequence varied by choice (roughly 50-50)

Cognate text made using Edit-to-Profile feature of

VP

COGNATES

43Slide44

MINI-EXPERIMENT (cont’d)

Student teacher finds low-intermediate ESL learner to read and retell texts in L1cognate-low and cognate-high texts

Provenance of measure: Bernhard, 1991

Comprehension measure

10 pre-determined key elements

Score is number of key elements included or alluded to in re-tell

44Slide45

Is there proof it makes any difference?

From the annals of the class Moodle…45

Heredera

PlamondonSlide46

I

s there proof it makes any difference?

46

Valiquette

SUMMARY

>

40 informal case studies

With a range of low-intermediate French ESL learners

Show consistent advantage for higher-cognate texts

Results

Anglo-Saxon text results

6/11 = 55%

Greco-Latin text results

8/11 = 73%

Etc.Slide47

Ramp up VPCOGNATES

to 10 k-levelsTo explore our AS and GL classifications in a full range of authentic textsAnd investigate learner response to cognate-low and cognate-high textsThis job has in itself has already led to some interesting observationsWhich both inform this work and shed light on its importance

47

SO now…Slide48

48

L

ist carve-up

(

 1k, 2k … – 10k

)Slide49

49

An aside on methodology…Slide50

Observation 1

We can see the rough proportions of each of the four degrees of cognatenessAgainst the backdrop of a near-exclusive focus on ‘faux-amis’ in previous research

AT ALL 10 FREQUENCY LEVELS,

97 %

OF ITEMS ARE IN BOX

1, 2

OR

3

4’s

ARE QUITE RARE

50

FORM (

ortho

)

M

E

A

N

I

N

G

SIMILAR

DIFFERENT

SIM-

ILAR

(1)

video

(

vidéo

)

(2)

school

(

école

)

DIFF-

ERENT

(3)

actual

(

actuel

)

(4)

impeach

(

empêcher

)Slide51

And further -

As the analysis proceeded from 1k  5k  10k ~

The proportion of Box 3 items gradually decreases

Leaving the vast majority in Box 2

Very similar meaning but with one form difference

Highly promising

for a form-recognition training program

51

FORM (

ortho

)

M

E

A

N

I

N

G

SIMILAR

DIFFERENT

SIM-

ILAR

(1)

video

(

vidéo

)

(2)

school

(

école

)

DIFF-

ERENT

(3)

actual

(

actuel

)

(4)

impeach

(

empêcher

)Slide52

Example: 30 cognates at different k-levels

(Words with meaning issues italicized)1k COGNATES

able

absolute accept account act active

actual

add address admit affect age agent air

amount apart apparent appear

apply

appoint

approach appropriate area argue arrange art associate

assume

attend …

8k COGNATES

abhor accentuate accordion acetate

acoustic

acronym acrylic adrenaline aggressor aide allude altar altitude altruistic amnesty anaesthetist ancillary angina anthem antiseptic apartheid apostrophe arboretum archaeological arctic armistice armoury aromatherapy asbestos

assimilate …

52Slide53

Observation 2

QUIZ FOR AUDIENCE :

What happens to the proportion of ASax items as

we head toward 10k ?

ANSWER :

Almost

half

the common lexicon of English is

ASax

all the way up to 10k

ASax does

not

dwindle after 2k

as has been commonly assumed

53Slide54

54Slide55

Observation 3

The full 10k cognate analysis enables us to…Evaluate the GL-ASax components of full-size, natural English texts

(beyond graded

readers + course books)

And assess the true importance of building an

Asax

lexicon for French (and other Romance) learners

Depending on their reading goals



55Slide56

56

QUIZ FOR AUDIENCE

: What are the proportions of

Asax

to GL

items across text types? Slide57

57Slide58

58Slide59

59Slide60

60Slide61

Answer to Quiz

Some text-types can go up to 45% GL composition

Despite

recurrence of high-frequency ASax

items like prepositions and helping verbs

Or down as low as

8%

Factor of

5

And patterns are remarkably consistent across text types

The 10k-analysis allows us to see this

61Slide62

This has huge implications for L1 Romance learners reading English

Reading in some domains could be quite easy and proceed on largely L1+cognates basisLaw, medicine, sciences generally GL 40% by tokens, mainly 3k-10kApplied linguistics articles?

Others could be quite difficult and require major lexical expansion

Fiction

GL 11% by tokens

62Slide63

But before that ~

Are our classifications valid on the level of practice?We must use VPCOGNATES

to create texts on numerous topics combining Frequency

x

Cognateness

in known ratios

Then

test these texts

for comprehensibility

A

s previously but

With a broader range of

texts

(Not just graded readers)

With a broader range of

learners

(Not just low intermediates)

With a broader range of

measures

(Not just

translation)

63Slide64

Ultimate goals

For Francophones learning EnglishDevelop recognition-training for Box 2 cognates (école)Interpretation training for HFreq

Box 2 cognates (

actuel

) ?

Define the cognates that should just be learned as new words (

impeach

)

Incorporate (a) frequency and (b) cognateness into reading programs

Presumably proceeding from high-cognate to low cognate texts

In line with learners’ goals

Whether with regard to

found

or

adapted

texts

And eventually work a similar program

English

French

64Slide65

Questions?

65Slide66

??? Quite amazing that ~

Learning design for ESL reading typically does not incorporate the GOALS of learner, in coordination withCOGNATES or lack of themin the type of English texts the learner is targeting

Possibly because of the size of the task of doing anything with cognates

Which we here have cut down in complexity somewhat – still a ton of work, and many classifications are debatable

No excuse not to have a

p

lan for cognates!

66Slide67

Sample translation rated 2

67