{"pk":27795,"title":"Predictors of L2 word learning accuracy: A big data investiagtion","subtitle":null,"abstract":"What makes some words harder to learn than others in a second\nlanguage? Although some robust factors have been identified\nbased on small scale experimental studies, many relevant\nfactors are difficult to study in such experiments due to the\namount of data necessary to test them. Here, we investigate\nwhat factors affect the ease of learning of a word in a second\nlanguage using a large data set of users learning English as a\nsecond language through the Duolingo mobile app. In a\nregression analysis, we test and confirm the well-studied effect\nof cognate status on word learning accuracy. Furthermore, we\nfind significant effects for both cross-linguistic semantic\nalignment and English semantic density, two novel predictors\nderived from large scale distributional models of lexical\nsemantics. Finally, we provide data on several other\npsycholinguistically plausible word level predictors. We\nconclude with a discussion of the limits, benefits and future\nresearch potential of using big data for investigating second\nlanguage learning.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Second language learning"},{"word":"vocabulary"},{"word":"big data"},{"word":"Corpus Analysis"},{"word":"Distrobution semantics"}],"section":"Publication-based-Talks","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/39j7q5vd","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Elise","middle_name":"W.M.","last_name":"Hopman","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Wisconsin-Madison","department":""},{"first_name":"Bill","middle_name":"","last_name":"Thompson","name_suffix":"","institution":"Max Planck Institute for Physcholinguistics","department":""},{"first_name":"Joseph","middle_name":"L","last_name":"Austerweil","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Wisconsin-Madison","department":""},{"first_name":"Gary","middle_name":"","last_name":"Lupyan","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Wisconsin-Madison","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2018-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/27795/galley/17435/download/"}]}