Sessions

Vocabulary Lists Need to Consider Polysemy

This presentation is a recommendation for a pedagogical practice as well as a basis for future research. Word frequency lists (BNC/ COCA) are often used to teach vocabulary words. These word lists often based on lemma and do not contain much information on the word. This presentation argues that word lists should contain definitions and contextual examples of more than one sense of a word. This is because learners will encounter a wider range of context such as new senses and collocates as they become more proficient in another language (Bogaards, 2000; Schmitt, 2014; Wesche & Paribakht, 1996). These new senses of the word can be considered polysemous. Polysemy can be defined as a word with multiple meaning senses that are semantically related (Hoshino & Shimizu 2018). Furthermore, a word with polysemous senses is usually believed to have a core sense of the word (Csabi, 2004; Huang 2004; Khodadady and Khaghaninzhad 2012; Morimoto & Loewen 2007; Taylor 2012; Verspoor & Lowie 2003). The problem of polysemy can become even more complex when it comes to L2. Jiang (2000) classifies polysemous words as falling into his false friends category where there is only a slight overlap between the L1 and L2 meanings of the word. This makes it difficult for learners to create a distinct sense of the word in their mind. This type of ambiguity could prevent students from being able to distinctively understand the meaning of the word. This can be disadvantageous to learners as they may encounter unfamiliar meaning senses on tests like Eiken and TOEIC. If learners are not aware of alternative meanings of the words their scores may negatively be affected.