Contextual Vocabulary Acquisition: Spring 2011 Research Group

1. Researcher: Douglas Calderon
   Word/Context:
   Katharine would calculate that she had never known her write for more than ten minutes at a time. Ideas came to her chiefly when she was in motion. She liked to perambulate the room with a duster in her hand, with which she stopped to polish the backs of already lustrous books, musing and romancing as she did so. Suddenly the right phrase or the penetrating point of view would suggest itself, and she would drop her duster and write ecstatically for a few breathless moments; and then the mood would pass away, and the duster would be sought for, and the old books polished again.
   Source:
   Becker, Chris (2004), "Contextual Vocabulary Acquisition; Contextual Information in Verb Contexts: From Analysis to Algorithm"
   Comments:

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2. Researcher: Richard F. Doell
   Word/Context:
   My criticisms echo an enigmatic passage from Post's posthumously published [diary]…. Perhaps one should not read too much into this passage. Post's diary is notable for its highly fragmentary and elusive character, sometimes bordering on the mystical. …Much of what Post says in the diary is extremely gnomic.
   Source:
   Rescorla, Michael (2007), "Church's Thesis and the Conceptual Analysis of Computability", Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 48(2): 253–280; passages from pp. 265, 277n19, and 275, respectively.
   Comments:

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3. Researcher: Bethany Griswold
   Word/Context:
   But now I'm up and little flames are gowing like sedums from the cracks in today's log wall, and I still have a little while before I have to drive Phoebe to school.
   Source:
   Baker, Nicholson (2003), A Box of Matches (New York: Random House): 28.
   • See also the amazon.com page for this book, which allows you to search for ‘sedum’.
   Comments:
   The author is sitting in front of a fire.

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4. Researcher: Areea Mostofi
   Word/Context:
   The invading armies proceeded to ravage—completely ruin and destroy—the local churches, schools, and public buildings.
   Source:
   Dulin, Kenneth L. (1970), "Using Context Clues in Word Recognition and Comprehension", The Reading Teacher 23(5): 440–445, 469.
   Comments:
   Since this word is so common, I will be replacing it with a Farsi equivalent, verani. As for the parenthetical phrase ("completely ruin and destroy"), it might reveal the definition if someone knows of its purpose. So I am going to show the context to a total of four people. I will show two people the context with the phrase and show the other two without the phrase.

   WJR comment: You should read the paper by Dulin, so you know why he uses this example.

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5. Researcher: Philip S. Rosebrough
   Word/Context:
   Rather than his usual mood of cheerful good humor, today his manner appeared quite dour.
   Source:
   Dulin, Kenneth L. (1970), "Using Context Clues in Word Recognition and Comprehension", The Reading Teacher 23(5): 440–445, 469.
   Comments:
   Basically, you're going to want to find a contrast between the unknown word ‘dour’ and ‘cheerful good humor’, as marked by ‘rather than’.

   Because this is a not uncommon English word, you might want to replace it with its Farsi equivalent, or something else—check with Areea.

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6. Researcher: Divakar Dev Singh
   Word/Context:
   Two ill-dressed people… sat around a fire where the common meal was almost ready. The mother…peered at her son through the oam of the bubbling stew.
   Source:
   Sternberg, Robert J., & Powell, Janet S. (1983), "Comprehending Verbal Comprehension", American Psychologist 38: 878–893.
   Comments:
   Also see the "ceilidh" passage

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7. Researcher: Yalei Song
   Word/Context:
   When city of Lakewood horticulture manager Greg Foreman inherited the park at Kendrick Lake in 2002, there were three garden beds and an acre of dead turf. But instead of seeing the park as half empty, he saw the opportunity to design drought-tolerant gardens to promote the benefits of planting native and xeric plants.
   Source:
   Torpey, Jodi (2010), "Kendrick Lake Park a Xeric Wonder", The Denver Post (21 May).
   Comments:
   I'm going to show the context to 4 people with different English backgrounds.

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8. Researcher: Zhaomo Yang
   Word/Context:
   There were, also, divers ladies in New York, Newport, and elsewhere, and celebrated for their palatial homes, their jewels, and their daughters, who were anxious to know how Bellew would comport himself under his disappointment. Some leaned to the idea that he would immediately blow his brains out; others opined that he would promptly set off on another of his exploring expeditions, and get himself torn to pieces by lions and tigers, or devoured by alligators; while others again feared greatly that, in a fit of pique, he would marry some "young person" unknown, and therefore, of course, utterly unworthy.
   Source:
   Becker, Chris (2004), "Contextual Vocabulary Acquisition; Contextual Information in Verb Contexts: From Analysis to Algorithm"
   Comments:
   Will be using SNePSLOG.

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