BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//pretalx//conference-hub.linguistic-society.com//athens-2026//talk
 //R99DZQ
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:pretalx-athens-2026-R99DZQ@conference-hub.linguistic-society.com
DTSTART:20260422T143000Z
DTEND:20260422T144500Z
DESCRIPTION:Objectives\nValence-laden inputs\, regardless of their emotiona
 l polarity\, tend to receive prioritised processing and thus\nautomaticall
 y attract and sustain attention more effectively than neutral ones. When i
 t comes to language\nacquisition\, the Affective Embodiment Account (AEA) 
 suggests that emotional valence facilitates the\ngrounding of word meaning
 s by providing an embodied learning experience. Although research across d
 iverse\nmethodologies and stimulus types points to emotional valence as a 
 significant facilitator of vocabulary\nacquisition\, available evidence yi
 elds varied or conflicting conclusions. Additionally\, little research has
 \ninvestigated the impact of linguistic context’s emotional valence on t
 he acquisition of new L2 words\, with even\nfewer studies examining the re
 tention of vocabulary knowledge. The present study extends this line of en
 quiry\nand addresses inconsistencies in existing literature by jointly exp
 loring three dimensions of vocabulary\nknowledge (form\, denotative meanin
 g\, emotional meaning)\, offering insights into how emotional valence of\n
 input exerts its facilitative effects. The primary research question is wh
 ether reading valence-laden L2 narratives\ncan lead to better learning and
  retention of L2 novel words in EFL learners.\n\nMethodology\nAdopting a w
 ithin-subjects experimental design in an incidental learning paradigm\, th
 is study built on Dong et\nal. (2024) and involved 74 Vietnamese EFL adult
  learners who were exposed to 30 novel adjectives through\nreading 60 shor
 t English narratives of different valence conditions (20 positive\, 20 neg
 ative\, 20 neutral). The\nreading materials were adapted from Dong et al. 
 (2024) and were constructed to elicit distinct emotional\nvalences\, valid
 ated through both computational analysis (BERT model) and human ratings. L
 earning was\nassessed immediately and after a one-week delay through four 
 tasks: speeded recognition (form)\, meaning\nmatching (denotative meaning)
 \, sentence completion (emotional meaning\, immediate)\, and valence judge
 ment\n(emotional meaning\, delayed). Generalised Linear Mixed Models (GLMM
 s) was adopted as the primary analytic\napproach for both accuracy and rea
 ction time (RT) data.\n\nResults\nResults showed evidence of successful le
 arning of all three aspects\, with words encountered in the emotional\ncon
 texts\, especially negative ones\, outperforming those in the neutral cont
 exts in both form recognition and\ndenotative meaning. However\, these adv
 antages had attenuated by the delayed test\, suggesting contextual\nvalenc
 e’s limited effects on long- term retention of vocabulary knowledge. Res
 ults from the two measures of\nemotional meaning acquisition revealed mini
 mal sensitivity to the valence of context\, with no differences in\nperfor
 mance across all conditions observed.\n\nDiscussion\nThe study suggests th
 at emotional valence of linguistic context may facilitate early encoding b
 ut offer limited\nbenefits for sustained retention of vocabulary knowledge
 . Evidence for a valence asymmetry was observed\, but\nonly in the immedia
 te form recognition and meaning matching speed where negative contexts sho
 wed\nsignificantly better facilitative effect than positive ones. This ind
 icates that the presence of emotionality\, rather\nthan the polarity of va
 lence\, may be the key driver of facilitation. Together\, these findings i
 ndicate that the strategic integration of emotional content\, especially c
 lear\, vivid\, and carefully-framed negative scenarios\, might\nbe a power
 ful tool for enhancing the initial encoding of new vocabulary in EFL conte
 xts.
DTSTAMP:20260419T082437Z
LOCATION:Online Session
SUMMARY:The Effects of Linguistic Context’s Emotional Valence on the Acqu
 isition of Novel Vocabulary in EFL Learners - Tram Thai
URL:https://conference-hub.linguistic-society.com/athens-2026/talk/R99DZQ/
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR