scholarly journals Vocabulary size and use: Lexical richness in L2 written production

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
B Laufer ◽  
Paul Nation
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Close Correspondence ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Reliable Measure ◽  
Lexical Frequency ◽  
Frequency Profile ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Lexical Richness ◽  
Vocabulary Growth ◽  
General Service

This article shows that if there is some control over genre then there will be a close correspondence between the vocabulary size of intermediate learners as reflected in their writing and a more direct measure of vocabulary size The study proposes a new measure of lexical richness, the Lexical Frequency Profile, which looks at the proportion of high frequency general service and academic words in learners' writing The study shows that it is possible to obtain a reliable measure of lexical richness which is stable across two pieces of writing by the same learners It also discriminates between learners of different proficiency levels For learners of English as a second language, the Lexical Frequency Profile is seen as being a measure of how vocabulary size is reflected in use In this study, it was found that the Lexical Frequency Profile correlates well with an independent measure of vocabulary size This reliable and valid measure of lexical richness in writing will be useful for determining the factors that affect judgements of quality in writing and will be useful for examining how vocabulary growth is related to vocabulary use. © 1995 Oxford University Press.

scholarly journals Vocabulary size and use: Lexical richness in L2 written production

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
B Laufer ◽  
Paul Nation
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Close Correspondence ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Reliable Measure ◽  
Lexical Frequency ◽  
Frequency Profile ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Lexical Richness ◽  
Vocabulary Growth ◽  
General Service

This article shows that if there is some control over genre then there will be a close correspondence between the vocabulary size of intermediate learners as reflected in their writing and a more direct measure of vocabulary size The study proposes a new measure of lexical richness, the Lexical Frequency Profile, which looks at the proportion of high frequency general service and academic words in learners' writing The study shows that it is possible to obtain a reliable measure of lexical richness which is stable across two pieces of writing by the same learners It also discriminates between learners of different proficiency levels For learners of English as a second language, the Lexical Frequency Profile is seen as being a measure of how vocabulary size is reflected in use In this study, it was found that the Lexical Frequency Profile correlates well with an independent measure of vocabulary size This reliable and valid measure of lexical richness in writing will be useful for determining the factors that affect judgements of quality in writing and will be useful for examining how vocabulary growth is related to vocabulary use. © 1995 Oxford University Press.

Calculating the lexical frequency profile of written German texts

2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin East
Keyword(s):  
Small Scale ◽  
Computer Programme ◽  
Lexical Frequency ◽  
Frequency Profile ◽  
Bilingual Dictionary ◽  
Word Families ◽  
Lexical Richness ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Measures of lexical richness aim at quantifying the degree to which L2 writers are using a varied and large vocabulary. One method for calculating lexical richness is the Lexical Frequency Profile, or LFP (Laufer & Nation, 1995). The LFP, calculated by a computer programme, provides a detailed picture of vocabulary use measured against several frequency lists of words. This paper reports on a small-scale study to investigate the effectiveness of calculating the LFP of written texts of German. This study formed part of a larger study to investigate the impact of dictionaries on students’ writing. Six subjects completed two timed writing tasks in examination conditions, one with and one without a bilingual dictionary. It was envisaged that the LFP might be helpful in determining if the presence of the bilingual dictionary made a difference to students’ lexical sophistication. A calculation of the LFP was carried out using two context-specific lists. Figures were calculated for the number of word tokens and word families. It was concluded that, although using the computer programme with German texts presented some difficulties not present when using the software with English frequency lists, the LFP showed itself to be a valuable diagnostic tool that was able to differentiate between proficiency levels in German and to provide useful information about lexical richness in German texts.

scholarly journals Analysing lexical richness in French learner language: what frequency lists and teacher judgements can tell us about basic and advanced words

2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANÇOISE TIDBALL ◽  
JEANINE TREFFERS-DALLER
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Lexical Frequency ◽  
French Version ◽  
Frequency Profile ◽  
Reliable Tool ◽  
Lexical Richness ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Learner Language ◽  
Better Than

ABSTRACTIn this paper we study different aspects of lexical richness in narratives of British learners of French. In particular we focus on different ways of measuring lexical sophistication. We compare the power of three different operationalisations of the Advanced Guiraud (AG) (Daller, van Hout and Treffers-Daller, 2003): one based on teacher judgement, one on ‘le français fondamental 1er degré’ and one on frequency of lexical items. The results show that teacher judgement is a highly reliable tool for assessing lexical sophistication. The AG based on teacher judgements is better able to discriminate between the groups than the other operationalisations. It also works better than Vocabprofil (the French version of Laufer and Nation's (1995) Lexical Frequency Profile).

Productive Vocabulary Knowledge of ESL Learners

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulmalik Usman ◽  
Dahiru Musa Abdullahi
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Lexical Frequency ◽  
Frequency Profile ◽  
Esl Learners ◽  
The Relationship

The paper seeks to investigate the level of productive knowledge of ESL learners, the writing quality and the relationship between the vocabulary knowledge and the writing quality. 150 final year students of English language in a university in Nigeria were randomly selected as respondents. The respondents were asked to write an essay of 300 words within one hour. The essays were typed into Vocab Profiler of Cobb (2002) and analyzed the Lexical Frequency Profile of the respondents. The essays were also assessed by independent examiners using a standard rubric. The findings reveal that the level of productive vocabulary knowledge of the respondents is limited. The writing quality of the majority of the respondent is fair and there is a significant correlation between vocabulary and the witting quality of the subjects. The researchers posit that productive vocabulary is the predictor of writing quality and recommend various techniques through which teaching and learning of vocabulary can be improved.

scholarly journals A Bilingual Vocabulary Size Test of English for Vietnamese Learners

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Nguyen ◽  
Paul Nation
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Vocabulary Growth ◽  
Development And Validation ◽  
Test Result

This article describes the development and validation of a Vietnamese bilingual version of the Vocabulary Size Test - a test which measures written receptive vocabulary size. The test can be used to measure the English vocabulary size of Vietnamese learners of English. A learner's total vocabulary size is calculated by multiplying their test result by 100. The research adds to our knowledge of vocabulary size testing in the following ways. First, it shows that a bilingual version of a monolingual test performs in much the same way as the monolingual test, distinguishing learners of different proficiency levels and returning lower scores at later levels of the test. Second, it shows that every level of the test should be sat, otherwise there will be a considerable underestimation of learners' vocabulary sizes. This suggests limitations to the previously accepted assumption that learners' vocabulary growth can be largely related to word frequency. Third, it shows that bilingual tests are feasible alternatives to more challenging and time-consuming monolingual tests. © The Author(s) 2011.

Nonword repetition and levels of abstraction in phonological knowledge

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 577-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Munson
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Levels Of Abstraction ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Restriction Of Range

Susan Gathercole's Keynote Article (2006) is an impressive summary of the literature on nonword repetition and its relationship to word learning and vocabulary size. When considering research by Mary Beckman, Jan Edwards, and myself, Gathercole speculates that our finding of a stronger relationship between vocabulary measures and repetition accuracy for low-frequency sequences than for high-frequency sequences is due to differences in the range of the two measures. In our work on diphone repetition (e.g., Edwards, Beckman, & Munson, 2004; Munson, Edwards, & Beckman, 2005) we tried to increase the range in our dependent measures by coding errors on a finer grained scale than simple correct/incorrect scoring would allow. Moreover, restriction of range does not appear to be the driving factor in the relationship between vocabulary size and the difference between high- and low-frequency sequence repetition accuracy (what we call the frequency effect) in at least one of our studies (Munson et al., 2005). When the children with the 50 lowest mean accuracy scores for high-frequency sequences were examined, vocabulary size accounted for 10.5% of the variance in the frequency effect beyond what was accounted for by chronological age. When the 50 children with the highest mean accuracy scores for high-frequency sequences were examined (a group in which the range of high-frequency accuracy scores was more compressed, arguably reflecting ceiling effects), an estimate of vocabulary size accounted for only 6.9% of the frequency effect beyond chronological age. The associated β coefficient was significant only at the α<0.08 level. This is the opposite pattern than Gathercole's argument would predict.

scholarly journals High-frequency profile in adolescents and its relationship with the use of personal stereo devices

2016 ◽  
Vol 92 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renata Almeida Araújo Silvestre ◽  
Ângela Ribas ◽  
Rogério Hammerschmidt ◽  
Adriana Bender Moreira de Lacerda
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Frequency Profile

EFL Learners’ Knowledge of High-frequency Words in the Comprehension of Idioms: A Boost or a Burden?

RELC Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinkyoung Park ◽  
Yuah V. Chon
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Comprehension Strategies ◽  
Effective Strategy ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Unit Of Analysis ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Multiword Expressions

Single word items have usually been the unit of analysis for measuring L2 learners’ vocabulary size, for designing word lists and for estimating word coverage of reading texts. However, what is lost in these estimates is the consideration of multiword expressions, such as idioms. To empirically test the assertion that the knowledge of single word items will not lead to automatic comprehension of multiword items, a two-part test was conducted on 124 Korean middle school learners of English: One was a test on idioms composed of the top 1,000 words in English; the second tested single word items of the exact same words in the idiom test. Results indicated that the learners’ knowledge of idioms was lagging behind that of single word items even when the learners knew most of the words that constituted the idioms. Differences between the learners’ actual comprehension and reported comprehension level also indicated that the learners were overestimating their comprehension of the items. The comprehension strategies used to decode the meaning of idioms also indicated that guessing from context was the most effective strategy. Implications are discussed in the light of learning the idioms.

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