scholarly journals Estimating the Reading Vocabulary-Size Goal Required for the Tokyo University Entrance Examination

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Masaya Kaneko
Keyword(s):  
Word List ◽  
Entrance Examination ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Word Families ◽  
Proper Nouns ◽  
Reading Vocabulary ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
General Service ◽  
Size Target ◽  
University Entrance Examination

The present study aims to estimate the reading vocabulary-size goal for the Tokyo University entrance examination. This study builds upon Chujo’s study (2004) with two differences in its methodology. First, the present study uses updated research findings on text coverage: 98% text coverage (Hu & Nation, 2000; Laufer & Ravenhorst-Kalovski, 2010; Schmitt, Jiang, & Grabe, 2011) rather than 95% text coverage. Second, Nation’s fourteen 1,000 word-family lists made from the British National Corpus (2006) and the 2,570 word items on the General Service List (West, 1953) and the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000) are used instead of Chujo’s BNC lemmatized high frequency word lists (Chujo, 2004). Assuming that proper nouns are easily understood from context, the results suggest that 4,000 to 5,000 word families should be the lexical size target. 本論の目的は、東京大学英語入学試験問題の読解に必要な語彙サイズを調査することである。本研究はChujo（2004）の研究を発展させたものだが、読解に必要な語彙のカバー率を95％ではなく98％とし、また、見出し語化された使用頻度が高い語彙リストではなく、NationのBNCリストやGeneral Service List, Academic Word List上にあるワードファミリーを用いた語彙リストを採択したという2つの相違点がある。読解問題の固有名詞が文脈から容易に理解できると仮定するならば、東京大学英語入学試験問題の読解には、4,000から5,000ワードファミリーが必要であるということを本研究の結果が示唆している。

scholarly journals Vocabulary Size Required for the TOEFL iBT Listening Section

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Masaya Kaneko
Keyword(s):  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Lexical Frequency ◽  
Large Vocabulary ◽  
Word Families ◽  
Proper Nouns ◽  
Toefl Ibt ◽  
Size Target

The aim of the present study is to estimate the vocabulary size target for the Listening Section of the TOEFL Internet-based Test (iBT). The lexical frequency levels of the listening passages from 5 real past tests were determined with the use of Nation’s (2006) word-family lists. It was found that the first 3,000 word families plus proper nouns and marginal words yielded 95% coverage of the texts, and that it took the most frequent 6,000 word families to reach 98% coverage. Comparing the results of the present study with those reported in Kaneko’s (2014) study, the Listening Section of the TOEFL iBT appears to require only half as large vocabulary size as the Reading Section. Pedagogical and research implications are discussed in detail. 本論の目的は、TOEFL iBTリスニングセクションの目標語彙サイズを測定することである。5つのTOEFL iBT過去試験問題を対象に、Nation (2006)のワードファミリーリストを用いて語彙頻度レベルを決定した。固有名詞など理解に影響を与えない語を含めた場合、最も頻度の高い3千語で文中の単語の95％、6千語で98％をカバーした。また、Kaneko (2014)の研究結果と比較すると、TOEFL iBTリスニング問題に求められる語彙サイズは、リーディング問題に求められる語彙サイズの半分で十分であることが示唆される。教育上および研究上の含意についても詳細に論じる。

scholarly journals The Newspaper Word List: A Specialised Vocabulary for Reading Newspapers

2009 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihwa Chung
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Word List ◽  
Special Importance ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Word Families ◽  
General Service ◽  
Very High

The primary purpose of this study is to identify words that are of special importance for reading newspapers. In the Newspaper Corpus of 579,849 running words, 588 word families are identified as Newspaper Words. These words account for 6.8% of the running words in the corpus. When combined, proper names and 2,521 families of the General Service List of English Words (GSL) and the NWL make up 92.5% of the running words in the corpus. This is lower than the 98% ideal coverage required for understanding a text successfully, but very high given the small vocabulary size. Thus, the NWL will give the best return for vocabulary learning to learners of English as a foreign language who wish to read newspapers as soon as possible. 本研究の目的は新聞を読むのに必要な語彙を特定することである。Newspaperコーパスに記載された579,849語の中から6.8％に上る588語をNewspaper Wordsとして選び出した。固有名詞、General Service List of English Wordsの2,521語、NWLの語彙を総計するとコーパスの92.5％になる。テキストを理解するのに必要とされている98％よりはやや低い数値であるが、NWL全体の総語数を考慮すれば非常に高い値であるということができる。したがってNWLは新聞英語を早く読めるようになりたいと望む英語学習者にとっては最も効率のよいものであるということができる。

Deliberate Learning Of Second Language (L2) Vocabulary: Research-Based Guidelines

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 210
Author(s):  
Syarifuddin .
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Word List ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Word Families ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Deliberate Learning ◽  
L2 Vocabulary

<p>This article is devoted to overviewing several current studies on L2 vocabulary learning, especially those aimed at investigating and exploring the ways in which deliberate vocabulary learning would be best facilitated, and thus would increase learning. It is argued that knowledge of vocabulary is fundamental in all language use, and becomes an essential part to master second language. A large amount of vocabulary is required to use English both receptively and productively: 8000 – 9000 word families needed in order to adequately comprehend a wide range of written discourse (Nation, 2006), and 2000 – 3000 word families required to get sufficient comprehension of spoken discourse (van Zeeland &amp; Schmitt, 2012). Knowing a lexical item entails several aspects of word knowledge i.e., form, meaning, and use, each of which is further comprised of several sub-aspects of word knowledge. In addition, vocabulary learning is incremental in nature. Taken all these into account, there should be a component of deliberate vocabulary learning in language teaching, regardless of the preferred teaching methods being applied. Most importantly, deliberate learning of vocabulary should be intensively focused on lexical items which fall into both the new GSL word list (Brezina &amp; Gablasova, 2015) and the new AWL word list (Coxhead, 2000). Finally, reviewing current studies on L2 vocabulary learning results in several research-based guidelines for deliberate or intentional vocabulary learning which are discussed throughout the rest of this article.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong><em>vocabulary learning, vocabulary size, word knowledge, high-frequency words, academic words, deliberately-learning-vocabulary guidelines</em><em> <strong></strong></em></p>

scholarly journals Indonesian EAP Students’ Vocabulary Level and Size: An Empirical Investigation

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-149
Author(s):  
Fenty Lidya Siregar
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Private Universities ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Word Families ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Previous Learning ◽  
High Frequency Words

The research aimed to know to what extent Indonesian English for Academic Purposes (EAP) students master high and midfrequency words (4.000-5.000). Besides, it aimed to know the vocabulary size of Indonesian EAP students. To fill the gap, the research examined 128 Indonesian EAP students from two private universities in Indonesia. To gather its data, the research employed the Vocabulary Level Test of Webb, Sasao, & Ballance, and the Vocabulary Size Test of Nation and Beglar. The research findings indicate that the participants have not yet mastered the high-frequency words and the mid frequency words from 4.000-5.000 word-families. The finding also reveals that the mean scores of the students’ vocabulary range between 6.000 and 10.000. It implies that the previous learning of the participants has not yet facilitated them to learn important vocabulary from 1.000 to 5.000 word-families. Thus, although they have a big vocabulary size, they might face problems when trying to understand some texts. The research findings are expected to increase English teachers’ awareness in general and EAP teachers’ awareness specifically of the importance of facilitating their students to learn high-frequency words. 

ESP corpus design: compilation of the Veterinary Nursing Medical Chart Corpus and the Veterinary Nursing Wordlist

Corpora ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-140
Author(s):  
Yukiko Ohashi ◽  
Noriaki Katagiri ◽  
Katsutoshi Oka ◽  
Michiko Hanada
Keyword(s):  
Word List ◽  
English For Specific Purposes ◽  
Regular Expressions ◽  
Annotation Scheme ◽  
Corpus Design ◽  
As Species ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Access To Data ◽  
General Service

This paper reports on two research results: ( 1) designing an English for Specific Purposes (esp) corpus architecture complete with annotations structured by regular expressions; and ( 2) a case study to test the design to cater for creating a specific vocabulary list using the compiled corpus. The first half of this study involved designing a precisely structured esp corpus from 190 veterinary medical charts with a hierarchy of the data. The data hierarchy in the corpus consists of document types, outline elements and inline elements, such as species and breed. Perl scripts extracted the data attached to veterinary-specific categories, and the extraction led to creating wordlists. The second part of the research tested the corpus mode, creating a list of commonly observed lexical items in veterinary medicine. The coverage rate of the wordlists by General Service List (gsl) and Academic Word List (awl) was tested, with the result that 66.4 percent of all lexical items appeared in gsl and awl, whereas 33.7 percent appeared in none of those lists. The corpus compilation procedures as well as the annotation scheme introduced in this study enable the compilation of specific corpora with explicit annotations, allowing teachers to have access to data required for creating esp classroom materials.

Corpus-Based Vocabulary Analysis of English Podcasts

RELC Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003368822097931
Author(s):  
Ulugbek Nurmukhamedov ◽  
Shoaziz Sharakhimov
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Television Programs ◽  
University Professors ◽  
Word Families ◽  
Proper Nouns ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Ted Talks

In addition to movies, television programs, and TED Talks presentations, podcasts are an increasingly popular form of media that promotes authentic public discourse for diverse audiences, including university professors and students. However, English language teachers in the English as a second language/English as a foreign language contexts might wonder: “How do I know that my students can handle the vocabulary demands of podcasts?” To answer that question, we have analyzed a 1,137,163-word corpus comprising transcripts from 170 podcast episodes derived from the following popular podcasts: Freakonomics; Fresh Air; Invisibilia; Hidden Brain; How I Built This; Radiolab; TED Radio Hour; This American Life; and Today Explained. The results showed that knowledge about the most frequent 3000 word families plus proper nouns (PN), marginal words (MW), transparent compounds (TC), and acronyms (AC) provided 96.75% coverage, and knowledge about the most frequent 5000 word families, including PN, MW, TC, and AC provided 98.26% coverage. The analysis also showed that there is some variation in coverage among podcast types. The pedagogical implications for teaching and learning vocabulary via podcasts are discussed.

scholarly journals Beyond frequency: evaluating the lexical demands of reading materials with open-access corpus tools

2020 ◽  
pp. 215-220
Author(s):  
Juliane Martini
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
Intensive English ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Proper Nouns ◽  
Reading Materials ◽  
Online Texts ◽  
Corpus Tools

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the appropriateness of open-access reading materials for an intensive English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course, and to provide teachers with a set of criteria to select online texts systematically and efficiently. The Corpus for Veterinarians (VetCorpus) was compiled and analyzed using Lextutor corpus tools. Taking into account students’ vocabulary size, background knowledge, word frequency, proper nouns, compound words, and cognates, the VetCorpus was considered useful and appropriate for intermediate level students, but too difficult for elementary level students. Further lexical analysis showed that the VetCorpus also provides learners with opportunities to encounter technical and academic vocabulary.

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.

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