When discussing vocabulary, a distinction is often made between size of vocabulary (number of known words) and depth of knowledge (how well those words are known). However, the relationship between ...the two constructs is still unclear. Some scholars argue that there is little real difference between the two, while regression analyses show that depth typically adds unique explanatory power compared to size alone. Ultimately, the relationship between size and depth of vocabulary knowledge depends on how each is conceptualized and measured. In an attempt to provide an empirical basis for exploring the size–depth relationship, this critical synthesis identifies studies that contain measures of both size and depth. Based on a number of different conceptualizations of depth, various patterns emerged. For higher frequency words and for learners with smaller vocabulary sizes, there is often little difference between size and a variety of depth measures. However, for lower frequency words and for larger vocabulary sizes, there is often a gap between size and depth, as depth measures lag behind the measures of size. Furthermore, some types of word knowledge (e.g., derivative knowledge) seem to have generally lower correlations with size than other types.
The current study investigates the extent to which receptive vocabulary size test scores can predict second language (L2) speaking ability. Forty-six international students with an advanced level of ...L2 proficiency completed a receptive vocabulary task (Yes/No test; Meara & Miralpeix, 2017) and a spontaneous speaking task (oral picture narrative). Elicited speech samples were submitted to expert rating based on speakers’ vocabulary features as well as lexical sophistication measures. Results indicate that vocabulary size was significantly associated with vocabulary rating. However, learners with large vocabulary sizes did not necessarily produce lexically sophisticated L2 words during speech. A closer examination of the data reveals complexities regarding the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and speaking. Based on these findings, we explore implications for L2 vocabulary assessment in classroom teaching contexts and provide important suggestions for future research on the vocabulary-and-speaking link.
Competing theories are quite common in education. In spelling research, two general perspectives have emerged over the years: stage theory and repertoire/alternative theories. Exploring these ...perspectives is important because teachers need to understand how spelling knowledge is critical for learning to read words and to write them. Stage theory suggests that learners follow a developmental progression that reflects the increasing complexity of the spelling system itself. Alternative theorists suggest that learners do not follow a linear progression but are able to understand much more information about the spelling system throughout their development. The author explores the debate between these two conceptions, identifying not only important differences but also where there is common ground. Implications for spelling, word analysis, and vocabulary instruction are provided.
The article presents an empirical study that investigates the single- and cross-modality relationships between different dimensions of receptive vocabulary knowledge and language skills, as well as ...the importance of academic vocabulary knowledge in academic listening and reading comprehension. An Updated Vocabulary Levels Test (UVLT), a Vietnamese version of the Listening Vocabulary Levels Test (LVLT), an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) listening test and an academic IELTS reading test were administered to 234 tertiary level Vietnamese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Research findings showed that (1) orthographic and aural vocabulary knowledge were strongly correlated (
r
= .88) and of equal significance to L2 listening and reading comprehension, (2) receptive vocabulary knowledge was a very powerful and reliable predictor of learners’ receptive language proficiency, (3) knowledge of academic vocabulary strongly correlated with academic listening (
r
= .65) and reading (
r
= .60) comprehension and the mastery of the Academic Word List (AWL) could suggest a band score 6.0 in both the IELTS listening and academic reading tests.
General academic words are those which are typically learned through exposure to school texts and occur across disciplines. We examined academic vocabulary assessment data from a group of ...English‐speaking middle school students (N = 1,747). We tested how word frequency, complexity, proximity, polysemy, and diversity related to students’ knowledge of target words across ability levels. Our results affirm the strong relation between vocabulary and reading at the individual level. Strong readers were more likely to know the meanings of words than struggling readers were, regardless of the features of the academic words tested. Words with more meanings were easier for all students, on average. The relation between word frequency and item difficulty was stronger among better readers, whereas the relation between word complexity and item difficulty was stronger among less proficient readers. Our examination of academic words’ characteristics and how these characteristics relate to word difficulty across reading performance has implications for instruction.
Extramural exposure, through activities such as watching TV, gaming, networking, and online reading, has become an important source of vocabulary acquisition in English as a foreign language, ...particularly when learners’ first language (L1) has many cognates with English. Our study examined extramural vocabulary acquisition of 10th‐grade L1 speakers of noncognate languages over one school year and explored the effects of digital activities and initial lexical knowledge of the participants on their vocabulary gains. Learners reported the amount of digital activity, took a vocabulary pretest, and kept vocabulary diaries where they recorded, on a weekly basis, the new words they encountered. At the end of the study, each student took a personalized test that included all the words recorded in their personal diary. The results indicate that (a) all learners gained some out‐of‐school word knowledge, (b) students with better initial vocabulary knowledge gained more words, and (c) the initial knowledge contributed to out‐of‐school learning more than the amount of digital activity.
This study set out to investigate the relationship between L2 vocabulary knowledge (VK) and second-language (L2) reading/listening comprehension. More than 100 individual studies were included in ...this meta-analysis, which generated 276 effect sizes from a sample of almost 21,000 learners. The current meta-analysis had several major findings. First, the overall correlation between VK and L2 reading comprehension was .57 (p < .01) and that between VK and L2 listening was .56 (p < .01). If the attenuation effect due to reliability of measures was taken into consideration, the ‘true’ correlation between VK and L2 reading/listening comprehension may likely fall within the range of .56–.67, accounting for 31%–45% variance in L2 comprehension. Second, all three mastery levels of form–meaning knowledge (meaning recognition, meaning recall, form recall) had moderate to high correlations with L2 reading and L2 listening. However, meaning recall knowledge had the strongest correlation with L2 reading comprehension and form recall had the strongest correlation with L2 listening comprehension, suggesting that different mastery levels of VK may contribute differently to L2 comprehension in different modalities. Third, both word association knowledge and morphological awareness (two aspects of vocabulary depth knowledge) had significant correlations with L2 reading and L2 listening. Fourth, the modality of VK measure was found to have a significant moderating effect on the correlation between VK and L2 text comprehension: orthographical VK measures had stronger correlations with L2 reading comprehension as compared to auditory VK measures. Auditory VK measures, however, were better predictors of L2 listening comprehension. Fifth, studies with a shorter script distance between L1 and L2 yielded higher correlations between VK and L2 reading. Sixth, the number of items in vocabulary depth measures had a positive predictive power on the correlation between VK and L2 comprehension. Finally, correlations between VK and L2 reading/listening comprehension was found to be associated with two types of publication factors: year-of-publication and publication type. Implications of the findings were discussed.
The study investigated variation in the depth of vocabulary knowledge of L2 learners at the same vocabulary breadth and the learner-related factors affecting it. Two hundred and thirty-one EFL ...learners at high and low levels of vocabulary breadth (according to Vocabulary Level Tests) participated in the study. The study tested Vocabulary depth (Word Associates Test and Derivative Word Form Test) and learner-related factors (LLAMA Aptitude Test, Attitude/Motivation Test Battery, Vocabulary Learning Strategies Survey, and Learning Style Inventory). Based on the findings using a paired
t
-test and Pearson correlations in SPSS and Structural Equation Modelling in AMOS, the study confirmed that (1) learners at the same level of vocabulary breadth (particularly low level) possessed variation in the depth of their vocabulary knowledge (such as meaning-based vs. form-based and receptive vs. productive knowledge) and (2) among the learner-related factors, learners’ language aptitude and motivation had a significant impact on vocabulary depth. Based on the results, the study made some pedagogical suggestions.
This article reflects a metaview of the work of the three research projects funded through the Institute for Education Sciences under the Reading for Understanding competition that addressed ...middle‐grade through high school readers (grades 4–12). All three projects shared the assumption that instruction is necessary for successful reading to learn just as it is for learning to read. Through multiple studies conducted independently, the three projects arrived at common themes and features of productive instruction for reading for understanding with adolescent readers. These common themes are elaborated with instructional examples and include the following: (a) Students purposefully engage with multiple forms of texts and actively process them, (b) instructional routines incorporate social support for reading through a variety of participation structures, and (c) instruction supports new content learning by leveraging prior knowledge and emphasizing key constructs and vocabulary.
Vocabulary’s relationship to reading proficiency is frequently cited as a justification for the assessment of L2 written receptive vocabulary knowledge. However, to date, there has been relatively ...little research regarding which modalities of vocabulary knowledge have the strongest correlations to reading proficiency, and observed differences have often been statistically non-significant. The present research employs a bootstrapping approach to reach a clearer understanding of relationships between various modalities of vocabulary knowledge to reading proficiency. Test-takers (N = 103) answered 1000 vocabulary test items spanning the third 1000 most frequent English words in the New General Service List corpus (Browne, Culligan, & Phillips, 2013). Items were answered under four modalities: Yes/No checklists, form recall, meaning recall, and meaning recognition. These pools of test items were then sampled with replacement to create 1000 simulated tests ranging in length from five to 200 items and the results were correlated to the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC®) Reading scores. For all examined test lengths, meaning-recall vocabulary tests had the highest average correlations to reading proficiency, followed by form-recall vocabulary tests. The results indicated that tests of vocabulary recall are stronger predictors of reading proficiency than tests of vocabulary recognition, despite the theoretically closer relationship of vocabulary recognition to reading.
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