Size and strength: do we need both to measure vocabulary knowledge?

Laufer, Batia; Elder, Catherine; Hill, Kathryn; Congdon, Peter

doi:10.1191/0265532204lt277oa

Cited by 243 publications

(140 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

126

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Apart from that, as Laufer, Elder, Hill, and Congdon (2004) found tests of form recognition and meaning recognition tended to yield similar scores, this study only tested meaning recognition.…”

Section: Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Post-Task Written Vocabulary Exercises in Task-Based Instruction

Lee¹

2011

LEiA

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Task-based instruction, which emphasizes authentic communication and holistic language learning opportunities, has been a prominent topic in Asia for both researchers and teachers. Still, relatively few studies have addressed vocabulary acquisition from a task-based perspective, notwithstanding second language learners' need to acquire thousands of words to deal with various language uses. In this paper, the teaching procedure and empirical data will be presented to showcase how 27 Hong Kong learners benefited from a combination of an authentic task and written vocabulary exercises in terms of receptive and productive retention of the target words. The results indicated that such a combination yielded better immediate and delayed retention than a purely communicative approach; however, form recall remained the most difficult type of word knowledge irrespective of the treatments. This highlights the value of traditional elements such as written exercises in task-based instruction.Second language (L2) learners must learn thousands of words to deal successfully with a range of language uses, and for long this has been one of the greatest hurdles facing learners in acquiring English. Even the most gifted learners need no less than one year to acquire 1,000 words, and the time required can be much longer for average learners (Nation & Chung, 2009). It is not surprising then, that both teachers and learners are eager to know what can foster such acquisition. A strategic plan about how to handle vocabulary is necessary, and programmes overemphasising communication or authenticity may fall short in this regard.While educational policies in Asia have heavily favoured task-based instruction (also referred to as task-based language teaching, henceforth referred to here as TBI) and other communicative, holistic approaches in the last decade, whether such pedagogical approaches are effective with respect to L2 vocabulary learning is still open to question. As pointed out by Laufer (2005), they cannot always assure learners of a wide and repeated coverage of new words. In contrast, traditional written vocabulary practices are fairly effective in improving both receptive and productive acquisition (Folse, 2004(Folse, , 2006Laufer, 2003). Although some advocates of TBI may proscribe exercises, considering them decontextualized and repetitious, it is worth exploring if a combination of TBI and numerous vocabulary practices can enhance the retention of words in terms of quality, quantity, and duration.

show abstract

Section: Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Post-Task Written Vocabulary Exercises in Task-Based Instruction

Lee¹

2011

LEiA

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The distinction between receptive (also sometimes called passive) and productive (also sometimes called active) knowledge of a word is very common, even though the two terms are not always understood in the same way (Laufer, Elder, Hill, and Congdon, 2004;Laufer and Goldstein, 2004). In most cases and in this study, receptive knowledge is interpreted as being able to recall the meaning of a word when one is presented with its form and productive knowledge is seen as an ability to produce the right form to express the required meaning Laufer and Goldstein, 2004;Nation, 2001;Schmitt, 2010).…”

Section: Vocabulary Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between receptive and productive vocabulary of Slavic EFL learners

Šišková

2016

Topics in Linguistics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study investigates the relationship between learners' receptive vocabulary knowledge as measured by the Vocabulary Size Test (Nation and Beglar, 2007) and free productive vocabulary knowledge as demonstrated by the learners when writing a short story based on pictures. The focus is on three different areas of productive vocabulary use: lexical diversity (i.e. the proportion of different words in a text), lexical sophistication (i.e. the proportion of advanced words in a text) and lexical density (i.e. the proportion of content words in a text). The results of a bivariate correlation analysis indicate that there is a moderate relationship between learners' receptive vocabulary knowledge and lexical diversity of the texts they produce; there is a weak relationship between their receptive vocabulary knowledge and lexical sophistication in the texts; and there is no relationship between their receptive vocabulary knowledge and lexical density.

show abstract

“…Considering the results of the previous studies on vocabulary size tests (e.g., Laufer, Elder, Hill, & Congdon, 2004), the Vocabulary Level Test was used in the present study to find out the overall state of the learners' vocabulary.…”

Section: Vocabulary Level Testmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Key to Second Language Writing Performance: The Relationship Between Lexical Competence and Writing

Yüksel¹

2015

SUET

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Vocabulary knowledge is an important component of the writing skill and it has many dimensions, such as size, depth, and productive, in interaction with writing skill. To evaluate this relation and determine which dimension is the most effective for second language writing quality, the present study was conducted. Turkish EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners' lexical competence and writing abilities were examined through their vocabulary profiles and academic essays. The results of each vocabulary measure indicated that the participants had a limited vocabulary size, containing words mostly from 2,000 to 3,000 frequency bands and thus, the productive vocabulary knowledge of the participants mostly consisted of 1k + 2k words and the use of academic words in their essays was very low. The results of the study revealed that the lexical competence covering the main components of vocabulary knowledge was a good predictor of the students' quality of writing performance.

show abstract

Size and strength: do we need both to measure vocabulary knowledge?

Cited by 243 publications

References 19 publications

Using Post-Task Written Vocabulary Exercises in Task-Based Instruction

Using Post-Task Written Vocabulary Exercises in Task-Based Instruction

The relationship between receptive and productive vocabulary of Slavic EFL learners

The Key to Second Language Writing Performance: The Relationship Between Lexical Competence and Writing

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About