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The study of Vocabulary size

SLS600 Presentation by: Katsuhiro Yamauchi and Amanda Chin. The study of Vocabulary size. Introduction to the Subject. Q: What is the study of Vocabulary Size (VS)? A: Vocabulary size  L2 learning capability Q: Why is the study of VS important?

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The study of Vocabulary size

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  1. SLS600 Presentation by: Katsuhiro Yamauchi and Amanda Chin The study of Vocabulary size

  2. Introduction to the Subject • Q: What is the study of Vocabulary Size (VS)? • A: Vocabulary size  L2 learning capability • Q: Why is the study of VS important? • A: Helps teachers to cater to students’ learning • goals better • Q: Why did we choose this topic? • A: Our motivations as teachers

  3. Important Terminology • Word (Tokens)  abbreviate, abbreviates, abbreviated, abbreviating, abbreviation, abbreviations • Lemma (Types)  abbreviate, abbreviation • Word Family (Families)  abbreviate

  4. Aspects of Vocabulary Size Levels of word frequency e.g. 2000-3000 words Percentile of known words e.g. 98% Rate of understanding the content e.g. 70%

  5. Issues to Consider

  6. Vocabulary Size Assessment

  7. Research: Schmitt (2008) • Review Article: Instructed second language vocabulary learning • Vocabulary size and learning: • Question: What is the percentage of lexical items are needed to know in order to understand a discourse? • Reading: 98-99% (Hu and Nation, 2000) • Spoken: below 90% = inadequate coverage. Above 95% = good comprehension (Bonk, 2000) • Note: each word family include several individual word forms, including the root form, its inflections, and regular derivations.

  8. Research: Laufer (1998) • Article: The Development of Passive and Active Vocabulary in a Second Language: Same or Different? • Purpose: • Investigate the gains in three types of ESL vocabulary knowledge in the course of one year. • Examine the relationship among these three type of knowledge at different stages of vocabulary learning • Subjects: 10th and 11th graders in Israel • Method: Three tests (VLT, CPK, LFP) given during three different lessons in one week.

  9. Research: Nation (2006) • Purpose: • how much vocabulary is needed in understanding written • and spoken Englsih to achieve 98% coverage • Method (see handout) • Make 14levels×1000 word-families lists • Caluculate the lexical coverage in each level • Add proper nouns to the lexical coverage • Decide which level achieve 98% • Results • Written: 8000-9000 words • Spoken: 6000-7000 words

  10. Research: Laufer and Ravenhorst-Kalovski (2010) • Purpose: • relationship between reading comprehension(RC), • vocabulary size(VS), and lexical coverage (LC) • Method • Subjects: 745 university students in Israel • RC: Psychometric University Entrance Test(Max=150) • VS: Vocabulary Levels Test(2000, 3000, 5000) • Vocabulary Size Test( 6000, 7000, 8000) • LC: vocabulary calculator • 20,000 frequent words by British National Corpus • Results: See handout

  11. Conferences: • AAAL – American Association for Applied Linguistics • EUROSLA – European Second Language Association Conference • SLRF – Second Language Research Forum • TESOL International & Publications: • Applied Linguistics • Language Learning Journal • Language Teaching Research • Reading in a Foreign Language

  12. References Laufer, B. (1998). The Development of Passive and Active Vocabulary in a Second Language: Same or Different?. Applied Linguistics. 19.(2). 255-271. Laufer, B. & Revenhorst-Kalovski, G, C. (2010). Lexical threshold revisited: Lexical text coverage, learners’ vocabulary size and reading comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language. 22 (1). pp. 15-30. Nation, P. (2006). How large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening? In M. Horst & T. Cobb (Eds.), Second special vocabulary edition of Canadian Modern Language Review, 63 (1), 1-12 Schmitt, N. (2008). Instructed second vocabulary learning. Language Teaching Research, 12 (3) : 329-363.

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