Abstract
Abstract This article examines the issue of cognates in frequency-based vocabulary size testing. Data from a pilot study for a cognate-controlled English vocabulary size test was used to assess whether a group of Japanese university English learners (n = 60) were more successful at responding to cognate items than noncognate ones in three 1000 word frequency bands on a Japanese-English translation task. The results showed a statistically significant difference between scores achieved on cognate and noncognate items at the 2000 and 3000 frequency levels, but not at the 1000 frequency level. The findings suggest that cognate items may be easier for test-takers to respond to than noncognate ones of similar frequency, indicating the importance of ensuring that their respective proportions in tests are representative of those inherent in the frequency bands they have been sampled from. It is also argued that such representativeness may best be achieved via a stratified item sampling approach.
Highlights
Cognate words, that is those that ‘[come] naturally from the same root, or [represent] the same original word, with differences due to subsequent separate phonetic development’ (OED Online, 2010), are undoubtedly encountered by learners from many L1 backgrounds during their study of English
Participants The data examined in this article was collected from a total of 61 participants at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan; 59 Japanese undergraduate students and two Japanese English tutors. 56 of the undergraduates were studying on a ‘Fundamental English’ course, which had a paper-based TOEFL target score of 450, while the remaining 3 were registered on the university’s ‘Intermediate English’ course, which had a target score of 500
It was noted that scores on the translation task decreased on average with each of the five frequency bands, suggesting, as expected, that participants were less familiar with lower frequency vocabulary
Summary
That is those that ‘[come] naturally from the same root, or [represent] the same original word, with differences due to subsequent separate phonetic development’ (OED Online, 2010), are undoubtedly encountered by learners from many L1 backgrounds during their study of English. The effect that cognateness of a word has on how easy it is to recognize and learn has been investigated in depth by several researchers (De Groot & Keijzer, 2000; Ellis & Beaton, 1993; Hall, 2002; Lotto & De Groot, 1998). Their findings indicate that cognate words are easier to acquire than noncognate ones, which in turn suggests that cognates do have the potential to be utilized effectively in language learning. This viewpoint is endorsed by Nation (2003), who argues that noticing of cognates is a valuable vocabulary expansion strategy
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