Lexical Knowledge and Amount of L2 Exposure: A Study on CLIL Primary-school Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge

Abstract

L2 lexical knowledge has been an issue that has attracted much attention among SLA scholars, with studies examining the impact of different language teaching approaches on vocabulary knowledge. However, little research has been conducted to determine the amount of exposure needed for significant lexical improvement. This paper explores the impact of varying instructed amount of exposure on 112 CLIL primary-school learners’ receptive knowledge of high-frequency vocabulary. Participants were asked to respond to the 1K and 2K of the Updated Vocabulary Levels Tests (Webb et al.). Data were examined looking into differences related to the amount of L2 exposure. Findings suggest a possible effect of instructed amount of exposure on the recognition of high-frequency words, which is discussed concerning its possible implications for the CLIL instructional practice.