Vocabulary Size in Arabic Language among Undergraduate Students of Arabic Language for Professional Communication, UiTM

Abstract

Vocabulary size is a number or a quantity of vocabulary owned by an individual who speaks a language. It is undeniable that the vocabulary size has close relationship with the usage of a language. Nation (2001) & Laufer (1989) recommended that language students to master at least 2000 to 3000 words. This study is to identify the Arabic language vocabulary size between two aspects, receptive and productive. Research samples for this study consists of 127 undergraduates of Arabic Language for Professional Communication Course in UiTM varying from first semester students up until fifth semester students. Few instruments such as Arabic Language Vocabulary Level Test (aLVT) and Productive Vocabulary Level Test (PVLT) are used. The data are analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences V20.0 (SPSS) In average, the findings of this research has concluded that the receptive vocabulary size of Arabic Language is below the recommended level which is 1885 words whereas for productive vocabulary size is only 1655 words. Hence, this research proposed that students on tertiary level especially should focus more on relevant and high frequency vocabulary to be mastered in order to apply them more effectively. Therefore, teaching personnel should expose students to various techniques in learning vocabulary as well as maximising the use of computers and the Internet during teaching and learning sessions in order to gain students’ interest in learning.