Paul Nation Research Articles

A Content Analysis of Writing Tasks in English Textbook “Think Globally Act Locally” of Junior High School

The purpose of the study is to explore and describe how well the type of writing task offered in the textbook matches up to the type of writing task proposed by Paul Nation. The study used qualitative research with a content analysis technique. Based on Louis Cohen the study process of data analysis technique through content analysis are follow: Selecting, classification, analyzing, and Inference. To calculate the results of data results, the researcher calculates percentages using Arikunto’s quality categorization schema. The data obtained from the English textbook “Think Globally Act Locally” for Junior High School’s Ninth Grade Depending on the theory that researcher used on English textbook, analysis found three kinds of writing tasks: experience tasks, guided tasks, and independent tasks. However, neither of the writing tasks were completed.supplied by this textbook suit the sorts of shared tasks. The dominant of writing task way found on this English textbook was guided task (51.7%).

Teaching and Learning Vocabulary in EFL By Paul Nation and Peter Yongqi Gu (2019)

Teaching and Learning Vocabulary in EFL By Paul Nation and Peter Yongqi Gu (2019) Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, xii + 230pp.

“From Scenic Interpretation to Fluent Speaking: Literary Texts “Linie 1” in the German Classroom”

These article explores the question of how literary texts can be didactizised in foreign language classroom. Based on the hypothesis that the students are still shy and reserved despite the sufficient knowledge of German, the main goal of this research ist an attempt to make the learners speak. Scenic interpretation, whose term originated from the scenic play, was concepted by Scheller (1996) in order to give literature back its meaning when he noticed the students showed a distance to foreign literary texts. This method connected the theater pedagogy with the teaching of German as a foreign language, in which two central orientations can be distinguished, namely process orientation and product orientation. In the field of foreign language acquisition, this method serves to improve oral communication skills and thus a process-oriented orientation is pursued. If one considers scenic interpretation as a methodological approach in German teaching, teaching with the means of theater is part of an action-oriented teaching, in which the students are in the center, because they themselves are active and the teacher gets more the tasks as an organizer of the learning process. The selected corpus of this research ist “Linie 1”, a musical revue by Ludwig (2007), in which Berlin dialect can be often be heard as one of the signs of authentic conversation in the scenes of subway. Not only from hearing, but also from seeing, learners get input from this musical performance, through which it is assumed that it is easier for them to imagine the spaces, the situation, the relationship and the images to interpret the texts. In order to make the students aware of the contrastive considerations, questionnaires are distributed to them, in which a few questions are asked according to the learner´s sensations. Furthermore, these literary texts are didactizised using the Four Strands model developed by Paul Nation (2007). The preliminary result of this research can be said, that after one semester sessions, the students speak more fluently because they are familiarized with the text and therefore they have more self-confidence.

Vocabulary Demands of Informal Spoken English Revisited: What Does It Take to Understand Movies, TV Programs, and Soap Operas?

The article presents a methodological update on the lexical profile of informal spoken English with the emphasis on movies, television programs, and soap operas. The study analyzed Mark Davies’s mega-corpora with data containing approximately 625 million words and employed Paul Nation’s comprehensive and up-to-date British National Corpus/Corpus of Contemporary American English (BNC/COCA) wordlists. Data from the analyses showed that viewers would need a vocabulary knowledge at 3,000 and 5,000 words frequency levels to understand 95 and 98% of the words in scripted dialogs, respectively. Soap operas were found to be less lexically demanding compared to TV programs and movies. Findings are expected to fill in the methodological gaps between vocabulary assessment and vocabulary profiling research.

A time for consolidation: A bibliometric analysis of L2 vocabulary research 1985–1989

This paper uses a co-citation analysis to examine the research on L2 vocabulary acquisition that was published in 1989. Two analyses are presented. The first is a detailed account of the 1989 research on its own terms. The second analysis places this work in a larger context by looking at research published in a five-year window covering 1985–89. The analyses identify important themes in the research and significant sources who are influencing the way the research is developing at this time. The main features of this work are the substantial growth in dictionary and corpus research, and the emergence of Paul Nation as the Most Significant Source in 1989.

An Analysis of Writing Tasks in “Pathway to English” Textbook for Twelfth Grade of SMAN 5 Kota Jambi

This research was aimed to find out whether the writing task in “Pathway to English” textbook appropriate with the criteria of writing task as suggested by Paul Nation, in Nation’s theory. There are four kinds of tasks that suggested. Each of tasks has the following type : (1) Experienced Task (linked skills, draw and write, ten perfect sentences, partial writing, setting your own questions), (2) Shared Task (reproduction exercise/dicto-gloss, blackboard composition, group-class composition, writing with a secretary), (3) Guided Task (translation, picture composition, delayed copying, writing with grammar help, answer the questions, correction, complete the sentences, back writing, put the words in order, follow the model, what is it?, change the sentences, join the sentences, writing by steps, marking guided writing), (4) Independent Task. The method of this research was descriptive qualitative. To analyzed the data, the researcher used qualitative content analysis method. Research findings there are 54 types of writing task: 2 Experience task (1 Partial Writing, 1 Setting your own question), 1 Shared task ( 5 group class composition), 8 Guided task (1 translation, 7 look and write, 1 picture composition, 7 writing with grammar help, 10 answer the question, 4 correction, 11 complete the sentences, 2 put the words in order, 1 Independent task (6 independent). The result of this research was that there are criteria are found that match with the criteria as suggested by Paul Nation, this proves that this book is appropriate with the criteria as suggested by Paul Nation.Key Words: Writing Task, English Textbook, Task Analysis

ASSESSING THE VOCABULARY SIZE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CLASS STUDENTS

As the important component of language acquisition and language learning affecting language skill mastery, vocabulary has been the concern of the language expertise. Many of them focus a lot on how to enrich the learners’ vocabulary. In fact, vocabulary development is not only about increasing the quantity but also on its quality. Knowing this fact, it is needed to find out how qualified the vocabulary development nowadays. Therefore, the quantitative study is done to identify and analyze the vocabulary size developmental pattern across the levels. It is a cross sectional survey research. The data was taken by doing vocabulary test to the international students who deal a lot with English exposure in their learning. Three batches consisting of freshmen, sophomore, and junior in the International classes were assessed to see their developmental pattern. Vocabulary size test developed by Paul Nation becomes the best option as the test measuring the vocabulary size of the students. As a result, the hypothesis was accepted. It is found that there is a difference in the vocabulary size from the three batches with a surprising finding too due to the pattern. This result is then useful for a means of reflection and evaluation for the students and the institution.

A Critical Review of the Word Classification System

In this reflective paper, we review the currently-used word classification system proposed by linguist Paul Nation (2013, 2015) and the position of the academic vocabulary in this system. Different lexical layers in this system are explained as well as the underlying assumptions. Then, taking a critical position, we raise a number of criticisms against three different aspects of Nation’s classification. The first criticism involves the fact that the system has sacrificed function for form in developing the lexical layers. The second focuses on the problem of equating ‘academic words’ with Coxhead’s (2000) Academic Word List (AWL) and ‘high-frequency words’ with West’s (1953) General Service List (GSL). Finally, the system is criticized for the lack of an independent lexical layer for discipline-specific academic vocabulary by ignoring disciplinary variation at the level of academic words. The critical points raised in the paper can be useful for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) materials developers, teachers, test developers, and syllabus/curriculum designers.

How Vocabulary is Learned

How Vocabulary is Learned by Stuart Webb and Paul Nation focusses on key issues underlying the learning and teaching of vocabulary both from a theoretical perspective and with a strong emphasis on actually putting things into practice. Generally speaking, it is an absolute pleasure to read what these two extremely experienced writers have to say about this vital topic, which constitutes an essential component of language teaching and is thus part and parcel of any language instructor’s everyday teaching requirements. Chapter 1 starts out by addressing the question of which words should be learnt, unsurprisingly stressing the importance of teaching high-frequency words along with technical and academic vocabulary occurring within various types of discourse, as well as introducing the reader to a number of frequency lists and suggesting a concrete testing format to check effectiveness afterwards. Chapter 2 then deals with the learning burden involved in studying words, putting the central focus on how to reduce this burden and also providing practical hands-on suggestions for teaching, in particular with respect to introducing opposites, synonyms and members of lexical sets.

Evaluating Saudi EFL Secondary Schools Students' Performance on Paul Nation's Standardized Vocabulary Level Tests

The current study aims to evaluate Saudi EFL Secondary School students' performance on Paul Nation's Standardized vocabulary level tests .It also aims to examine the vocabulary size of EFL Saudi Secondary School students at Asir district. Two tools were used for collecting data. The first one was Paul Nation's Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT). The second tool was a questionnaire (TVLSQ) with 13 items .The purposive sample consisted of (80) students besides (20) English teachers. The study sample was selected from Abha secondary schools schools/Saudi Arabia. The study came out with the following results: Saudi EFL Secondary school students' vocabulary size word test falls within 1,000 frequency level, indicating that students are unable to gasp an average text. Saudi EFL Secondary School student who obtained higher marks in 1,000 word level also obtained higher marks in 2,000 –word level and vice versa. These results confirmed the high correlation between the two tests which hits 0.76.Moreover,in Paul Nation's Vocabulary Levels Test( VLT) the more words Saudi EFL Secondary school student knows, the better score his/her four skills. To most secondary school teachers as well as students, English grammar is the main focus on their teaching and learning, not the vocabulary.

EVALUATING SAUDI EFL SECONDARY SCHOOLS STUDENTS' PERFORMANCE ON PAUL NATION'S STANDARDIZED VOCABULARY LEVEL TESTS

The current study aims to evaluate Saudi EFL Secondary School students' performance on Paul Nation's Standardized vocabulary level tests. It also aims to examine the vocabulary size of EFL Saudi Secondary School students at Asir district. Two tools were used for collecting data. The first one was Paul Nation's Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT). The second tool was a questionnaire (TVLSQ) with 13 items. The purposive sample consisted of (80) students besides (20) English teachers. The study sample was selected from Abha secondary schools schools/Saudi Arabia. The study came out with the following results: Saudi EFL Secondary school students' vocabulary size word test falls within 1,000 frequency level, indicating that students are unable to gasp an average text. Saudi EFL Secondary School student who obtained higher marks in 1,000 word level also obtained higher marks in 2,000 word level and vice versa. These results confirmed the high correlation between the two tests which hits 0.76. Moreover, in Paul Nation's Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) the more words Saudi EFL Secondary school student knows, the better score his/her four skills. To most secondary school teachers as well as students, English grammar is the main focus on their teaching and learning, not the vocabulary.DOI:doi.org/10.24071/llt.2019.220112

Webb, Stuart and Paul Nation. (2017) How Vocabulary is Learned

Webb, Stuart and Paul Nation. (2017) <i>How Vocabulary is Learned</i>

Vocabulary Bridge-building: A Book Review of Norbert Schmitt (2010), I. S. Paul Nation and Stuart Webb (2011), and Paul Meara and Imma Miralpeix (2016)

Vocabulary Bridge-building: A Book Review of Norbert Schmitt (2010), I. S. Paul Nation and Stuart Webb (2011), and Paul Meara and Imma Miralpeix (2016)

Children's literature parallel corpora: a hybrid experimental model to evaluate transfers of language complexity via linguistic transcoding

The article aims at proposing a hybrid model to evaluate language complexity of source and target texts written both in English and Portuguese so that one can analyse at what extent language complexity has been transferred from a text to its translation. In it, hybrid model points to paralleled approaches to lexical repetition, lexical diversity and lexical density, readability and word unusualness with the help of some Corpus Linguistics tools. It also stands for developing adjustments to Paul Nation’s word family lists and Gunning’s GFI formula so that they can be applied to Portuguese language. Aiming at checking the reliability of the model, the article also presents a case study based on contrastive investigations on “The Secret Garden” by Burnett and its translation into Portuguese “O Jardim Secreto” by Perota and Carvalho.

I. S. Paul Nation: Making and Using Word Lists for Language Learning and Testing

With the development of electronic-corpora and lexical analysis tools, the accessibility to make word lists from spoken and written materials has become much easier. Nation, inspired by his experience in developing the British National Corpus (BNC)/the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) lists, the largest available lists of word families, and motivated by the discrepancy between the need to develop new word lists and underdeveloped methodologies to do so, compiled this book. The book can be considered a collection of unrelenting collaborative scholarship, as Nation acknowledges that the collection of chapters resulted from years of collaboration with colleagues and students. His aim was to provide a guide for constructing well-developed word lists for teaching and learning foreign languages through consideration of relevant factors, such as the purpose for which a list is to be used, the design of the corpus from which the list will be made, the lexical unit for counting word occurrences in the corpus, and the statistic and subjective criterion applied to make and sequence words in the list. This first and detailed systematic discussion of factors and guidelines for consideration in constructing word lists has appeared at a crucial time where the majority of existing word list books are simple quick desktop references without explanation of any methodology work that could assist individuals in constructing word lists for more specific needs.

Receptive vocabulary measures for EFL Costa Rican high school students

&lt;p&gt;The study offers a glimpse of the current situation of foreign language education in the Costa Rican context from the perspective of vocabulary knowledge, particularly passive vocabulary size. Students from two institutions participated: one school implements Content Based Teaching while the other follows traditional, Foreign Language Teaching instruction. This research aims to describe the receptive vocabulary profile of students and to compare the vocabulary levels of students between two gender groups and under two types of English language teaching. These measures are established following the idea originally presented in Paul Nation’s (1983, 1990) Vocabulary Levels Test. In this case, Schmitt, Schmitt and Clapham’s (2001) Version 2 test was used to define passive vocabulary levels. Finally, the results of this analysis are compared to results for similar population samples in other studies.&lt;/p&gt;

AN ANALYSIS OF AN EAP COURSE BOOK USED IN ISLAMIC HIGHER EDUCATION

Selecting EAP Course book which is suitable for Islamic Studies students is not an easy job to handle. To know the strengths and weaknesses of the course book, there should be an evaluation. This study evaluates English Textbook, Islamic Learning in EAP which is designed for undergraduate students learning Islamic Studies at Islamic Higher Education. Two points were addressed in this study: (1) has the content of textbook meet the criteria of Language teaching principles? (2) has the textbook followed proper EAP materials and tasks?This is a qualitative research with content analysis method. The data was the textbook of Islamic Learning in EAP by Ahwy Oktradiksa (2013). The content of course book was analyzed based on principles of language teaching by Paul Nation (2010) and design of EAP materials and tasks by Stoller (2016). The findings reveal the strengths and weaknesses of Islamic Learning in EAP. This study indicates that (1) the course book has poor quality and has not met the criteria of language teaching principles covering: (a) content and sequencing, (b) format and presentation, (c) monitoring and assessment; (2) the course book does not cover the content of EAP materials and tasks. It tends to present general English and does not stimulate to develop language and academic skills, critical thinking skills, introduce technology into learning activities and do not provide with some strategies to English test skills like TOEFL or IELTS. This study will contribute significantly to curriculum and materials developers, teachers, and students interested in EFL learning.

A Preliminary Research to Develop A Customized Set of Vocabulary Size Test

This is a preliminary research to investigate useful words to function effectively in academic contexts, vocabulary size, the first-year students word list, and the steps to design the customized set of entry-level vocabulary size test. This research was a library research. To find out the ELESP students current vocabulary size, a vocabulary size test designed by Paul Nation was administered. The results show that useful words were (1) high-frequency words containing 2,000 word families, (2) academic words specified in the Academic Word List (Coxhead:2000), (3) technical words, (4) low-frequency words. The result of the administration of Nations Vocabulary Size Test shows that the students scores range between 33 and 96 words, with the mean score of 66. It means that the students vocabulary size ranges between 3,300 and 9,600 word families. The average students vocabulary size was 6,600 word families, which imply that most ELESP students are ready to read texts containing 88.7% word coverage. In order to increase their vocabulary size by 10,000 or more, they need to learn technical words and low-frequency words of a specialized subject area. Using Nations specifications for making the test, some procedures of test design are: Sampling the words for the items, Making the Stem, Writing the choices, The Order of the items in the Test, Piloting, Administering the Test. The decisions on curriculum, materials and teaching strategies should be based on the results of vocabulary size to gain optimum learning outcome.DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.2014.170103

Vocabulary research and pedagogy: Introduction to the special issue

The impetus for this special issue came from the Vocab@Vic conference, which was hosted in December, 2013 at Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, Aotearoa / New Zealand. The aim of the conference, and of this special issue, was to focus on current trends in vocabulary research in second or foreign language teaching and learning. An unstated secondary aim of the conference was to honour Emeritus Professor Paul Nation for his continued contribution to research and learning and teaching vocabulary in another language. Paul is the author of one of the best known volumes on vocabulary, Learning vocabulary in another language (now in its second edition, 2013), and each contribution in this special issue is related to topics which Paul has written about and researched. He also reviewed a number of articles for this special issue. From experience, I know it can be difficult to thank Paul to his face, so I am dedicating this special issue to him. At the suggestion of Frank Boers, another vocabulary researcher and enthusiast, the organization of this special issue follows that of an earlier collective volume on vocabulary edited by Bogaards & Laufer (2004). The themes of that volume were selection (or prioritization), acquisition (and instruction), and testing (or assessment). Laufer (2014) comments on four studies from a special interest group on vocabulary in the Japanese Association of Language Teachers (JALT) using this same framework, which suggests that these areas of interest remain current in vocabulary studies. Batia Laufer is another stalwart of the vocabulary research community, and drawing on her work is also a way to recognize her considerable impact on the field. It is fitting to lead off the special issue with an article co-authored by Norbert Schmitt, a dedicated and prolific scholar in vocabulary studies, whose review article published in Language Teaching Research (Schmitt, 2008) is one of the most cited pieces in the 20-year history of the journal. Melodie Garnier and Norbert Schmitt’s contribution exemplifies the theme of selection. Selecting items for teaching is a major area of concern because of the cost–benefit equation, and learners and teachers need to get the best return for effort. The focus of Garnier and Schmitt’s contribution is phrasal verbs (a term they use to also encompass prepositional verbs). As there are several 604788 LTR0010.1177/1362168815604788Language Teaching ResearchCoxhead research-article2015

Study on the Validity of bilingual Mandarin Version of Vocabulary Size Test

Vocabulary Size Test (VST) is a test to measure learners’ receptive vocabulary size by Paul Nation. Beside English-English version, VST has other five bilingual versions. This article is to describe the validation of its Mandarin version, i.e., English-Chinese version. Data shows that the bilingual English-Chinese version VST’s overall difficulty index, discriminating power, and internal consistency are all statistically satisfactory. One-way ANOVA test and Post Hoc test evidenced that the English-Chinese version VST can differentiate learners from different levels with high validity.