Vocabulary Level Research Articles

THE EFFECT OF CHILDREN'S DRAMA-THEMED ACTIVITIES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPEAKING SKILLS IN 4–5-YEAR- OLD

Early childhood is a critical period for language learning and young children's ability to use language is mainly reflected in the process of telling. The development of young children's expressive abilities has an essential impact on their language ability and overall development. In this study, two parallel 4–5-year-olds were selected in Mianyang kindergarten, and the experimental class was randomly divided into the control class fora 10-week shared reading activity. After analysis, we concluded that children’s drama-themed activities could promote the development of 4-5-year-old children's speaking ability; children's drama-themed activities can encourage the development of 4-5-year-old children in the four dimensions of "narrative length", "vocabulary level","sentence structure" and "expressive ability",; and there is no significant difference between the genders in the effect of children's drama-themed activities on the expressiveability of 4-5-year-old children.

CEFR vocabulary level as a predictor of user interest in English Wiktionary entries

This contribution explores the relationship between the English CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) vocabulary levels and user interest in English Wiktionary entries. User interest was operationalized through the number of views of these entries in Wikimedia server logs covering a period of four years (2019–2022). Our findings reveal a significant relationship between CEFR levels and user interest: entries classified at lower CEFR levels tend to attract more views, which suggests a greater user interest in more basic vocabulary. A multiple regression model controlling for other known or potential factors affecting interest: corpus frequency, polysemy, word prevalence, and age of acquisition confirmed that lower CEFR levels attract significantly more views even after taking into account the other predictors. These findings highlight the importance of CEFR levels in predicting which words users are likely to look up, with implications for lexicography and the development of language learning materials.

BASIC PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS, MOTIVATION, AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES AND SKILLS OF INDONESIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Foreign language vocabulary learning can be pursued if the students have motivation and interest in which psychological factors play an important role in enacting learning strategies toward increased skills. This study aims to examine the integrated process model of the BasicPsychological Needs (BPN) variable as a behavioural phenomena in relation to autonomous and controlled motivation individually or collectively toward Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLSs) and Vocabulary Skills (VSs). A total of 186 students of one university participated in this research. The Basic Psychological Needs of Second Language Scale (BPNSLS) was employed to assess the BPN, meanwhile the Self-Determination Theory of Second Language Scale (SDTSLS) was to assess the autonomous and controlled motivation. There are three questionnaires (BPNSLS, SDTSLS, VLSs) were adopted and adapted of the previous study. The fourth research instrument was Vocabulary Level Test (VLT) version b to assess vocabulary skills. A partial least square was used to contest the research model. The structural model of the relationship between the variables of basic psychological needs, self-determination theory, vocabulary learning strategies, and vocabulary mastery, revealed that vocabulary learning strategies play a crucial role in looking at the influence of motivational orientation on vocabulary skills described in the proposed model. This study suggests that further research can explore more on how motivation relates to learning strategies in general and comparing between autonomous versus controlled motivation.

Mapping of American English vocabulary by grade levels

Abstract We describe a large-scale effort to map English-language vocabulary by U.S. school grade levels. Our motivation is to rapidly expand graded vocabulary resources for work with native English speakers in the USA, while taking into consideration school-related influences rather than relying on just the corpus-frequency approaches. We report on the initial effort of data collection, with mapping of about 22K word forms. We provide comparisons of this mapping to some other recent vocabulary mapping efforts, such as age-of-acquisition. We then describe the efforts to automatically expand this resource by using linguistically motivated variables and corpus-based methods. Our current resource maps more than 126K English word forms to US school grade levels. We also compare a subset of our L1 mapped data to English L2 vocabulary levels, as expressed on the CEFR scale, and find that there is a considerable overlap in the order of vocabulary learning in L1 and L2 English.

Examining the effects of two cognitive styles (field dependence vs. field independence) on learners’ mobile-assisted vocabulary acquisition

Abstract Learners with different cognitive styles (here, field dependence vs. field independence) may learn second language vocabulary differently in different vocabulary learning settings. Although cognitive style has been widely studied in second language research, little is known about how field dependence/independence affects learners’ vocabulary acquisition in a mobile-assisted learning setting. One approach to solve this problem is to investigate the possible effect(s) of field dependence/independence on learners’ short-term vocabulary recall in a mobile-assisted vocabulary acquisition setting (here, Memrise). To investigate such effect(s), this study adopted a pretest-posttest design involving 147 intermediate-level learners of English as a second language. Using the Group Embedded Figures Test, participants were divided into two groups: field dependent and field independent learners. For 4 weeks, both groups practiced and reinforced a set of English vocabulary, selected from the Vocabulary Level Test, through Memrise flashcards. Our findings reveal a post-intervention improvement among both field-dependent and field-independent learners, but with field-independent learners slightly outperforming their counterparts in the short-term recall of the vocabulary. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.

基于功能对等理论的航海技术英语翻译研究

With the deepening of economic globalization, maritime technology has become increasingly prominent, and maritime technology English has also become an effective way for cultivating high-quality talents. As a part of technical English, maritime technology English has distinctive characteristics: terminologies, nominalizations and abbreviations are widely used at the vocabulary level and inanimate-subject sentences, passive sentences and long complex sentences are more used at the syntactic level. From the perspective of Eugene·A·Nida’s functional equivalence, this article studies the E-C translation of maritime technology English from vocabulary and syntax level, aiming to provide reference for the Chinese translation of maritime technology English.

Teaching English Using Flashcards to Improve Elementary School Students’ Vocabulary

Acquiring new English words is a challenge for students because they commonly need to learn to use the words in their daily lives, which are dominated by their first language for communication. Flashcards are instrumental in facilitating their vocabulary learning. This research examined flashcards' use in teaching and learning English language vocabulary. This research used a quantitative approach with an experimental design. The data was collected by asking students to do a vocabulary test before and after the treatment. The object of this research was fourth-grade students in a private primary school in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The results indicated that the student's English vocabulary level on the pre-test was at the intermediate level, which showed a mean score of 52.20. Meanwhile, on the post-test, the student's English vocabulary level was at an advanced level, showing a mean score of 77.60. In addition, the Wilcoxon test showed that the p-value of asymp.sig.2tailed was 001. It means that the students’ English vocabulary significantly improved after being taught using flashcards. It indicates that the hypothesis that flashcards have significantly improved students' vocabulary was accepted.

The effects of NMT as a de facto dictionary on vocabulary learning: a comparison of three look-up conditions

Many language learners have reported using Neural machine translation (NMT) such as Google Translate as a reference tool for writing production or as a dictionary substitute to facilitate reading comprehension. Although increasing evidence has suggested that editing with NMT can help learners make improvement on the vocabulary level, no study has explored how consulting NMT for unknown vocabulary may impact the retention of word meaning compared to more conventional look-up conditions. Using a 3 × 3 quasi-experimental design, this study investigated the extent to which the use of NMT to learn unknown target words during reading comprehension activities yielded vocabulary retention compared to that of an online dictionary and how the findings varied by learners’ proficiency levels. The research questions focused on the comparison of the outcomes of three different look-up conditions: (1) NMT word search, (2) NMT sentence search, and (3) online dictionary search. ANOVA results showed that learners who performed online dictionary search and NMT sentence search demonstrated significantly higher levels of word retention than those who carried out NMT single-word search, and the same pattern was observed regardless of their proficiency levels.

Productive Word Knowledge Development and Its Relation to Informal Contact with English through Various Leisure Activities

Much of the previous research that has provided evidence for the relationship between engagement in out-of-class activities and vocabulary outcomes has focused on receptive word gains. However, little research has attempted to explore this relationship with productive word knowledge. Additionally, the contribution of various gaming genres to the relationship is particularly underexplored. The present mixed-method study fills these lacunas by employing a productive vocabulary levels test, a questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews to explore the relationship between 35 different leisure activities that English as a foreign language (EFL) learners engage in outside the classroom and their productive vocabulary growth. The study’s findings revealed that although learners frequently engaged in different activities, they spent most of their free time gaming, which contributed the most to productive word knowledge learning. Regression analysis showed that two gaming genres, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) and first-person shooters, significantly predicted productive knowledge of words. Qualitative analysis demonstrated that, in general, the participants had a positive perception of informal engagement with English activities outside formal learning contexts.

Lexical and Sublexical Skills in Children's Literacy

Letter knowledge and word identification are key skills for reading and spelling. Letter knowledge facilitates the application of sublexical letter-sound mappings to decode words. With reading experience, word identification becomes a key lexical skill to support decoding. In transparent orthographies, however, letter knowledge might be an enduring predictor of decoding and spelling, even in children with some reading experience. This study investigated the association of children's sublexical (letter knowledge) and lexical skills (word identification and vocabulary) with word decoding and spelling accuracy in Spanish, which is a transparent orthography. The sample consisted of 117 Spanish-speaking children, aged 8 to 10. Results revealed that (1) letter knowledge and word identification were independently associated with children's word spelling; (2) word identification was uniquely associated with word decoding; and (3) children's vocabulary level was associated with word identification. The implications of these findings were examined within the framework of reading models and the characteristics of a transparent orthography.

Exploring the Vocabulary Knowledge of EFL Teachers in Saudi Public Schools

The present study investigated the nature of the vocabulary levels of male and female EFL teachers in Saudi schools and identified the receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge between male and female EFL teachers in Saudi schools. The study adopted a quantitative approach and collected the data through an online version of receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge tests. The findings revealed that male and female EFL teachers had low levels of vocabulary knowledge. Further, the findings revealed that EFL teachers at Saudi schools typically possess higher receptive vocabulary levels than productive vocabulary. The findings also indicate that gender substantially influences the vocabulary knowledge of EFL teachers. Finally, the study provides several implications and recommendations for further studies.

A Corpus-Based Study on the Translation Style of Four English Versions of Fu Sheng Liu Ji

ABSTRACT Based on a parallel corpus of Chinese-English texts, this article utilizes corpus tools to examine the translation styles of four versions of Fu Sheng Liu Ji from three levels and nine variables. It is found that different translators have different perspectives and focuses when dealing with the same source text, thus presenting different translation styles. At vocabulary level, Sanders’ translation has the highest lexical density, Black’s translation has the richest lexical variation, and Pratt’s translation has the lowest lexical richness. At the sentence level, Lin’s translation fluctuated more obviously in the use of alternating long and short sentences, while the changes in Sanders’ translation are less obvious, and Pratt’s translation has the lowest average sentence length, which means this version tends to use more short sentences to translate the original text. At the level of discourse, Black’s translation has a more compact plot and a tighter contextual connection, making the translation more readable and narrative. The distinct styles of the four translations are mainly due to the difference in the translators’ aims and their historical backgrounds.

Utilization of Literacy Strategies for the Development of Students’ English Language Proficiency

This study investigated the effectiveness of literacy strategies on students' English language proficiency in vocabulary, reading comprehension, and written expression. It also sought to determine whether the students' perceived effectiveness of these strategies influenced their English language proficiency. The researchers employed a quasi-experimental and descriptive-correlational design. The participants were the 10th-grade students of Camanjac National High School. The study used parallel 45- item English pre-and posttests and a survey questionnaire to fit the purpose of the study. These tests and survey questionnaires were subjected to content validation by experts. The respondents underwent the entire procedure: the pretest, the utilization of literacy strategies, and the posttest. The researchers used weighted mean, percentage, t-test, and Spearman rank correlation coefficient in treating the data. In the pretest, the students scored below expectations in vocabulary, reading comprehension, and written expression, with mean scores of 73.42 percent, 69.27 percent, and 70.58 percent, respectively. The posttest revealed that the level of English proficiency after using literacy strategies improved to 82.19 percent in vocabulary, 81.72 percent in reading comprehension, and 82.08 percent in written expression. Furthermore, the t-test results indicate that the students' performance significantly improved. In addition, the data disclosed a significant relationship between reading strategies and the students' reading comprehension levels. However, there is no significant relationship between vocabulary strategies and the students' vocabulary level, nor between writing strategies and the students' written expression level.

Improving Reading Comprehension and Summarising Skills in Primary School: A Quasi-Experimental Study

MIGLIORARE LA COMPRENSIONE DEL TESTO E LE CAPACITÀ DI SINTESI NELLA SCUOLA PRIMARIA: UNO STUDIO QUASI-SPERIMENTALE Abstract The paper reports the results of the evaluation of a programme aimed at improving reading comprehension and summarising skills of fourth graders through a quasi-experimental study conducted with 671 students (421 in the experimental group and 250 in the control group) in Italian schools. Students assigned to the experimental group received three months of the intervention while students in the control group continued with regular teacher practice. Results showed a statistically significant difference between the two conditions on reading comprehension and summarising skills. Students included in the experimental group outperformed students in the control group in both the measures used (dppc2 = 0.32 in the Summarising Test and dppc2 = 0.54 in the Summary Qualitative Assessment). No differences were found between students with different proficiency vocabulary levels in the experimental group. The implications for research practice and limitations of the study are discussed.

«СЛОВО ПРО ІГОРІВ ПОХІД» У НАУКОВО-ТВОРЧОМУ ОСЯГНЕННІ ІВАНА ОГІЄНКА І МИХАЙЛА ГЕТЬМАНЦЯ

The article carries out a comparative and typological study of the scientifi c and creative understanding of an outstanding monument of ancient Ukrainian literature «The Tale of Igor’s Campaign» by professors Ivan Ohiienkо and Mykhailo Hetmanets. The approaches of two scientists are largely similar, but they diff er in many aspects re-garding the actual scientifi c strategies of the study of «The Tale». Both Ivan Ohiienko and Mykhailo Hetmanets agree that this outstanding medieval epic poem is a land-mark of ancient Ukrainian literature. Both scientists gravitate towards the cultural-historical method of studying «The Tale», but at the same time, Ivan Ohiienko puts its “literature”, linguistic and poetic wealth in the fi rst place, directing his scientifi c eff orts accordingly. In the analysis of «The Tale» he acts mainly as a philologist, successfully combining literary and linguistic approaches. Emphasizing the authen-ticity of the epic poem, the author of the «literary monograph» about «The Tale» underlines fi rst of all its closeness to folk poetry, both in terms of rhythm and verse, and at the level of vocabulary and phraseology. The scientist carefully records the structural components of the spelling of «The Tale», fi nds in it «signs of antiquity», «Bulgarianisms» and «signs of a living language». Mykhailo Hetmanets always highly appreciated the artistic qualities of «The Tale», paid considerable attention to the study of the poetics of the poem, however, he mostly worked with the text as a cultural expert, historian and local researcher. In addition, the scientist consistently implemented the so-called «real commentary» in his «practical» studies, carefully verifying every word, description, reality, event from the text of the work using both proper philological methods and extra-artistic ways. Similar systemic and multi-vector work is brilliantly presented in the mon-ograph «Kayala» (2013). His contribution to the study of the artistic and aesthetic aspects of the masterpiece through the prism of the poetics of its meaningful depth and multifacetedness is also signifi cant. M. Hetmanets gave an extremely high rating to I. Ohiienko’s «The Tale» studies. He responded to his monograph with a lengthy article in which, debating with the author about certain problems, in general he com-pletely supported Ohiienkov’s vision of the signifi cance of «The Tale» in the history of not only East Slavic, but also the entire world literature

LEXICAL TONALITY IN THE MODERN BUSINESS INTERNET CORRESPONDENCE IN RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES

This research is devoted to the comparative analysis of lexical tonality in business Internet correspondence in Russian and English. The review and analysis of scientific literature, articles devoted to the study of the concept of lexical tonality is carried out. Lexical tonality is a subjective attitude through emotion, evaluation, opinion, judgment to another subject or object, which is determined at the level of vocabulary, which allows you to explore the tonality in a sentence, breaking it into separate lexemes and considering the meaning of each of them. The current trends that affect the lexical tonality when writing business letters in Russian and English have been studied. The study presents variants of words that have positive or negative semantics, words with semantics that contain an emotional assessment and words with the meaning of benevolence, interest, tact, consistency, etc. It is shown how positive, negative, neutral tonality is determined in a sentence with the help of words, which is expressed in a positive, negative or neutral attitude of the subject to the object. One of the objectives of the study is to supplement the classification of means in two languages (considering their specifics) to determine the lexical tonality of the text in business Internet correspondence.

Incidental vocabulary acquisition through watching movies with bimodal and standard subtitles: The case of L2 Swahili learners

This study aimed to identify the level of vocabulary that can be acquired by L2 Swahili learners after watching a single Swahili movie with either Swahili or English subtitles. 30 University of Ghana L2 Swahili students, ranging in age from 18-30 were divided into two groups. The groups watched the same movie in Swahili with either bimodal (BM) or standard (STD) subtitling. Those in the bimodal group watched the movie with Swahili subtitles and those in the standard group watched the movie with English subtitles. English is the medium of instruction at the University of Ghana and the official language of Ghana. Participants were tested on vocabulary taken from the movie both before and after watching the movie. They took a pre-test before watching the movie, and a post-test right after watching it, and data were analyzed using MS Excel. Results from the post-tests showed an increase in all participants’ vocabulary levels after watching the movie, with those in the standard group making statistically significant gains. The study suggests that watching a movie in L2 and visually seeing the subtitles in L1 has a greater effect on vocabulary acquisition than watching and seeing the subtitles in L2.

A THEORETICAL REVIEW OF VOCABULARY ACQUISITION LEVEL AND ITS INFLUENCE ON STUDENTS READING COMPREHENSION

Reading is a creative way to actively and positively acquire information and to develop students' ability to perceive and access information visually through writing. At the same time, vocabulary is a foundation for reading. The relationship between English vocabulary level and reading comprehension ability are studied by different scholars, especially the relationship between these two variables. Supported by different findings, most of these researchers have found that there is a high correlation between English vocabulary level and reading comprehension ability. An indication is that English language learners' reading comprehension is generally influenced by how much vocabulary they know. The implication is that, as vocabulary contributes to students' understanding of what they read, reading must be part of their learning to improve their vocabulary and one of the essential components of language learning that could lead to their overall language proficiency.

Unknown Vocabulary Density and Reading Comprehension: Replicating Hu and Nation (2000)

AbstractHu and Nation's (2000) study, which stipulated that second language (L2) readers need to be familiar with 98% of lexical items for adequate text comprehension, has become highly influential in L2 vocabulary research and pedagogy. However, the 98% critical threshold figure is based on findings from a research project in which a regression analysis was conducted with only 66 university students in New Zealand. The present study replicated Hu and Nation's research in a context different from a typical Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic context with a sample of 104 Sri Lankan adult L2 learners in a nonacademic context. They each took a Vocabulary Levels Test and read one of five versions of two reading texts at different levels of density of unknown words before answering comprehension questions. The results of the original study could not be fully replicated.

The role of home and classroom literacy environment and expectations in early vocabulary development in bilingual primary education

This study examined the unique contribution of Home Literacy Environment (HLE), Classroom Literacy Environment (CLE), and parent and teacher expectations to the development of Dutch (L1) and English (L2) vocabulary in children in Dutch-English bilingual primary education. The children (n = 106) were tested on vocabulary in both languages in kindergarten (m age = 5–10) and grade 1 (m age = 6–10). Their parents (n = 106) and teachers (n = 16) filled out questionnaires on respectively HLE and CLE, and shared their expectations of children’s future L1 and L2 achievement through a second questionnaire. Results indicated that L2 HLE correlated with L2 vocabulary and number of L1 books at home correlated with L1 vocabulary. L1 vocabulary development was predicted by teacher expectations, but not by parent expectations, HLE or CLE. L2 vocabulary development was predicted by parent expectations, but not by teacher expectations, L1 vocabulary level in kindergarten, HLE or CLE. These findings highlight the importance of parent and teacher expectations in early bilingual vocabulary development. They suggest a unique but also combined role of two systems in which children learn and develop a second language: the home and the classroom.