Productive Vocabulary Research Articles

Model‐based feedback for L2 writing revision: The role of vocabulary size and language aptitude

AbstractAlthough the utility of model‐based feedback is well documented, little is known about which factors modulate its effectiveness. The current study investigated the extent to which learner differences in receptive and productive vocabulary sizes, as well as differences in their language aptitude (measured by the LLAMA test), mediated the effects of using models as a written corrective feedback (WCF) tool. Sixty Korean learners of English (ages 18–21) were divided into an experimental and a control group. They all completed an argumentative writing task. Before revising their texts, the experimental group received model texts to compare their first draft, while the control group self‐corrected their errors without a model. Subsequently, all 60 participants took the LLAMA and vocabulary size tests. The model group's revisions showed significant improvements in vocabulary, content, and organization compared to the control group. The results also showed that learners’ receptive and productive vocabulary sizes significantly predicted the effectiveness of model‐based feedback.

The Correlation between Vocabulary Knowledge and English Language Proficiency at Undergraduate Level

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between undergraduate English language students' vocabulary knowledge and language proficiency. The population of the study was the English department students at the University of Lahore. The sample was taken from the fifth to eighth semesters using cluster sampling. Through a vocabulary test, the size of the productive vocabulary, the size of the receptive vocabulary, and the depth of knowledge of the vocabulary were all found to significantly correlate with speaking performance. In multiple regression analyses, vocabulary knowledge was found to be the cause of 26% of the variance in speaking proficiency. The sig. (two-tailed) coefficient of the relationship between the two factors, and a correlation coefficient R value of 0.784 at the 0.05 level of significance was deemed strong. It expected that there was a strong positive connection between the vocabulary information and understudies language capability. The regression explains a consolidated effect of vocabulary knowledge on students' language proficiency. Vocabulary knowledge is positively correlated with language proficiency, according to the findings. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research are presented on the basis of the findings of the study.

Vocabulary skills of bilingual children: The evidence for context‐dependent performance

AbstractMost bilingual children often display greater proficiency and preference for one of their two languages. Researchers refer to this asymmetry as language dominance. However, despite being possible to determine the overall language dominance in bilinguals, there may be substantial flexibility in their language use. In particular, the relative ease of using each language may depend on the sociolinguistic context and the language of the interlocutor which may affect the ease of accessing words in a given language. In the present work, we investigate whether and how the sociolinguistic context in an International English medium school influences bilingual children's vocabulary production. Specifically, we examine whether bilingual first‐grade children's expressive vocabulary skills vary as a function of the linguistic context (Home/School) and the language (English/Spanish) of their conversational partner. Results showed that contextual factors interacted with child's language performance. The participants' ability to name objects in Spanish was affected by the conversational partner's language, and their ability to name Home‐context words varied by language. The findings of this investigation highlight the importance of considering sociolinguistic factors when evaluating bilingual children's language skills.

Investigating Lexical Errors in Written and Spoken Productions among University Students of Business English

This study investigated the types and frequency of lexical errors made by university students of Business English in their writing and spoken production. The participants were 50 undergraduate students from a business school at the University of Ibn Zohr, Morocco. A comprehensive language assessment was conducted to measure their vocabulary size, productive vocabulary knowledge, and language proficiency. Their written essays and spoken interviews were analyzed using James' Taxonomy of Lexical Errors (1998). The results showed that the most frequent types of lexical errors made by the participants were word Distortions (46%), followed by Misformation (33%), and finally Confusion of Sense Relation (18%). The study also found a significant correlation between vocabulary size and productive vocabulary knowledge with the number and types of lexical errors made by the participants. The findings have implications for language teaching and learning, suggesting that more attention should be given to vocabulary instruction and practice to reduce lexical errors in Business English communication.

Using Causal Explanation Speaking Tasks to Assess Young EFL learners’ Speaking Ability: The Effects of Age, Cognitive, and L2 Linguistic Development

ABSTRACT This paper examined to what extent causal explanation speaking tasks (CESTs) are cognitively appropriate for assessing young language learners’ (YLLs) L2 speaking. Ninety-six YLLs (48 from Grade 4 and 6 each) in China performed two CESTs in both L1 (Chinese) and L2 (English). They also completed receptive and productive L2 vocabulary size tests. We examined how their CEST performance scores, choice of causal antecedents, and speech utterances were related with language modes of the tasks (L1 vs. L2), grade levels, and L2 vocabulary sizes. L2 CEST performance scores were found to have significant positive correlations with L2 productive vocabulary size. CESTs were found to be generally cognitively appropriate for YLLs because their high scores in L1 performance indicated that performing CESTs is within their L1 capacity. By examining causal connectives used by YLLs, we found that learners from both age groups had cognitive ability sufficient to verbalise causality. Yet YLLs’ cognitive ability to interpret and verbalise mental states is still developing and reasoning between causal antecedents that have competing causal relationship with the final state can be cognitively challenging. We discussed the findings with reference to the design of cognitively appropriate CESTs that can assess both language and thinking skills. 本文研究了因果解释口语任务从认知层面来说是否适宜测评儿童语言学习者的二语口语能力。九十六名中国的儿童语言学习者(四年级与六年级各四十八名)分别用第一语言(汉语)和第二语言(英语)完成了两个因果解释口语任务。他们还完成了接受性和产出性二语词汇测试。我们分析了他们的因果解释口语任务的表现分数、对前因的选择和语言产出这三者与完成任务所使用的语言 (一语和二语)、所在年级和二语词汇量之间的关系。我们发现因果解释口语任务的二语表现分数与二语产出性词汇量之间呈显著正相关。他们用第一语言完成因果解释口语任务所获得的高分数说明完成这项任务在他们的一语能力范围之内,因此我们认为因果解释口语任务对于儿童语言学习者来说总体上是认知适宜的。通过分析儿童语言学习者使用因果连词的情况,我们还发现这两个年龄组的学习者拥有充分的认知能力来口头表达因果关系。不过儿童语言学习者理解和口头表达心理状态的能力尚处于发展阶段,他们对具有相互竞争关系的前因进行逻辑推导时会存在认知上的挑战。我们对研究结果的讨论主要涉及如何设计认知适宜的并能够同时测评语言和思维技能的因果解释口语任务。

Syntactic optionality in heritage Spanish: How patterns of exposure and use affect clitic climbing

Aims and Objectives: This study explores Spanish heritage speakers’ (HSs) knowledge of clitic climbing and the (extra-)linguistic factors that modulate it. Design: Heritage speakers of Spanish completed three screening tasks (a background language questionnaire, a productive vocabulary task, and proficiency task) and two experimental tasks (an elicited production task, and a forced choice task) examining their knowledge of clitic climbing in different contexts. Data and Analysis: Thirty-nine participants completed two experimental tasks. Each task included 32 critical items distributed in four conditions. The data were analyzed using generalized linear mixed models. Findings: Patterns of language exposure and use are a strong predictor for clitic climbing knowledge while the effects of age of onset of bilingualism found contradict our hypothesis. Originality: This study examines production and interpretation data of clitic climbing knowledge in combination with extralinguistic factors that may facilitate heritage language acquisition and maintenance. Sequential bilinguals show a stronger enclisis bias than simultaneous bilinguals. Significance: The results show that, in cases of optionality, self-reported heritage language exposure and use may be a stronger predictor than age of onset of bilingualism of the dominant language. Limitations: This study does not have acceptability data on either grammatical or ungrammatical instances of proclisis or enclisis. In addition, because the test items feature different verbs, no lexical analysis can be conducted. Finally, using an adapted version of the BLP instead of its original normed version restricts opportunities for comparability and reproducibility.

Potential influence of extensive reading on controlled productive vocabulary

This study explored a possible impact of extensive reading (ER) on vocabulary learning. Participants were 62 English majors who entered a private university in Japan in April 2019 and experienced ER for 13 months. They took the Productive Vocabulary Levels Test at the 2,000-word level 3 times: in April, December and May 2020. The outcomes of paired t-tests with Bonferroni correction revealed that participants achieved higher scores on the 2nd test, but their performance deteriorated on the final test. The model yielded by multiple regression analysis was comprised of the number of series participants read books from and the average percentage grade of MReader quizzes they passed, whose contribution to the post test scores was 14.1%. Follow-up tests were run between 12 students who retained or improved their scores on the delayed test and those who did not. It was found that these 12 participants read more constantly during the spring vacation. They also read more books from one graded reader series and books with fewer than 2,000 words, but read fewer 4,000-to-4,999-word-long books from April to December.

Social Media Influenced Lexicons: A Child’s Vocabulary Production in Talk-In Interactions

Social media has become a prominent medium of communication and has been used by all generations, including the youngest members of society. It has emerged as a powerful communication medium that makes interactions rapid, simple, and sensible. Youngsters also use social media to have fun, form and maintain connections, share and discover hobbies, explore identities, and grow familial ties; it is a continuation of their in-person and offline encounters. There is an assumption that with their exposure to modern gadgets, internet connectivity, and various online networking sites, children's daily talk-in interactions are influenced by social media languages. Utilizing a qualitative-descriptive research design, conversation analysis, Vygotsky's theory of language development and an interactionism approach, the purpose of the study is to provide an elaborated academic account of a child’s vocabulary production in casual conversations and list down the emerging social-media-influenced lexicons generated from a child, which were classified according to six-word categories: slang, colloquialism, alphabetism, neologism, loan words, and pseudowords. Findings show that the trends in digital exchanges on social media platforms have prevalent occurrences in a child’s everyday language, where some words and phrases possess critical meanings, as the child’s denotations and social-media connotations have a contrastive nature. As children develop their productive lexical skills using social media, the study highlights Vygotsky’s assertion on the importance of a child’s "more knowledgeable other" in language acquisition, production, and development.

아랍어 학습자의 수용적 및 생산적 어휘 지식 크기와 어휘학습전략의 관계 연구

This research explores the relationship between vocabulary learning strategy and receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge size to examine more effective Arabic learning methods. In order to ask research questions, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 30 Arabic learners (First Year, 2nd Semester) in Hankuk University of Foreign Studies on receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge tests and vocabulary learning strategies. The results are as follows.
 First, receptive knowledge size is bigger than productive knowledge size, and there is a positive relationship between the two. Second, receptive and productive knowledge size turned out to be related to the all subcategories of vocabulary learning strategies. Accordingly, the bigger the receptive and productive knowledge size, the more diverse vocabulary learning strategies were being used. Third, the students whose receptive vocabulary knowledge size was big used all available vocabulary learning strategies compared to those with low receptive vocabulary knowledge size. The students with big vocabulary knowledge size showed differences in five subcategories of vocabulary learning, excluding social strategy under meaning discovery. Fourth, the learning group with big differences in receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge size, showed differences in five vocabulary learning strategies compared to the group with big size except for social strategies in meaning discovery strategies.

Content-specific vocabulary in CLIL: Exploring L2 learning outcomes in a primary education programme in Catalonia

The present study seeks to explore the effects of participating in a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) programme in terms of second language (L2) content-specific vocabulary learning in a primary education school. CLIL instruction has been found to benefit the development of English L2 vocabulary, more receptive than productive. Nonetheless, little is known on content-specific vocabulary learning in CLIL and how it is supported through classroom input with young learners. We explore the impact of a 4-week CLIL programme implemented in a Catalan primary education school with a group of 16 Catalan/Spanish first language (L1) children, aged 10–11 years. Vocabulary learning was measured by means of ad hoc tests, designed on the basis of the input from the CLIL materials and targeting vocabulary depth and breadth. The results indicate that CLIL instruction positively impacted children’s depth and breadth of content-specific vocabulary knowledge. More specifically, the children experienced a significant improvement both in their receptive and productive knowledge of word meaning and form with regard to content-specific lexis. Moreover, with regard to children’s productive vocabulary knowledge as elicited through a written content task, statistical improvement was found in terms of lexical diversity and sophistication, but not lexical density. We argue for the need to use input profiled assessment instruments to appraise L2 vocabulary gains in CLIL.

The influence of the spacing effect on L2 vocabulary learning: A study on Chinese university students

This study investigated the effects of spacing on Chinese university students’ L2 vocabulary learning. Sixty-seven junior students of a Science and Engineering College in China learnt English words by two types of spacing schedules, massed versus distributed, and the results of vocabulary learning were measured by accuracy and reaction rate. Results showed that the massed practice might be more effective than the distributed practice, particularly in accuracy for long-term retention. Further, it was found that the advantage of the massed practice was more obvious for receptive than for productive vocabulary knowledge. Finally, several suggestions are put forward on the learning and teaching of L2 vocabulary.

The effect of productive vocabulary knowledge on second language comprehension.

Second language learners tend to focus more on learning the meaning of vocabulary than on how to use it in their speech and writing. Although comprehensive vocabulary knowledge is necessary for understanding sentences, productive vocabulary knowledge may also have a positive impact on sentence comprehension. Most studies examining the relationship between production and comprehension have compared these abilities between participants or evaluated unrelated criteria between tasks, which may be insufficient for examining the direct effects of productive knowledge on sentence comprehension. Our study investigates changes in sentence comprehension speed during listening, and we used a within-subjects comparison to examine the effect of productive vocabulary knowledge or the lack thereof. We applied generalized linear mixed models to investigate productive vocabulary knowledge effects by partialing out other influential factors, such as confidence, frequency of target words, stimulus duration, and individual differences. The results showed that the sentences with a producible phrase were processed faster than the sentences that included phrases with only comprehensive knowledge or no comprehension. The effect of productive vocabulary knowledge on the speed of sentence comprehension was directly examined with a within-subject comparison, and its contribution was clearly found. This study emphasizes the value of productive vocabulary knowledge acquisition in enhancing the speed of sentence comprehension.

Parent coaching from 6 to 18 months improves child language outcomes through 30 months of age.

Interventions focused on the home language environment have been shown to improve a number of child language outcomes in the first years of life. However, data on the longer-term effects of the intervention are still somewhat limited. The current study examines child vocabulary and complex speech outcomes (N=59) during the year following completion of a parent-coaching intervention, which was previously found to increase the quantity of parent-child conversational turns and to improve child language outcomes through 18 months of age. Measures of parental language input, child speech output, and parent-child conversational turn-taking were manually coded from naturalistic home recordings (Language Environment Analysis System, LENA) at regular 4-month intervals when children were 6- to 24-months old. Child language skills were assessed using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) at four time-points following the final intervention session (at 18, 24, 27, and 30 months). Vocabulary size and growth from 18 to 30 months was greater in the intervention group, even after accounting for differences in child language ability during the intervention period. The intervention group also scored higher on measures of speech length and grammatical complexity, and these effects were mediated by 18-month vocabulary. Intervention was associated with increased parent-child conversational turn-taking in home recordings at 14 months, and mediation analysis suggested that 14-month conversational turn-taking accounted for intervention-related differences in subsequent vocabulary. Together, the results suggest enduring, positive effects of parental language intervention and underscore the importance of interactive, conversational language experience during the first 2 years of life. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Parent coaching was provided as part of a home language intervention when children were 6-18 months of age. Naturalistic home language recordings showed increased parent-child conversational turn-taking in the intervention group at 14 months of age. Measures of productive vocabulary and complex speech indicated more advanced expressive language skills in the intervention group through 30 months of age, a full year after the final intervention session. Conversational turn-taking at 14 months predicted subsequent child vocabulary and accounted for differences in vocabulary size across the intervention and control groups.

The Controlled Productive Vocabulary of Unimodal EFL Learners

The Controlled Productive Vocabulary of Unimodal EFL Learners

Investigation of the use of infographics to aid second language vocabulary learning

People learn and remember more effectively and efficiently through the use of texts and visuals than through texts alone. This paper explores the potential of infographics in aiding vocabulary learning and retention among Arab English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. The paper adopts a quasi-experimental two-group pretest–post-test–delayed test design. A total of 41 Arab EFL learners participated in this study. The experimental group was taught vocabulary using infographics for 10 weeks, whereas the control group was taught using the traditional way of instruction. Infographic materials were designed to teach the students’ course “Vocabulary I,” where the syllabus modules were fully converted into infographics during the whole semester. Vocabulary knowledge was assessed using two recognition vocabulary tests, word definition, and word grammatical measures, that were administered before the intervention, immediately after the learning session’s completion, and at a delayed time (4 weeks after the whole treatment). An oral interview was used to gauge the learners’ production knowledge of vocabulary. In addition, a questionnaire was utilized to examine the learners’ perceptions toward using infographics for learning EFL vocabulary. Results showed a significant difference between the scores of the groups in favor of the experimental group in vocabulary recognition knowledge and vocabulary production knowledge over the immediate run and the long run. Moreover, the participants in the experimental group showed high perceived usefulness of learning with infographics. Pedagogical implications and recommendations for future research were also proposed.

Investigating vocabulary knowledge among English as a Second Language (ESL) learners

Vocabulary knowledge is a multitudinous phenomenon. This study has dealt with the 1) receptive, 2) controlled-productive and 3) productive dimensions of it with a view to explore the gaps between these three dimensions. To this end, the study has used such instruments as 1) an adapted receptive vocabulary level test, 2) an adapted controlled-productive vocabulary level test and 3) a free writing task to test receptive, controlled-productive and productive vocabulary knowledge of a group of 25 ESL learners from Odisha in India, studying at the Intermediate level in two phases with a gap of eight months between the phases. The findings of the study show that 1) there are gaps between learners' receptive, controlled-productive and productive vocabulary knowledge, 2) the gaps are more pronounced between receptive and controlled-productive, and receptive and productive than between controlled-productive and productive, and 3) similar patterns of gaps exist between these three types of word knowledge, even after eight months.

L2 vocabulary learning in a mixed-proficiency community-engaged program: Designing vocabulary instruction for college students

Although extensive research exists on the personal, social, and academic outcomes of community-engaged programs (CEPs), limited research exists on vocabulary learning and students’ perceptions of their own vocabulary learning through participation in a CEP. Likewise, limited research exists on vocabulary learning in mixed-proficiency groups of Spanish second language (L2) learners. This study contributes to the current literature by exploring the vocabulary learning of 57 mixed-proficiency L2-Spanish college students who participated in a health-focused after-school program with Spanish–English bilingual children in a Midwestern city in the US. The higher proficiency students were enrolled in a language-focused class, whereas the lower-level students were enrolled in a Spanish for health professional’s class. Student reflective narratives revealed positive perceptions of vocabulary learning during the CEP, as vocabulary learning was seen to be fundamental to connecting with children in the Latino community. Productive vocabulary tests revealed significantly higher gains on vocabulary items that had been explicitly taught in class, but gains varied according to learners’ proficiency levels. Lower-level students showed both higher gains and a higher perception of vocabulary gains than more advanced students. Students’ reflective narratives suggest that the focus on health content in the lower-level class may have contributed both to vocabulary gains and to students’ awareness of learning. Recommendations for effective vocabulary instruction for mixed-proficiency students in a CEP are presented.

Effects of morphological intervention on multiple aspects of academic vocabulary knowledge

Despite the positive role of English morphology in word learning, the existing evidence is mainly on young L1 native speakers' receptive word gains. This intervention study, which employed a pretest-posttest control-experimental group design, was conducted to explore the effects of morphological training on multiple aspects of academic vocabulary learning. Participants (N = 50) were college EFL learners from southern China, who received either traditional vocabulary instruction or morphological training for 6 weeks. The 2 × 2 ANOVA analysis revealed significant instructional effects on receptive academic vocabulary learning, but not for productive academic word knowledge. Results are discussed in light of the important connection between morphology and receptive word learning, and the nature of productive vocabulary acquisition.

Both syntactic and pragmatic sentence adequacy matters for recursive theory of mind in 5-year-olds

Syntax comprehension, vocabulary, and executive cognitive function are important predictors of first-order theory of mind (ToM) ability. The development of second-order or recursive ToM abilities may require more advanced linguistic skills, such as the ability to use syntactically adequate sentences. However, the recursive structure of ToM may be also based on less complex but pragmatically adequate constructions. Using two novel recursive syntax production tasks, this study investigated the relation between syntactic and pragmatic adequacy of sentence productions and second-order false belief (FB) reasoning in five-year-old children (N = 142). Syntactic adequacy of sentence productions explained 6% of variance in second-order FB reasoning above and beyond grammar comprehension, vocabulary production, and working memory, while pragmatic adequacy explained an additional 4% of variance in the recursive ToM. The new recursive syntax production tasks differed with respect to how pragmatically and syntactically adequate sentences were elicited. The paper discusses the question of how to measure recursive syntax production and whether it is a necessary precondition of more complex forms of theory of mind reasoning.

How the characteristics of words in child-directed speech differ from adult-directed speech to influence children’s productive vocabularies

Child-directed speech has long been known to influence children’s vocabulary learning. However, while we know that caregiver utterances differ from those directed at adults in various ways, little is known about any differences in the lexical properties of child-directed and adult-directed utterances. We compare over half a million word tokens from adult speech directed at children (from caregiver–child transcriptions) to the same quantity directed at adults. We show that child-directed speech contains greater numbers of words that are lower in phonemic length, higher in frequency, lower in phonotactic probability, and higher in neighborhood density than adult-directed speech; furthermore, child-directed speech explains over twice the variability of children’s productive noun vocabularies than adult-directed speech. These findings indicate that children’s word production is clearly influenced by the characteristics of the words spoken directly to them and that researchers need to be wary of using adult-directed language corpora when calculating lexical measures.