Vocabulary Profile Research Articles

The Academic Vocabulary List (AVL) coverage in the Brazilian academic written English corpus

This paper is divided in two parts, in the first one we address the different definitions of academic vocabulary, the role of academic vocabulary in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teaching, and present some of the academic word lists compiled up to the present day. The second part of this paper is dedicated to one of the applications of these word lists: to determine the vocabulary profile of a corpus. Hence, the investigation conducted relies on the Academic Vocabulary List (AVL) to determine the use of academic vocabulary in a corpus of Brazilian students. It also addresses the issue of the different coverage provided by the AVL and the Academic Word List (AWL). The results indicate that the AVL is more representative of academic vocabulary in the corpus used as a reference.

LEMMATIZING TEXTBOOK CORPUS FOR LEARNER DICTIONARY OF BASIC VOCABULARY

The purpose of this study is to lemmatize the vocabulary used in textbooks with the purpose to provide information for dictionary entries that are relevant to the learners. Although dictionaries for learners are commercially and electronically available, they may not be relevant to the learners’ needs for vocabulary learning in class, or may not have been designed for specific pedagogical purposes. To bridge this gap, the vocabulary used in some textbook series were analyzed using the vocabulary profiler available in Lextutor.com to identify the lemmas of different frequency levels. The analysis shows that the total number of lemmas in the textbooks were approximately about 58% of the total number of the most frequently used lemmas in the New General Service List (Browne, Culligan, & Phillips, 2013). Further exploration of the lexicogrammatical environment in the textbook corpus discovered lexical items that behave differently with regard to functions and meanings. These findings should provide lexicographers or teachers with useful information about word entries for a relevant learner dictionary to be used in the classroom.

Receptive vocabulary measures for EFL Costa Rican high school students

<p>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.</p>

Portuguese Vocabulary Profile: uma lista de vocabulário a aprendentes do PL2/PLE, baseada nos corpora de aprendentes e de livros de ensino

This paper reports the second pilot study of the Portuguese Vocabulary Profile (PVP) project, a Portuguese vocabulary list for learners in Japan based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Inspired by the English Vocabulary Profile (Capel, 2010, 2012), the PVP takes a learner-centric approach. For this study, the author modified the first pilot version which was constructed solely from learner corpora (Torigoe, 2016a) by comparing it with a word list based on a corpus of Portuguese textbooks published in Japan. The result is a broadened vocabulary for both the elementary and intermediate levels. The major improvement is that some intuitively basic words, including numbers, months of the year, foods, and facilities, which had been previously categorized as intermediate or advanced level words or which were missing from the first version due to their low frequency were correctly categorized as the elementary level words. However, the norm of word classification remains somewhat arbitrary given that the small size of both the input (learner corpora) and the comparative data (textbook corpus) does not allow for the use of statistical methods with less frequent words.

WHAT WORDS SHOULD WE TEACH? EXPLORATION INTO VOCABULARY PROFILER

Students learning English as a foreign language are often frustrated when they have to cope with new words. The teacher’s task in teaching vocabulary seems equal to the student’s learning burden when it comes to decide which words to introduce and how to select words that the students actually need to learn. This article proposes that Vocabulary Profiler (www.lextutor.ca) can be utilized to profile the vocabulary in a textbook to produce word frequency . An English textbook with 21,577 words was selected for analysis with the Vocabulary Profiler. The output shows high and low frequency word groups that can be used as bases for vocabulary selection in teaching. In addition, the output provides information about negative vocabulary and token recycling index, an indicator of text comprehensibility. Although this article sampled a textbook for use in Indonesian contexts, the ideas might be of interest to EFL teachers in other countries.

A Contrastive Analysis between English Vocabulary Profile and College English Wordlist

This paper makes a contrastive analysis between English Vocabulary Profile (EVP) and College English Wordlist (CEW) from the aspects of philosophy, vocabulary, criteria and word frequency. Results show that the latter has a numerical advantage in the mere term of vocabulary, but these words are mainly passive ones. By contrast, the former attaches greater importance to the number of active words and usage, and is more concerned with learners' actual word power. This study sheds light on the reform of college English teaching and the preparation of the vocabulary syllabus.

The CEFR Stratification of English Productive Vocabulary of Chinese University Undergraduates Based on DIY Learner English Corpus

This paper analyzes the productive vocabulary (PV) of non-English majors in a highly prestigious university in China through a DIY learner corpus of English compositions and the Productive Vocabulary Level Test. Based on the total PV and the average PV, this paper compares the corpus with the CEFR-aligned English Vocabulary Profile (EVP) of Cambridge University. The results show that some of the outstanding students can attain Level B2 of EVP while most students’ PV is comparable to Level B1. The results of this study shed light on strengthening vocabulary teaching in College English teaching in China.

Lexical standards for expository writing at Grade 3:The transition from early literacy to academic literacy

This article reports on an investigation of vocabulary thresholds across four standards of writing quality for grade 3 children. An expository prompt was used to elicit first draft writing from 222 students. A quota sampling strategy was used to create a learner corpus of 80 papers. Online lexical profiling tools were used to generate indices of lexical richness. Distinct differences in vocabulary use were noted between quality standards, in particular the ability to access low frequency words among the samples judged of excellent quality. Pedagogical implications emerge for classroom practitioners to address the language learning needs of linguistically vulnerable youngsters.Key words: expository prose, writing, transitional literacy, vocabulary profiling

Construction and Interpretation Of Corpus-Based English Poetry Vocabulary Profile

Vocabulary Profilers (VPrs) are deeply rooted in pedagogical purposes. The current investigation, however, uses the Classic and Compleat VPrs to: 1) determine the distribution and content of vocabulary in an English poetry corpus 2) explain differences in the constituents of the vocabulary profile (VP), 3) explore the role of language users in constructing the VP. The corpus includes Extended Corpus (EC: 1.363.225 words), Micro Corpus (MC: 43.200 words) from thirty-six poets, and two poems translated into Arabic. The main results show that Types, Offlist words, Academic and Anglo-Saxon words outline the VP, and that the number of Types and the size of the Individual Mental Lexicon constitute the main features of the translator’s VP. The paper concludes that the poet’s construction of the poetry VP undergoes multilayer interpretation by the reader/analyst and the translator, who utilize their socio-environmental context to pin down the semantic potential of the VP anew.

The vocabulary profile of Slovak children with primary language impairment compared to typically developing Slovak children measured by LITMUS-CLT

ABSTRACTThis study compared a sample of children with primary language impairment (PLI) and typically developing age-matched children using the crosslinguistic lexical tasks (CLT-SK). We also compared the PLI children with typically developing language-matched younger children who were matched on the basis of receptive vocabulary. Overall, statistical testing showed that the vocabulary of the PLI children was significantly different from the vocabulary of the age-matched children, but not statistically different from the younger children who were matched on the basis of their receptive vocabulary size. Qualitative analysis of the correct answers revealed that the PLI children showed higher rigidity compared to the younger language-matched children who are able to use more synonyms or derivations across word class in naming tasks. Similarly, an examination of the children’s naming errors indicated that the language-matched children exhibited more semantic errors, whereas PLI children showed more associative errors.

Lexical Growth in Egyptian Arabic Speaking Children: A corpus Based Study

This paper calculates developmental index of language growth in Egyptian Arabic based on a corpus consists ofspontaneous speech samples from10 children 5 boys and 5 girls from 1.7 to 4 years. Depending on 30 minutes transcripts of spontaneous speech production the following properties of collected data were analysed: size of vocabulary and frequency of word use in relation to age (development of types and tokens) and individual differences in vocabulary size. The contribution of the current study lies in the use of vocabulary profile results as a measure of potential indicators of developmental language delay. The results provide a new measurement tool for lexical growth at different developmental stages.

A Comparative Corpus-based Analysis of Genre Specific Discourse: The Quantitative and Qualitative Academic Papers in the Field of the TEFL

This study attempts to analysis the different parts of quantitative and qualitative research articles in the field of TEFL comparatively to present a convenient pattern for novice EFL students or researchers in a non-English context. Benefited from mix method, current study investigated the similarities and differences between the two genres-specific corpora. In order to induce accurate and creditable result, data-analyzing process was implemented through both computer-based programs and hand- tagged analysis. Fifty quantitative and qualitative TEFL research articles from high-ranking ELT journals were selected and then analyzed. Swales CARS model (2004) was considered as a framework of analysis. Moreover, interpreting of obtaining results from the vocabulary profile program, the readability statistics of two corpora, fulfilled through non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test. The conducted results according to significant level of x < 0.5 or x = 0.05 demonstrated that the differences between quantitative and qualitative research articles from lexio-grammatical and rhetorical features were insignificant. On the contrary, move-structure analyzing of both genre indicated that there are some variation between some exercise of move-step structure. These findings may provide confirmatory and useful evidences for academic researchers in the EFL context.

Compiling an OPEC Word List: A Corpus-Informed Lexical Analysis

The present study is conducted within the borders of lexicographic research, where corpora have increasingly become all-pervasive. The overall goal of this study is to compile an open-source OPEC[1] Word List (OWL) that is available for lexicographic research and vocabulary learning related to English language learning for the purpose of oil marketing and oil industries. To achieve this goal, an OPEC Monthly Reports Corpus (OMRC) comprising of 1,004,542 words was compiled. The OMRC consists of 40 OPEC monthly reports released between 2003 and 2015. Consideration was given to both range and frequency criteria when compiling the OWL which consists of 255 word types. Along with this basic goal, this study aims to investigate the coverage of the most well-recognised word lists, the General Service List of English Words (GSL) (West ,1953) and the Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead, 2000) in the OMRC corpus. The 255 word types included in the OWL are not overlapping with either the AWL or the GSL. Results suggest the necessity of making this discipline-specific word list for ESL students of oil marketing industries. The availability of the OWL has significant pedagogical contributions to curriculum design, learning activities and the overall process of vocabulary learning in the context of teaching English for specific purposes (ESP).Keywords: Vocabulary Profiling- Vocabulary Learning- Word List- OPEC- ESPOPEC stands for Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Investigating the Receptive-Expressive Vocabulary Profile in Children with Idiopathic ASD and Comorbid ASD and Fragile X Syndrome.

Previous work has noted that some children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display weaknesses in receptive vocabulary relative to expressive vocabulary abilities. The current study extended previous work by examining the receptive-expressive vocabulary profile in boys with idiopathic ASD and boys with concomitant ASD and fragile X syndrome (ASD + FXS). On average, boys with ASD + FXS did not display the same atypical receptive-expressive profile as boys with idiopathic ASD. Notably, there was variation in vocabulary abilities and profiles in both groups. Although we did not identify predictors of receptive-expressive differences, we demonstrated that nonverbal IQ and expressive vocabulary positively predicted concurrent receptive vocabulary knowledge and receptive vocabulary predicted expressive vocabulary. We discuss areas of overlap and divergence in subgroups of ASD.

PROFILING VOCABULARY OF ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS FOR INDONESIAN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS USING VOCABULARY PROFILER: A FAST TRACK TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE

This research analyzed vocabulary profile used in one series of English textbooks currently used in Indonesian Junior High School. The sample text books were: When English Rings a Bell for grades VII, VIII, and Think Globally Act Locally for grade IX. These books have been recommended by the Ministry of Education and Culture for use in Indonesian Junior High Schools. This research used Classic Vocabulary Profileras a tool to profile vocabulary in the text books. The overall profile shows that vocabulary coverage of the most frequently used words (K1 and K2) was 92.65%, indicating that it is below the necessary level (95%) for easy comprehension. The analysis also reveals negative vocabulary profile, that is proportions of word families in K1 and K2 groups that were not found in the text books. This study recommends to improve the text book comprehensibility.

The more the merrier – revisiting CLIL-based vocabulary growth in secondary education

One crucial aspect of CLIL-based foreign language learning in instructional settingsis vocabulary growth. As a consequence, research should be interested inhow CLIL fosters vocabulary learning. Noticing an apparent shortage of data-drivenquantitative research on vocabulary growth in this field of CLIL is, therefore,problematic. The present paper reports findings from a mixed-methods studyof vocabulary growth in an Austrian lower secondary school CLIL setting, withEnglish as the language of instruction and learning. The aim of the study was toanalyse how the use of CLIL in the English classroom could benefit learners in theiracquisition of vocabulary in the target language. First, a repeated-measure-designwith experimental and control groups assessed receptive vocabulary growth bymeans of a standardized vocabulary size test. Second, students’ questionnaire dataas well as vocabulary profiling of the CLIL teachers’ linguistic input explored possiblecovariates for the vocabulary test scores. We found that CLIL-related effectswere only co-determined by input frequency, while extra-mural factors did notplay any role in this study. As a consequence, overly optimistic expectations regardingthe linguistic impact of CLIL in a mixed-ability setting guided by a predominantlyimplicit language teaching approach need to be re-evaluated critically. doi:10.5294/laclil.2016.9.1.3

Insights from three profiling studies of auralized concert hall acoustics: Support for a three dimensional perceptual space?

Since 2009, we have now completed three individual vocabulary profiling studies of auralized concert hall acoustics. In-line with the work of others, these studies have verified that the main perceptual aspects describing acoustic differences are, more or less, loudness, reverberance, width, envelopment, definition/clarity, brightness, bass, and proximity/intimacy. Our studies, however, do not indicate that these aspects would vary independently when moving from hall of to hall, but that the perceptual changes in many aspects generally co-occur. While independency can be understood in terms of attention, and the number of perceptual aspects by considering the different “tastes“ of listeners, it seems that the perceptual differences between halls are actually governed by three main factors. The interpretation of these factors depends on the viewpoint and here we discuss some possible interpretations based on these three profiling experiments and the literature as well as the implications concerning the objective parameters.

Breadth and Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge and Their Effects on L2 Vocabulary Profiles

<p class="Abstract">Breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge have been studied from many different perspectives, but the related literature lacks serious studies dealing with their effects on vocabulary profiles of EFL learners. In this paper, with an aim to fill this gap, the relative effects of breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge on L2 vocabulary profiles were analysed. In the first stage of the study, learner essays (n=84) and native essays (n=75) were compared in terms of vocabulary profiles through the use of an online database, and each participant obtained vocabulary profile scores from four different levels. In the next stage, the learners’ depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge were measured by using two different vocabulary tests, and then the scores they obtained on these tests were hierarchically regressed on their profile scores. The results suggested that both breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge had significant and robust effects on the L2 vocabulary profiles of the EFL learners; however, depth of vocabulary knowledge appeared to be a better predictor of vocabulary profiles than breadth of vocabulary knowledge.</p>

Lexical richness in academic papers: a comparison between students’ and lecturers’ essays

In the area of writing, research has yet to explore EFL learners’ ability to use varied vocabulary. Although vocabulary teaching has enriched learners’ knowledge of lexical items, whether they can use the words they have learned remains to be seen. It is important, therefore, to investigate their lexical richness in their academic writing. Lexical richness, defined as the presence of different words in a text, is commonly measured through type-token ratio (TTR). The present study set out to identify the lexical richness of senior students by comparing them to academic papers written by their lecturers. There are four objectives: (1) to determine the difference between the type-token ratio (TTR) in students’ essays and that in their lecturers’ essays; (2) to determine the difference between the use of 2000-word level (henceforth K2) in students’ essays and that in their lecturers’ essays; (3) to determine the difference between the use of academic words in students’ essays and that in their lecturers’ essays; (4) to determine the difference between the students’ essays and their lecturers’ in terms of the use of words other than the 2000-word level and the academic words (designated “off-list words”). The essays written by the respondents were submitted to a website for vocabulary profiling (http://www.lextutor/ca/vp). This analysis shows that the lecturers fare better in terms of TTR and academic words, but write slightly fewer 2000-word level and off-list words than their students. While the differences in TTR and academic words are significant, the differences in the use of 2000-word level and off-list are not significant. The subsequent discussion addresses possible causes of these differences, and offers some implications for the teaching of vocabulary and writing.

Spanish

Within the Spanish educational context, one of the most loyal and indisputable allies for teaching and learning foreign languages is the textbook. Several studies have been conducted on particular aspects of textbooks (Aguirre Lora, 2001; Escano, 2013; Autor, 2012; Jimenez Catalan, 2003; Nodarse Gonzalez & Mons Obermayer, 2013), but few of them carry out a holistic, diachronic and multimodal analysis. This study verifies the adequacy of textbooks for teaching and learning English as a foreign language to adults in a non-immersion context. Specifically, it analyzes the lexical level of the selected samples, the skills demanded by the activities, and the distribution of the lessons’ elements according to their semantics. The analytical tools used in the study include the lexical database English Vocabulary Profile , Bloom’s taxonomy (1956) and the principles of visual composition developed by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006). The main conclusions that can be drawn from this document are: the adequacy of the lexical level through the establishment of official standards, the common practice of lower order thinking skills rather than the higher ones, and the distribution of the elements around the horizontal axis, placing the already-known information on the left side and the new information on the right side. How to reference this article Gonzalez Romero, R. (2015). Analisis holistico, diacronico y multimodal de libros de texto de ingles como lengua extranjera: Una nueva forma de mejorar la comprension . Foro de Educacion , 13(19), 343-356. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14516/fde.2015.013.019.015