Receptive and Productive L2 Vocabularies: Acquisition, Growth and Assessment (Sounds – Meaning – Communication)

The author reviews both theory and research concerning learning foreign language lexis, and reports on a study into the dynamics of advanced learners’ L2 lexicons. The theoretical part offers a discussion of the concept of the bilingual mental lexicon, the notion of lexical competence, the interface of word knowledge and the language skills, and the current trends in vocabulary testing. The study described in the book, which adopts a unique longitudinal design, is a significant contribution to our understanding of the changes taking place in receptive and productive lexicons in time. The obtained results carry important implications for course design, instruction and testing procedures in the context of teaching English as an L2 at the advanced level. Cover Contents List of figures and tables Introduction Chapter One: Psycholinguistic Aspects of Lexical Acquisition, Storage and Processing in L1 and L2 Contexts 1.1. Modelling the mental lexicon 1.1.1. Word selection processes in the logogen model 1.1.2. The cohort model of word recognition 1.1.3. The search model of lexical access 1.1.4. Productive aspects of lexical processing – a blueprint for the speaker 1.2. The bilingual mental lexicon – separation or integration? 1.2.1. A case for separation – The Revised Hierarchical Model 1.2.2. A unitary lexicon – The Bilingual Interactive Activation Model 1.2.3. Cross-language competition and language control 1.3. Vocabulary acquisition in view of memory models 1.3.1. The Hierarchical Network Model of semantic memory 1.3.2. The Spreading-Activation Theory of Semantic Processing 1.3.3. Short-term and working memory in vocabulary learning 1.3.4. Factors affecting vocabulary forgetting 1.4. Conclusion Chapter Two: L2/FL Vocabulary Development: Focus on Receptive and Productive Learning 2.1. Defining a word in the educational context 2.2. Towards a conceptualisation of lexical competence 2.2.1. Lexis as a component of general communicative competence 2.2.2. The complex view – incorporating the receptive-productive distinction 2.2.3. The limited view – describing vocabulary size and organisation 2.2.4. The balanced view – acknowledging the importance of the receptive-productive dimension 2.2.5. Different views of the receptive-productive vocabulary relationship in lexical competence 2.3. Establishing a theoretical basis for modelling L2 lexical development 2.3.1. Acquiring aspects of lexical knowledge: reception vs. production 2.3.2. Lexical items – properties and learnability 2.3.3. Defining the stages in the process of vocabulary acquisition 2.4. The interface of vocabulary knowledge and receptive/ productive language skills 2.4.1. Vocabulary size, coverage and reading comprehension 2.4.2. The pedagogical implications of research into vocabulary-reading relationship 2.4.3. Vocabulary in written language production 2.5. Vocabulary knowledge as a predictor of academic success 2.6. Conclusion Chapter Three: Selected Issues of Second Language Vocabulary Assessment 3.1. Primary considerations in test content selection 3.1.1. Units of counting in vocabulary testing 3.1.2. Factors determining the choice of a unit of counting 3.1.3. Word choice according to type of test 3.1.4. Sampling from frequency lists and dictionaries in estimating vocabulary size 3.2. A review of selected vocabulary measures 3.2.1. Receptive tests of vocabulary size 3.2.1.1. The Vocabulary Levels Test 3.2.1.2. Yes/No tests 3.2.2. Productive tests 3.2.2.1. Measures of lexical richness 3.2.2.2. Lexical diversity: type-token ratio measures 3.2.2.3. The Lexical Frequency Profile and the BNC-20 VocabProfile 3.2.2.4. The Lex30 – a test of word associations 3.2.2.5. The Vocabulary-size Test of Controlled Productive Ability 3.3. The issue of validity in vocabulary testing 3.3.1. Factors affecting the validity of vocabulary measures 3.3.2. The validity of selected frequency-based vocabulary measures 3.3.2.1. The Vocabulary Levels Test 3.3.2.2. The Size Test of Controlled Productive Ability 3.3.2.3. The Lex30 3.3.2.4. The Lexical Frequency Profile 3.4. Conclusion Chapter Four: Receptive and Productive Vocabulary Knowledge in a Second/Foreign Language: An Overview of Selected Research Studies 4.1. Empirical studies into receptive and productive vocabulary size 4.1.1. Major findings on lexicon size and the differences between receptive and productive lexical knowledge 4.1.2. Explaining the causes of discrepancies between the size of receptive and productive vocabularies 4.1.3. Estimating vocabulary size – current research needs 4.1.4. A summary of studies into EFL/ ESL learners’ vocabulary size 4.2. Empirical studies into word association behaviour 4.2.1. Major findings on L1 and L2 associative networks 4.2.2. The limitations of word association studies and further research directions 4.2.3. A summary of selected L2 word association studies 4.3. Conclusion Chapter Five: Investigating the Lexical Development of Advanced Learners of English: the Design of the Study 5.1. Aim and research questions 5.2. Method 5.2.1. Participants 5.2.2. Data collection instruments and procedure 5.2.2.1. The lexical tests 5.2.2.2. The English language proficiency test 5.2.2.3. Analysis of student compositions 5.2.3. Test administration procedure 5.3. Conclusion Chapter Six: Investigating the Lexical Development of Advanced Learners of English: Results of the Study and Discussion 6.1. Development of vocabulary knowledge in the course of the study 6.1.1. Global changes in the students’ vocabulary knowledge 6.1.2. Differences across types of vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary levels 6.1.3. Relationships between learners’ receptive and productive vocabularies 6.2. Development of lexical knowledge across language proficiency levels 6.3. Relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading and writing skills 6.4. Summary of the findings Conclusion References Appendices The book discusses topics in learning foreign language lexis, including the bilingual lexicon, lexical competence and trends in vocabulary testing. It also reports on a longitudinal study of the changes in the receptive and productive lexicons of advanced learners of English. The results carry implications for course design and assessment in TEFL.