Batia Laufer

A vocabulary-size test of controlled productive ability

It is important in the design of the vocabulary component of a teaching program that teachers are able to discover the state of their learners’ vocabulary knowledge. It is also important that researchers can draw on a variety of vocabulary measures to investigate the nature of vocabulary growth. This study focuses on a controlled production measure of vocabulary consisting of items from five frequency levels, and using a completion item type like the following. The garden was full of fra flowers. The controlled-production vocabulary-levels test was found to be reliable, valid (in that the levels distinguished between different proficiency groups) and practical. There was a satisfactory degree of equivalence between two equivalent forms of the test.

How Much Lexis is Necessary for Reading Comprehension

In Reading in a foreign language: a reading problem or a language problem? Alderson (1984) ascribes poor reading in L2 to four possible causes: (a) poor reading ability in the first language; (b) inadequate knowledge of the foreign language; (c) incorrect strategies for reading in the foreign language; (d) reading strategies in the first language not being employed in the foreign language, due to inadequate knowledge of the foreign language.

The Relationship Between Passive and Active Vocabularies: Effects of LanguageLearning Context

This study investigated the relationships among 3 types of vocabularyknowledge (passive, controlled active, and free active) within the same individuals, taking 4variables into consideration: passive vocabulary size, language learning context, second (L2) orforeign (FL), length of residence in L2 context and, among the Canadians, knowledge of French.Participants were adult learners of English in Israel (N = 79) and in Canada (N = 103) at different proficiency levels. We used The Levels Test for passivevocabulary size, a Controlled Active Vocabulary Test and The Lexical Frequency Profile (forlexical richness in free written expression). We found that the 3 dimensions of vocabularyknowledge developed at different rates. Active, particularly free active, vocabulary developedmore slowly and less predictably than did passive vocabulary. Furthermore, the relationshipsamong the 3 dimensions of vocabulary knowledge differed between the 2 learning contexts.Although passive vocabulary was always significantly larger than controlled active and freeactive, the passive-active vocabulary gap was smaller in the FL than in the L2 context. Thebenefits of residence in an L2 context only began to appear after about 2 years, as passivevocabulary was activated and the gap reduced. In the Canadian context, knowledge of Frenchwas an asset at the earlier stages of ESL learning.

Size and Strength: Do We Need Both to Measure Vocabulary Knowledge?.

This article describes the development and validation of a test of vocabulary size and strength. The rst part of the article sets out the theoretical rationale for the test, and describes how the size and strength constructs have been conceptualized and operationalized. The second part of the article focusses on the process of test validation, which involved the testing of the hypotheses implicit in the test design, using both unidimensional and multifaceted Rasch analyses. Possible applications for the test include determining the status of a learner’s vocabulary development as well as screening and placement. A model for administering the test in computer adaptive mode is also proposed. The study has implications both for the design and delivery of this test as well as for theories of vocabulary acquisition.

What Causes Avoidance in L2 Learning: L1-L2 difference, L1-L2 Similarity, or L2 Complexity?.

Among the structural and lexical factors claimed to account for avoidance in second language learning are (a) cross-linguistic difference, (b) cross-linguistic similarity, and (c) intrinsic complexity of the second language features avoided. This paper examines patterns of avoidance and preference for phrasal verbs or equivalent single-word verbs among Swedish learners of English. We assumed that if the subjects avoided English phrasal verbs, particularly the figurative ones, even though phrasal verbs exist in Swedish, this would indicate that inherent semantic difficulty of second language forms was the main factor contributing to the avoidance behavior. If, on the other hand, the learners did not show any preference for one-word verb forms in English, or indeed favored the phrasal forms, this would support the assumption that avoidance or nonavoidance depends largely on differences or similarities between the native and the foreign language.A multiple-choice test and a translation test were given to two groups of advanced Swedish-speaking learners of English. Each test consisted of 20 sentences, allowing for the choice of either a phrasal or a synonymous single-word verb. The test answers showed that the Swedish learners avoided neither phrasal verbs in general nor the figurative ones in particular, regardless of whether the verbs were similar to, or different from, their Swedish translation equivalents. Furthermore, the results were compared to the avoidance patterns of a group of advanced Hebrew-speaking learners of English. From the comparison it emerged that the Swedish learners usedsignificantly more phrasal verbs than the Israelis, notably figurative ones. These results suggest that the avoidance is determined more by a systemic incongruence between the first language (L1) and the second language (L2) than by the inherent difficulty of L2 forms.

WHY ARE SOME WORDS MORE DIFFICULT THAN OTHERS? — SOME INTRALEXICAL FACTORS THAT AFFECT THE LEARNING OF WORDS

ness, specificity, idiomaticity; register restrktions: multiplicity of

Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition from Language Input and from Form-Focused Activities.

Interest in L2 vocabulary learning and teaching started long before the nineteen-eighties (for references to earlier studies, see Rob Warings database http://www1.harenet.ne.jp/~waring/vocab/vocrefs/vocref.html ) but it declined with the advent of generative linguistics to the point of discrimination and neglect (Meara 1980). In 1986, I argued that vocabulary was about to acquire a legitimate and prominent place within applied linguistics (Laufer 1986), but I did not envisage the vast quantities of lexical research that would have been produced in the following two decades. One of the central concerns of vocabulary researchers is the source of L2 vocabulary learning. Is it L2 input, enhanced input, interaction, communicative tasks, non-communicative ‘artificial’ exercises, list learning, or repetition? A similar question is addressed by SLA researchers in general. This similarity of interests, which demonstrates the integration of vocabulary into mainstream SLA, prompted me to define the topic of this timeline as I did. And since the field of SLA developed in the 1980s, this timeline starts in the nineteen-eighties. I focus here on the external sources of learning, i.e. language input and instructional techniques, and not on learner-related variables, like motivation, L1, age, or strategies of learning. Nor do I focus on any other areas of lexical research, important as they may be, such as the construct of vocabulary knowledge, lexical development, testing, bilingual mental lexicon, or corpora analyses.

Avoidance of idioms in a second language: The effect of L1‐L2 degree of similarity

The study investigates whether avoidance of L2 (English) idioms is determined by the degree of similarity to their L1 (Hebrew) counterparts. Four degrees of similarity were established through a three-dimensional framework for L1-L2 comparison. 56 university English majors were tested on 20 idioms (5 per each type), elicited by a fill-in translation test. The totals of idiomatic and non-idiomatic responses were compared for each student, for each idiom type. Results showed that idioms as a category were not avoided, that L2 proficiency was a factor in idiom avoidance and that avoidance of specific idiom types was related to L1-L2 degrees of similarity.

The concept of ‘synforms’ (similar lexical forms) in vocabulary acquisition

Abstract The paper discusses an error pattern in vocabulary learning — confusion ofsynforms’ (words of similar form). It defines, illustrates and classifies synforms into categories on the basis of their features of similarity. In categories 1–5, synforms are different from each other in an affix and identical in their root; categories 6–9 include synforms differing from each other in one phoneme, vowel or consonant. In category 10, synforms are identical in consonants, but different in some or all of their vowels. It is argued that the study of synforms may shed light not only on the phenomenon of synformic confusions as such, but also on the representation and organisation of lexical items in the learners lexicon, on language learning processes and on vocabulary teaching requirements.

Facilitating long-term retention of vocabulary: The second-hand cloze

Abstract The study investigates whether the consistent use of a vocabulary reinforcement technique referred to as ‘second-hand cloze’ can result in a significant improvement in long-term retention of words. Thirty L2 learners of English for Academic Purposes were taught 60 words in text context. Thirty words were submitted to the second-hand cloze (filling in the target items in a summary version of the original texts); 30 were not. On a subsequent recall test, words submitted to the experimental task were better remembered. It is suggested that the second-hand cloze embodies some characteristics of other memorization techniques, but also overcomes their shortcomings.