Déogratias Nizonkiza

The Dimensional Approach to Vocabulary Testing: What Can We Learn From Past and Present Practices?

Vocabulary constitutes an important component of language and its study has attracted the interest of second-language (L2) and foreign-language (FL) teachers and applied language researchers, booming in the 1990s (cf. for example Ellis 1992, Read 2000). Among other things, this interest has been characterised by the attention paid to testing learners’ knowledge of vocabulary. The dimensional approach to vocabulary knowledge as proposed by Henriksen (1999), i.e. vocabulary size, depth, and receptive-productive knowledge/skills, has influenced test design for measuring L2/FL vocabulary acquisition. This article aims to describe the major vocabulary tests along the vocabulary dimensions and highlights what testing under this approach has contributed to the teaching of vocabulary. To this end, it reviews some major L2/FL vocabulary tests alongside the above dimensions, focusing on the pedagogical consequences that followed testing. The review shows that testing has not been an end in itself. The extensive investigation of vocabulary size has led to standardisation of methods, as well as insight into how to determine the amount of vocabulary needed at different learning stages. Furthermore, it has influenced the development of course materials for fostering vocabulary growth. However, testing depth and productive knowledge still lags behind. Despite progress made in this regard, scholars have not succeeded in measuring the two dimensions in a standardised manner, nor have they determined the extent of depth and productive knowledge associated with different learning stages. Given the importance of speaking and writing (i.e. productive use rather than mere comprehension), suggestions for future directions are discussed.

Teachability of collocations: The role of word frequency counts

Abstract This study aims to gain insights into which collocations to teach at which proficiency levels by answering the following questions: (i) Of the Verb+Noun and Adjective+Noun types of collocations, which one is more difficult (and should therefore come at a later stage of learning)? (ii) What is the size of collocations of the types Verb+Noun and Adjective+Noun mastered across proficiency levels? In addition, the study suggests an approach to collocation teaching that should be trialled in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching context. Two collocation tests (modelled after Laufer and Nation 1999)1 with words selected from Nations (2006)2 word list and Coxheads (2000)3 Academic Word List were administered to two groups of English majors, at different stages of learning, from the University of Antwerp and the University of Burundi. Results showed that Adjective+Noun combinations are more difficult than Verb+Noun combinations. However, in both collocations types, only upper-intermediate and low-advanced students mastered the 2 000-word band. We therefore suggest teaching collocations from the 2 000-word band to beginner/low-intermediate students and only exceed the 2 000-word band from the upper-intermediate learning stage onwards, a suggestion in line with Nations (2006) discussion on how to teach vocabulary.

First-year university students' productive knowledge of collocations

The present study examines productive knowledge of collocations of tertiary-level second-language (L2) learners of English in an attempt to make estimates of the size of their knowledge. Participants involved first-year students at North-West University who sat a collocation test modelled on that developed by Laufer and Nation (1999), with words selected from the 2000-, 3000-, and 5000-word bands (Nation 2006) and the Academic Word List (Coxhead 2000). The achieved scores were analysed in light of Schmitt’s (2003, in Xing and Fulcher 2007) cut-off point for an acquired word-frequency band (80%), as well as Nation’s (1990) suggested threshold of productive knowledge at tertiary level (at least the 3,000 most frequently used words). Results indicate that the participants do not master the 3000-word band and therefore fall slightly short of expectations. Only the 2000-word band is mastered by most of these first-year student participants, with some of them not entirely mastering this band. On the basis of these results, pedagogical consequences are discussed in terms of how to help students reach the minimum threshold of productive knowledge that is needed to cope with the academic challenges at tertiary level.

Academic literacy of South African higher education level students: Does vocabulary size matter?

This study explores the extent to which vocabulary size matters in academic literacy. Participants (first-year students at North-West University) were administered the Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt, Schmitt and Clapham 2001). Scores from the test were used to estimate students’ vocabulary size and were subsequently mapped onto the levels distinguished by the Test of Academic Literacy Levels (TALL). Estimates show that, on average, the vocabulary size of first-year students at North-West University is approximately 4,500 word families, a size large enough to allow them to follow lectures in English. Furthermore, students with large vocabularies were found to have higher academic literacy proficiency, which establishes a strong relationship between vocabulary size and academic literacy. This relationship was also observed at the different word frequency bands the Vocabulary Levels Test consists of. These results support previous findings which established a relationship between vocabulary size and reading (cf. Nation 2006), and between vocabulary size and overall language proficiency (cf. Beglar 2010, Meara and Buxton 1987, Meara and Jones 1988, Nation and Beglar 2007), which could be extended to academic literacy. Furthermore, a stronger relationship between vocabulary size and academic literacy was found towards more infrequent word bands, indicating that infrequent word bands may best predict academic literacy. On the basis of these findings, we discuss possible strategies to adopt in order to assist some first-years with expanding their vocabularies.

Improving academic literacy by teaching collocations

This study explores the effect of teaching collocations on building academic vocabulary and hence improving academic writing abilities. A pre-/post-test experimental design was used to analyse collocations produced in two tasks completed by the study’s participants, English majors at a university in Burundi. They were presented with a completion task and an essay-writing task before and after being exposed to a collocation-based syllabus. The syllabus was designed by selecting target words from the Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead 2000) and collocations from the Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English (Crowther, Dignen, and Lea 2002). The awareness-raising approach (cf. Barfield 2009) and an adapted version of McCarthy and O’Dell’s (2005) collocation web model were the techniques adopted for teaching collocations. The results show that participants performed significantly better on the post-test than on the pre-test in their production of collocations in both tasks. This suggests that an intervention contributes towards building students’ productive use of collocations in both cued recall and essay writing, supporting earlier findings (cf. Barfield 2009, Seesink 2007). In light of these findings, pedagogical consequences and avenues for improving higher education students’ use of collocations in writing are discussed.

Testing controlled productive knowledge of adverb-verb collocations in junior researchers using English as a foreign language

The present study examines English as a Foreign Language (EFL) junior researchers’ use of adverb-verb collocations of academic vocabulary in both free written and controlled productions. A small corpus was compiled and analysed in order to identify verbs in adverb-verb combinations and examine which ones were collocated correctly or erroneously. A controlled productive test of adverb-verb collocations, with verbs selected from the Academic Word List (Coxhead 2000) and adverbs selected from Lea, Crowther and Dignen’s (2002) Oxford collocations dictionary for students of English was also administered to participants. Results indicate that free productive knowledge of adverb-verb collocations is challenging for EFL users. This finding supports previous studies that focused mainly on verb-noun collocations, and that reached the conclusion that EFL students are not sensitive enough to collocations to use them in their written productions (cf. Nesselhauf 2005). This finding is extended here to adverb-verb collocations. The study also reveals that controlled productive knowledge of adverb-verb collocations is less problematic. Based on these results, teaching strategies aimed at improving the use of adverb-verb collocations among EFL users are proposed.

Productive knowledge of collocations may predict academic literacy

The present study examines the relationship between productive knowledge of collocations and academic literacy among first year students at North-West University. Participants were administered a collocation test, the items of which were selected from Nation’s (2006) word frequency bands, i.e. the 2000-word, 3000-word, 5000-word bands; and the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000). The scores from the collocation test were compared to those from the Test of Academic Literacy Levels (version administered in 2012). The results of this study indicate that, overall, knowledge of collocations is significantly correlated with academic literacy, which is also observed at each of the frequency bands from which the items were selected. These results support Nizonkiza’s (2014) findings that a significant correlation between mastery of collocations of words from the Academic Word List and academic literacy exists; which is extended here to words from other frequency bands. They also confirm previous findings that productive knowledge of collocations increases alongside overall proficiency (cf. Gitsaki, 1999; Bonk, 2001; Eyckmans et al., 2004; Boers et al., 2006; Nizonkiza, 2011; among others). This study therefore concludes that growth in productive knowledge of collocations may entail growth in academic literacy; suggesting that productive use of collocations is linked to academic literacy to a considerable extent. In light of these findings, teaching strategies aimed to assist first year students meet academic demands posed by higher education and avenues to explore for further research are discussed. Especially, we suggest adopting a productive oriented approach to teaching collocations, which we believe may prove useful.

Measuring receptive collocational competence across proficiency levels

The present study investigates, (i) English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ receptive collocational knowledge growth in relation to their linguistic proficiency level; (ii) how much receptive collocational knowledge is acquired as proficiency develops; and (iii) the extent to which receptive knowledge of collocations of EFL learners varies across word frequency bands. A proficiency measure and a collocation test were administered to English majors at the University of Burundi. Results of the study suggest that receptive collocational competence develops alongside EFL learners’ linguistic proficiency; which lends empirical support to Gyllstad (2007, 2009) and Author (2011) among others, who reported similar findings. Furthermore, EFL learners’ collocations growth seems to be quantifiable wherein both linguistic proficiency level and word frequency occupy a crucial role. While more gains in terms of collocations that EFL learners could potentially add as a result of change in proficiency are found at lower levels of proficiency; collocations of words from more frequent word bands seem to be mastered first, and more gains are found at more frequent word bands. These results confirm earlier findings on the non-linearity nature of vocabulary growth (cf. Meara 1996) and the fundamental role played by frequency in word knowledge for vocabulary in general (Nation 1983, 1990, Nation and Beglar 2007), which are extended here to collocations knowledge.