This study investigates undergraduate students’ vocabulary size, and their use of formulaic language. Using the Vocabulary Levels Test (Laufer and Nation 1995), it measures the vocabulary size of native and non-native speakers of English and explores relationships between this and course of study, gender, age and home language, and their academic performance. A corpus linguistic approach is then applied to compare student writers’ uses of three high-frequency verbs (have, make and take) relative to expert writers. Multiword units (MWUs) featuring these verbs are identified and analysed, focusing on delexical MWUs as one very specific aspect of depth of vocabulary knowledge. Student and expert use of these MWUs is compared. Grammatically and semantically deviant MWUs are also analysed. Finally, relationships between the size and depth of students’ vocabulary knowledge, and between the latter and academic performance, are explored. Findings reveal that Literature students had larger vocabularies than Law students, females knew more words than males, and older students knew more than younger ones. Importantly, results indicated a relationship between vocabulary size and academic performance. Literature students produced more correct MWUs and fewer errors than Law students. Correlations suggest that the smaller students’ vocabulary, the poorer the depth of their vocabulary is likely to be. Although no robust relationship between vocabulary depth and academic performance emerged, there was evidence of an indirect link between academic performance and correct use of MWUs. In bringing together traditional methods of measuring vocabulary size with an investigation of depth of vocabulary knowledge using corpus analysis methods, this study provides further evidence of the importance of vocabulary knowledge to academic performance. It contributes to debates on the value of a sound knowledge of high-frequency vocabulary and a developing knowledge of at least 5000 words to academic performance, and the analysis and quantification of errors in MWUs adds to our understanding of novice writers’ difficulties with these combinations. The study also explores new ways of investigating relationships between size and depth of vocabulary knowledge, and between depth of vocabulary knowledge and academic performance. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

Teaching ESL continues to pose a big challenge in most schools in Zambia. This is due to the paucity of teaching resources. While the number of schools has increased, there has not been a corresponding increase in funding due to economic reasons. This study arose from the desire to find alternative resources to teach English as a second language effectively within the communicative language teaching (CLT) framework. A review of available literature has shown that literature can help students to acquire the four language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. / English Studies / M. A.

Teaching ESL continues to pose a big challenge in most schools in Zambia. This is due to the paucity of teaching resources. While the number of schools has increased, there has not been a corresponding increase in funding due to economic reasons. This study arose from the desire to find alternative resources to teach English as a second language effectively within the communicative language teaching (CLT) framework. A review of available literature has shown that literature can help students to acquire the four language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. / English Studies / M. A.

The object of this study was to assess the influence of native language, as a principal cultural characteristic, one users’ behavior when using a web-based e-commerce application. The study expands on previous research by comparing English and Russian users. The research also considered demographic data to assess additional factors that influence behavior and task performance. The research design encompassed an online shopping application with two different navigation menus. One menu was based on the action-object model and the other was based on the object-action model. The user interface was created in two different languages (Russian and English). This study suggests that language, as a cultural indicator, has a direct relationship to user satisfaction and performance in e-commerce web applications.