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This study proposes two models for exploring the lexical contents of Part One of the most popular Arabic as a Foreign Language textbook series, Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum Al-'Arabiyya. Through the lens of a word families framework, this study hypothesizes on the contents and arrangement of the L2 Arabic mental lexicon after completing the textbook. Through counting lexemes, lemmas, and word family members, it is possible to gain insight into the quantity of vocabulary items present within the textbook outside of traditional measures like the triconsonantal root. Through a frequency-based framework, this study analyzes textbook vocabulary items in light of the 5,000 most frequent lemmas in the language from a corpus of 30 million tokens from A Frequency Dictionary of Arabic (Buckwalter and Parkinson: 2011). A comparison between textbook vocabulary and frequency data points to the relationship between the vocabulary studied by AFL learners and the most widely used forms in the language as a whole. While this study gives special consideration to frequency data up to the 3,000 word level, the sheer amount of lexical knowledge necessary for reading Arabic newspapers and novels necessitates integration of frequency-derived data at even the novice level. A lexical and frequency-based approach to AFL instruction and curriculum design may prove helpful in decreasing the decidedly large vocabulary burden (Nation: 1990, cited in Young: 2011) for learners of Arabic as a Foreign Language.

Vocabulary is considered the building block of language. Without it, communication breaks down. This degree project investigates the vocabulary types, progression, lexical coverage andacademic words in EFL upper secondary textbooks in Sweden. This was done by a corpus-based approach using corpus tools such as Range and AntWord Profiler. The entire corpus contained six textbooks from two different series: Solid Gold and Viewpoints. These textbooks are utilised in English 5, 6, and 7 upper secondary courses. The analysis focused on Nation's word types and Coxhead’s Academic World List, including progression and coverage. The results revealed that high-frequency vocabulary is maintained throughout the series, while mid-frequency vocabulary considerably increases as the textbook levels progress. Results also show that around 3,000 word families are needed for 95% lexical coverage and 6,000 word families for 98% lexical coverage. Each textbook increases around 1,000 word families per level, but is less proportional in relation to the word count. The highest increase of word families is 32% and the lowest of 17%. Furthermore, the study found that the AWL covers 7% of the vocabulary, and 80% of the AWL items are used. Pedagogical recommendations from this study include establishing a vocabulary input threshold per level to ensure consistent progression. Additionally, academic written genres such as Introduction-Method-Results-Discussion (IMRaD) structures can be included in the textbooks in addition to the existing literary genres to help prepare Swedish L2 learners to cope with university academic texts.

Popular music is ever-present and widely available in students’ lives and the value of it as a factor in the language learning process has been a part of the pedagogical literature for many years. One of the often-discussed benefits is the potential for vocabulary learning through songs; however, few researchers have examined whether songs are a suitable source of input for vocabulary learning for English language learners. To address this need, this corpus-driven study investigated the vocabulary demands of popular English songs. A comprehensive corpus of popular English song lyrics was created for this study. Songs for the corpus were selected according to their impact and influence on culture. A song’s impact on culture was determined by its ranking from experts in the music industries in the United States and the United Kingdom and by its popularity based on radio airplay, sales data, and streaming data in the United States and sales and streaming data in the United Kingdom. The corpus contained 2,175 songs and 678,309 tokens. The total listening time was 135 hours and 22 minutes. The lyrics in the corpus were analyzed to determine the vocabulary size necessary to reach 95% and 98% coverage of the words in songs. The songs in the corpus were divided into two varieties of English—American and British, six decades—1950s to 2000s, and four genres—Urban Roots, Formative Rock, Progressive Rock, and Mainstream Listening. An analysis was first completed over the whole corpus and then over the songs from each variety of English, decade, and genre. This study also examined the potential to incidentally learn vocabulary from listening to songs and whether songs are more similar to spoken or written discourse. The results showed that knowledge of the most frequent 2,000 word families, proper nouns, and marginal words provided 96.05% coverage, and knowledge of the most frequent 5,000 word families, proper nouns, and marginal words provided 98% coverage of songs. Both American and British songs reached 95% coverage at the 2,000 word frequency level. However, the British songs reached 98% coverage at the 5,000 word frequency level, while the American songs reached 98% coverage at the 6,000 word frequency level. A vocabulary of the most frequent 2,000 word families, proper nouns, and marginal words was sufficient to reach 95% coverage in all six decades. However, the vocabulary size needed to reach 98% coverage in the six decades ranged from the most frequent 4,000 to 8,000 word families plus proper nouns and marginal words. A vocabulary of the most frequent 2,000 word families, proper nouns, and marginal words was adequate to reach 95% coverage in all four genre categories. However, the vocabulary size necessary to reach 98% coverage in the different genres ranged from the most frequent 5,000 to 6,000 word families plus proper nouns and marginal words. The results indicated that there would be a relatively low number of meetings of the same low-frequency word families if learners listened to a small or large number of popular songs. However, there would be a relatively high number of encounters of the same mid-frequency and high-frequency word families if learners listened to a large number of popular songs. This result suggests that there is a greater potential for incidental vocabulary learning of mid-frequency and high-frequency vocabulary through songs. Lastly, in terms of vocabulary, songs are more similar to unscripted spoken discourse than written discourse. Overall, the findings indicate that songs have the potential to be an appropriate source of input for English language learners and might be beneficial for incidental vocabulary learning, especially when listening to a large number of songs. This study provides insights into the kinds of vocabulary used in popular songs and suggests implications for teaching and learning with songs. / Language Arts

The study measures the productive vocabulary size of Grade 6 English Second Language learners and teachers in 16 township schools in Gauteng Province. Data from learners (n-881) and teachers (n-19) were collected by testing the participants with versions C and A respectively of the Productive Vocabulary levels Test of Controlled ability. In addition, samples of learners’ written work were examined. Interviews and lesson observations with a sample of teachers were conducted to triangulate the data. Using SPSS version 23, means for each word level were calculated. The ANOVA, t-tests and post hoc tests were performed. Bonferroni corrections were applied. Results indicate that both learners and teachers have not mastered the vocabulary at the levels tested. The results also indicate that poor vocabulary teaching methods and poverty contribute to poor vocabulary development among learners. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Applied Linguistics)

Die verhandeling ondersoek die taalbeheersing van studente wat Afrikaans as tweede addisionele taal neem en meer spesifiek, die woordeskatkennis van die ondersoekgroep, naamlik swart addisioneletaalleerders in die Limpopo-provinsie in Graad 11 en 12. Dit is duidelik dat een van die probleme wat aanleerders het, ‘n gebrekkige woordeskat is. Dit beïnvloed hulle begrip van Afrikaans sowel as hulle produksie (skriftelik en ook mondeling). Een van die redes hiervoor is dat daar nie op ‘n sistematiese manier aandag gegee word aan óf woordeskatverwerwing (of –aanleer) óf die onderrig van woordeskat in die kurrikulum en sillabus nie. Hierdie navorsing se doelwitte is om die stand van die woordeskatkennis van Graad 11- en 12-leerders te bepaal en tweedens om met behulp van insigte oor die aanleer en/of verwerwing van leksikonitems die sukses van bepaalde strategieë te bepaal. Navorsingsvrae is die volgende: Wat is die stand van woordeskatonderrig vandag wêreldwyd? Wat is die stand van woordeskatonderrig in die Suid-Afrikaanse sillabus? Hoe goed is Graad 11 en 12 leerderders se kennis van die Afrikaanse woordeskat? Wat is Graad11- en 12 leerders se houding teenoor Afrikaans? Hoe kan mens hierdie houding(s) verklaar? Watter rol speel (intrinsieke) motivering en houdings teenoor Afrikaans? Watter metodes en tegnieke kan gebruik word om leerders se woordeskat te verbeter? / Dissertation (MA (Afrikaans))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Afrikaans / unrestricted