Research has consistently shown that ESL students lag behind their EL1 peers in English oral vocabulary skills. Despite this lag in English vocabulary skill development and the important role that vocabulary plays in key models of English writing development, recent results indicate that for ESL children becoming both orally proficient and literate in English since kindergarten, their writing achievement is on par with EL1 students. To date, no research has examined the lexical quality of ESL students’ writing across various measures, and in relation to oral vocabulary. This study examines (1) how EL1 and ESL children’s writing compares on different indices of lexical quality, and (2) whether there is an association between oral vocabulary knowledge and lexical quality in the writing of EL1 and ESL children. Results indicate that, in contrast to the differences in their respective levels of oral receptive vocabulary, EL1 and ESL children are using vocabulary of roughly the same quality in their writing. However, results did suggest that there are different patterns of associations between different vocabulary measures based on language group. / Graduate / 0282

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Text comprehension in adults is correlated with a number of other abilities including working memory span, inference making, and reading experience. There are fewer studies reporting correlations between lexical and sublexical skill and comprehension skill in adults. Comprehension skill in adults may constitute (1) a basic comprehension skill, like lexical skill, that drives the ability to construct representations of text and analyze them; (2) a more sensitive measure of lexical skill, for which it is difficult to measure sufficient variability in competent readers; or (3) a learned skill, derived from an individual’s reading experience. Reading a greater quantity and more varied texts increases the size of the knowledge base, the efficiency with which information can be accessed, the likelihood that effective reading strategies will be developed, and with these the enjoyment of reading and the desire to read more. These possibilities are explored in this experiment.We developed sensitive tests of lexical skill and measured comprehension skill and lexical skill using multiple tests in a large number of college students. In order to determine the effect of lexical skill on comprehension skill we divided participants into groups based on both variables in a two by two design. Using an artificial orthography allowed us to control reading experience.Patterns of responses to homophones and nonhomophones and to high and low frequency words indicate that differences in lexical skill affect not only the extent and time course of lexical activation but also the direction of the effect. There is some evidence for an interaction with comprehension ability.Lexical skill affected speed of learning and degree of learning success. Comprehension skill affected the ability to use the artificial orthography in other tasks, including ERP tasks. Effects were not mediated by working memory, inferencing, or lexical skill, suggesting the influence of a basic comprehension skill and an ability to assess the needs of new tasks and adapt their performance appropriately. Both lexical and comprehension skill affected performance on tasks in English, suggesting an influence of reading experience.

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