Academic vocabulary is an important determiner of academic success for both native and non-native speakers of English (Corson, 1997; Gardner, 2013; Hsueh-chao & Nation, 2000). In an attempt to address this need, Coxhead (2000) developed the Academic Word List (AWL)—a list of words common across a range of academic disciplines; however, Gardner & Davies (2014) identified potential limitations in the AWL and have more recently produced their own list of core academic vocabulary—the Academic Vocabulary List (AVL). This study compares the occurrences of the AWL and AVL word families in an intensive English program (IEP) corpus of 50 texts to determine which list has the best overall coverage, frequency, and range in the corpus. While the results show a strong presence of both lists in the IEP corpus, the AVL outperforms the AWL in every measure analyzed in the study. Suggestions for instruction and future research regarding these lists are provided.

The purpose of this study was to determine if a difference exists between mean standard scores of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - Revised (PPVT-R) (Dunn and Dunn, 1981) and the Expressive One- Word Picture Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT) (Gardner, 1979) for children in several diagnostic categories. The subjects used in this study were 45 preschool children ranging in age from 36 to 47 months. These subjects were divided into groups of normal, expressively language-delayed (ELD) and normal children with a history of expressive language delay (HELD).

It is important that educators use adequate assessment procedures when placing hearing-impaired children in mainstreamed settings. Receptive vocabulary tests are part of the standardized test battery and can provide educators with valuable information. Although there has been a receptive vocabulary test recently developed for use with hearing-impaired children (CPVT), the most commonly used test with this population is the PPVT-R, which is standardized on normally hearing children. In order to further explore the difference between the receptive vocabulary of hearing-impaired and normally hearing children, a test standardized on hearing-impaired should be used. The purpose of the present study was to determine if a difference exists between the receptive vocabulary scores of hearing-impaired and normally hearing children on the CPVT. This study also sought to answer the following questions: 1) What is the correlation between the CPVT and the PPVT-R?, and 2) Is there a difference between the z-scores and age equivalent scores of the normally hearing children on the CPVT and the PPVT-R? Fifty 7- and a-year olds were selected from the Portland Metropolitan area as subjects. Each subject passed a puretone audiometric screening, had a negative history of ear infections, had not received any speech, language, hearing, or reading services, and received parental permission to be in the study. Mean z-scores and age equivalent scores on the CPVT and the PPVT-R were computed for the normally hearing subjects in the study. One sample, two tailed ~-tests were computed to determine if a difference exists between the performance of the normally hearing subjects on the CPVT and the normative data for the hearing-impaired. The tests were considered significant at the .05 level. A highly significant difference was found between the z-scores and age equivalent scores of the 7- and a-year old normally hearing subjects and the normative data for the hearing impaired. The normally hearing subjects scored higher on the CPVT than the standardized data. These results are consistent with previous research that has shown hearing impaired children to perform significantly lower than their normally hearing peers on vocabulary tests (Bunch & Forde, 1987; Davis, 1974; Markides, 1970). Pearson r correlations were used to determine the relationship between the CPVT and the PPVT-R. Weak correlations were obtained between the two tests for the 7- and a-year old subjects. Kline and Sapp (1989) also found a weak correlation between the CPVT and the WISC-R. One sample, two tailed t-tests were completed to determine if a difference exists between the z-scores and age equivalent scores of the 7- and a-year old normally hearing subjects on the CPVT and the PPVT-R. The age equivalent scores of the 7- and a-year old subjects were found to be higher on the CPVT than on the PPVT-R. A statistically significant difference between the z-scores of the a year old subjects was not found.

Vocabulary learning strategies and word knowledge are two central factors in learning a foreign language. Researchers have acknowledged the vital role of vocabulary in second language acquisition. This particular study is trying to fill a void by looking at high-school aged learners, by looking at beginning learners of German and by looking at the expression of word knowledge and strategy use qualitatively. The research methodology for this study is qualitative and exploratory in nature. The participants of this study are 29 high-school students, who participated in a vocabulary review game and filled out exit slips following the game. Of these students, 13 participated in a follow-up interview in which the prompts from the review game were discussed and analyzed. The study revealed beginning learners of German use a variety of learning strategies. Students preferred semantic context over linguistic and social context. They were also able to describe vocabulary items in the target language German, without major breakdowns in communication. Students tried to avoid the use of the German articles and confused grammatical terminology at times. Overall, students knew high frequency vocabulary and how to use it.

L2 (second or foreign language) research indicates that vocabulary knowledge is not only the “single best predictor of text comprehension,” but also a strong indicator of listening, speaking, and writing proficiency (Alderson, 2000, p. 35). Understanding the development of vocabulary knowledge, including both vocabulary size and vocabulary depth, or quality of vocabulary knowledge—is therefore essential to the building of an overall insight into L2 proficiency. This study aims to explore the developmental status of vocabulary depth among postsecondary CFL (Chinese as a foreign language) learners of higher proficiency levels who have studied Chinese for over four years. In particular, it focuses on these learners' identification of two types of word association—synonym and collocational associations and how factors such as association type and target-word frequency impact association identification. The process and strategy use that are involved in the inference of word association are also explored. For these purposes, this study employs a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Cross-sectional data were collected through a paper-and-pencil test of Chinese word associates from seventeen learners within five postsecondary CFL programs in the U.S. Each participant worked on two test booklets assessing synonym and collocational associates respectively for the same 44 adjectives selected from the three word frequency levels of below 1000, between 1000 and 5000, and above 5000. A two-factor within-subjects ANOVA revealed both significant main effects for association type and word frequency on association identification and a significant interaction between the two. Simple effect analysis and pair-wise comparisons further revealed that association identification became increasingly stronger with the increase of word frequency for collocational association, yet remained non-impacted by frequency before reaching the mid- to high-frequency transition for synonym association. Meanwhile, CFL learners' collocational knowledge was significantly higher than synonym knowledge at mainly the medium- and high-frequency levels. These reslts indicate that synonym knowledge seemed to lag behind in development as familiarity with words increased, but began to catch up at higher-frequency levels. Interview data collected from six CFL learners show that they employed a wide variety of knowledge sources, such as radical knowledge, morphological knowledge, contextual clues, sound information, or L1 in inferring word association. Inference success seemed to be influenced not only by their preexisting word knowledge, but also an integrated and flexible use of linguistic and contextual information in the inference process. Implications of these findings are discussed in relevance to curriculum and pedagogical development of CFL teaching and the understanding and definition of CFL proficiency in general. This study fills a gap in CFL vocabulary research by building a tentative measure of vocabulary depth and bringing greater insights into the developmental status of higher-level CFL learners in synonym and collocational association as well as the process that is involved in inference of word association.

本研究主要探討台北市國中生的單字能力及性別差異是否影響其英語單字策略的使用。主要目標欲(1)探究三組單字能力組別在單字策略使用上的差異；(2)探討男女生使用單字策略的頻率；(3)發現單字策略使用上的性別差異；(4)確認單字能力組別內，在單字策略使用上的性別差異；以及(5)從性別的角度來說明單字策略使用的規則。 共有來自台北市區一所國中的203位學生參與本研究。研究工具為單字策略使用問卷及英語單字能力測驗。前者用來引出學生所認為的單字策略使用方式，而後者則是用來將學生依單字能力分成高中低三組。資料分析採用SPSS 12.0版本，分析工具包含描述性統計、單因子變異數分析、及獨立樣本t檢定。本研究結果指出(1)單字能力越高的學生，傾向使用較多的單字策略，尤以決定策略、社會策略、記憶策略、及後設認知策略最為顯著。(2)整體而言，男生及女生使用單字策略的頻率皆不高。男女生皆最常使用決定策略，最少使用後設認知策略。(3)除在整體策略、決定策略、記憶策略、認知策略有顯著較高的使用頻率外，女生也比男生較常使用與歸類相關單字、運用學習工具作手寫練習、及聽力練習等相關的單一策略。(4)單字能力組別內，亦發現十七個單一策略具有顯著的性別差異。大部份策略顯示女生運用的頻率較高。然而高分組男生使用聽英文廣播及想像單字畫面比高分組女生較頻繁，且中間組別的男生較女生常使用分析字根字首。(5)對男女生而言，發音及意思是學習單字中最難的兩部份。雙方在有效的策略上有所共識，但在無效果的策略上意見有些分歧。至於教師協助的需求方面，男生偏好動態的單字練習，女生則較喜歡靜態的學業練習。 最後，本研究建議教師應該(1)介紹學生更多元的單字策略，尤其是低成就的學生；(2)進行以策略為主的教學時，將性別差異納入考量；(3)就單字能力及性別差異的交互關係，進一步了解學生單字策略的偏好。 / This study investigated vocabulary proficiency and gender differences in English vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) used by junior high school students in Taipei. The goals were to (1) explore the differences in VLS use among three vocabulary scoring levels, (2) to investigate the frequencies use of VLS by male and female students, (3) to find out gender differences in VLS use, (4) to indentify gender difference in VLS use in terms of vocabulary scoring level, and (5) to illustrate the patterns of VLS use in gender perspectives. A total of 203 junior high school students from an urban school in Taipei City were involved in the study. A vocabulary learning strategy questionnaire (VLSQ) and an English vocabulary proficiency test (EVPT) were administered as instruments. The former was used to elicit the self-report strategy use by the students and the latter was utilized to categorize the participants into three vocabulary levels. The data was analyzed by employing SPSS version 12.0, including descriptive analysis, one-way analysis of variance, and independent t-Tests. A summary of the results are as follows. (1) The higher vocabulary level students belonged to, the more VLS they tended to apply, especially determination strategies, social strategies, memory strategies and metacognitvie strategies. (2) Both male and female students could be regarded as moderate users of VLS. Both groups favored determination strategies the most and metacognitive strategies the least. (3) Besides a significantly more frequent use of overall strategies, determination strategies, memory strategies and cognitive strategies, female students also tended to use more often individual strategies concerning grouping related words together, writing practice with study aids and auditory practice. (4) Significances found in each scoring group seemed to favor female students in strategy use, except three strategies, analyzed affixes and roots by the Intermediate-Scoring group, listening to English broadcast and image word’s meanings by the High-Scoring group. (5) To both genders, the most difficult aspects in learning vocabulary are pronunciation and meanings. As for the effectiveness of VLS, male and female students had the same opinions on the most five but thought slightly differently on the least five. Besides, sharing some similar needs for teachers’ assistance, male students preferred dynamic vocabulary activities but female students favored academic vocabulary practice. The findings suggest teachers should (1) introduce a variety of VLS to students, particularly those of lower levels, (2) take gender differences into consideration when administering strategies-based instruction, and (3) be aware of students’ preferences of VLS use with both gender and vocabulary level perspectives.

Given the increase of Spanish- and English-speaking bilingual students in US schools, identifying the predictors of reading in this group of students is of significant importance to developing appropriate screening measures and intervention strategies. Thus, the current study evaluated the pattern of language preference in an elementary school bilingual (Spanish-English) population and its relationship with expressive and receptive vocabulary, and broad reading ability in English and Spanish. Participants were 58 Latino students ranging in age from 7 years, 5 months to 11 years, 1 month (M = 8.98, SD = .98) with 48% born in the United States. Results indicated that English expressive vocabulary partially mediated the relationship between outside language preference and English broad reading ability. In contrast, neither Spanish expressive nor receptive vocabulary mediated the relationship between outside language preference and Spanish broad reading ability.

Deficiencies in mathematics skill constrain students’ educational achievement and subsequently, their employment outcomes. This study included 265 school-identified students with mild intellectual disabilities. The research questions investigated the extent to which phonological awareness, color naming speed, and vocabulary knowledge, was related to mathematics skill after controlling for grade level via regression analyses. Further, the mediating effects of expressive vocabulary on the relationship between receptive vocabulary and mathematics skill as well as the indirect effect of receptive vocabulary knowledge on mathematics skill through expressive vocabulary were examined. The findings indicated that after controlling for grade level, phonological awareness, naming speed, and vocabulary knowledge were significantly related to mathematics skill. The mediating effects of expressive vocabulary as well as the indirect effects of receptive vocabulary knowledge on mathematics skill were also significant.

This study presents three of the many strategies that pupils can use, in order to learn vocabulary. The aim of this essay is to study the combination of three strategies of learning and three methods of teaching, and compare the three different combinations in order to find out which one of them is the most efficient for pupils who learn new vocabulary. The three strategies are visual, auditory and kinesthetic strategies.               This is a pilot study that takes place in a group of students that study Spanish as a foreign language in a Swedish school. Each combination of strategy and method is tested on the group of pupils and thereafter evaluated in a semi-structured, qualitative way that consists of a questionnaire that the students fill in after each combination has been tested.               The results of the study show that, according to the pupils, the visual and the kinesthetic strategies are the most efficient ones for the pupils that participated in the study, whereas the results of the tests that were conducted show that the visual strategy was the most efficient one. The study also concludes that every student needs to find their individual strategy to learn vocabulary in a foreign language.

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics