scholarly journals Coverage-based Frequency Bands: A Proposal

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 52-60
Author(s):  
Dale Brown ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Frequency Distribution ◽  
Vocabulary Test ◽  
Frequency Bands ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Firm Basis

Second language vocabulary research makes much use of word frequency lists and their division into bands. In recent years, bands of 1,000 items have become conventional. However, there does not seem to be any firm basis or rationale for this. Conventional banding may be questioned since the utility of words varies greatly depending on frequency, because there are enormous differences in frequency within higher bands, and because the reliability of the placement of words in bands becomes progressively poorer at lower frequency levels. This article suggests an alternative approach: basing bands on coverage levels. Because of the frequency distribution of words, this means the highest frequency bands would contain very few words, while lower frequency bands would contain a great many words. The article shows how such bands can be constructed and presents a re-analysis of the results of a vocabulary test designed with conventional bands in terms of coverage-based bands. This re-analysis produces a very different profile of learners’ knowledge, and it is argued that the shape of this profile may be more useful in terms of guiding instruction in that it gives a clearer indication of which words should be targeted for a group of learners. It is further argued that the smaller number of words contained in coverage-based bands at higher frequency levels makes them a more feasible basis for instruction. The article thus concludes that coverage-based bands may be a fruitful avenue for researchers to explore.

scholarly journals Statistical Analysis of Word Frequency Distribution in Lithuanian Texts of Different Genres

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-69
Author(s):  
Neringa Bružaitė ◽  
Tomas Rekašius
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Frequency Distribution ◽  
Hierarchical Clustering ◽  
Distance Measure ◽  
Structural Type ◽  
Clustering Method ◽  
Jaccard Distance ◽  
Word Frequencies ◽  
Word Frequency Distribution

The paper examines Lithuanian texts of different authors and genres. The main points ofinterest – the number of words, the number of different words and word frequencies. Structural type distributionand Zipf’s law are applied for describing the frequency distribution of words in the text. It is obvious that thelexical diversity of any text can be defined by different words that are used in the text, also called vocabulary.It is shown that the information contained in a reduced vocabulary is enough for dividing the texts analyzedin this article into groups by genre and author using a hierarchical clustering method. In this case, distancesbetween clusters are measured using the Jaccard distance measure, and clusters are aggregated using the Wardmethod.

Verbal and Nonverbal Abilities in English First and Second Language Children

1978 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-197
Author(s):  
Donna White ◽  
Brenda Panunto
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Socioeconomic Level ◽  
Vocabulary Test ◽  
Peabody Picture Vocabulary ◽  
Alternate Form ◽  
School Year ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Nonverbal Skills ◽  
Italian Children

This study examined verbal and nonverbal abilities in Italian children for whom English is a second language and monolingual English controls. Subjects were 64 of the two-language children and 33 monolingual children attending English kindergarten in middle class areas. In November the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test was administered, and in May of the same school year, the alternate form of the Peabody and the Raven Colored Progressive Matrices were administered. The two-language children performed significantly more poorly on the picture vocabulary test in November and May than controls. However, they did improve Peabody scores significantly between November and May. There was no significant difference between the two-language groups on the Raven Matrices. When socioeconomic level is controlled, a relatively culture-free test is selected, and these two-language children are culturally assimilated, deficiencies in nonverbal skills may not be found.

Linguistic Minority Children's Knowledge of multiple Word Meanings; Polysemy and the Testing of lexical Skills

1998 ◽  
Vol 119-120 ◽  
pp. 79-89
Author(s):  
René Appel
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Vocabulary Test ◽  
Linguistic Minority ◽  
Minority Children ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
Lexical Skills

Abstract It is often observed that minority children's lexical proficiency in the majority language lags behind that of majority children. This observations is substantiated by scores on vocabulary tests. However, in these (traditional) tests words are generally treated as having one meaning, while most words are polysemous, i.e. they have multiple meanings. A new test was designed to measure the knowledge of multiple word meanings of minority and majority children. Results pointed to a rather high correlation between the scores on a traditional vocabulary test and the newly developed test for the minority children. Furthermore, the minority children scored lower on the new test than the majority children, which suggests that they not only have a lexical deficit in their second language with respect to the number of words known, but also with respect to the number of meanings attached to each word.

Frequency effects and second language lexical acquisition

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Crossley ◽  
Tom Salsbury ◽  
Ashley Titak ◽  
Danielle McNamara
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Lexical Acquisition ◽  
Absolute Frequency ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Post Hoc ◽  
L1 And L2

Frequency effects in an L1 and L2 longitudinal corpus were investigated using Zipfian distribution analyses and linear curve estimations. The results demonstrated that the NS lexical input exhibited Zipfian distributions, but that the L2 lexical output did not match the NS Zipfian patterns. Word frequency analyses indicated that NS interlocutors modify their lexicon such that frequency scores decrease as a function of time that L2 learners have studied English. In contrast, the word frequency scores for the L2 output increased as a function of time. Post-hoc analyses indicated that differences in frequency scores between NS input and L2 output were best explained by the repetition of infrequent words, but not frequent words by L2 learners in the early stages of language acquisition. The results question absolute frequency interpretations of lexical acquisition for L2 learners and provide evidence for usage-based approaches for language learning.

A Theory of Word-Frequency Distribution

Nature ◽  
1956 ◽  
Vol 178 (4545) ◽  
pp. 1308-1308 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. F. PARKER-RHODES ◽  
T. JOYCE
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Frequency Distribution ◽  
Word Frequency Distribution

scholarly journals Predicting pauses in L1 and L2 speech: the effects of utterance boundaries and word frequency

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nivja H de Jong
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Lexical Retrieval ◽  
Filled Pauses ◽  
Production Processes ◽  
L1 And L2

AbstractThis paper compares the distribution of silent and filled pauses in first (L1) and second language (L2) speech. The occurrence of pauses of 52 L2 and 18 L1 Dutch speakers was evaluated with respect to utterance boundaries and word frequency. We found that L2 speakers paused more often than L1 speakers within utterances; but not between utterances. Similarly, only within utterances, L2 pauses were longer than L1 pauses. Regarding word frequency, both L1 and L2 speakers are more likely to pause before lower frequency words as compared to higher frequency words. These findings imply that L1 and L2 speakers’ production processes may be similar in that (1) pauses at utterance boundaries are used for conceptual planning mostly and (2) lexical retrieval difficulties are comparable for L1 and L2 speakers. These findings furthermore imply that when using fluency for L2 testing, pause locations must be taken into account.

Lexical acquisition over time in minority first language children learning English as a second language

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
HEATHER GOLBERG ◽  
JOHANNE PARADIS ◽  
MARTHA CRAGO
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
First Language ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Vocabulary Test ◽  
Lexical Resources ◽  
Lexical Development ◽  
Second Language Development ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Language Sampling

ABSTRACTThe English second language development of 19 children (mean age at outset = 5 years, 4 months) from various first language backgrounds was examined every 6 months for 2 years, using spontaneous language sampling, parental questionnaires, and a standardized receptive vocabulary test. Results showed that the children's mean mental age equivalency and standard scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Third Edition nearly met native-speaker expectations after an average of 34 months of exposure to English, a faster rate of development than has been reported in some other research. Children displayed the phenomenon of general all-purpose verbs through overextension of the semantically flexible verb do, an indicator of having to stretch their lexical resources for the communicative context. Regarding sources of individual differences, older age of second language onset and higher levels of mother's education were associated with faster growth in children's English lexical development, and nonverbal intelligence showed some limited influence on vocabulary outcomes; however, English use in the home had no consistent effects on vocabulary development.

scholarly journals An Edited Version of the First Eight 1,000-Word Frequency Bands of the Japanese-English Version of the Vocabulary Size Test

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart McLean ◽  
Tomoko Ishii ◽  
Tim Stoeckel ◽  
Phil Bennett ◽  
Yuko Matsumoto
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
English Version ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
Frequency Bands ◽  
Answer Choice ◽  
Japanese English

This paper provides and explains the criteria by which the first eight 1,000-word frequency bands of the Japanese bilingual Vocabulary Size Test (VST) were revised. The VST (Nation & Beglar, 2007) was designed as a measure of vocabulary size for language learners. It was originally produced and validated in a monolingual format, but in recent years several bilingual versions have also been made. These variants may yield more accurate results, because they avoid conflating vocabulary knowledge with ability to decode answer choices in the L2. However, they have received little scrutiny beyond initial piloting and may therefore benefit from further examination and refinement (Nguyen & Nation, 2011). This paper describes the revision of the first eight 1,000-word frequency bands of the Japanese bilingual VST with the goal of increasing the test’s unidimensionality and accuracy. The revisions (a) removed English loanwords from the answer choices to prevent examinees from correctly responding through phonological matching alone, (b) ensured that the parts of speech of each answer choice were identical, and (c) matched the lengths of answer choices. 本論文は、日本語版２ヶ国語 Vocabulary Size Test (VST) における最初の8000語レベルまでの改訂された単語出現頻度帯の基準を説明したものである。VST (Nation and Beglar, 2007) は言語学習者の語彙サイズを計測するために作られたもので、当初は英語のみで制作されていたが、近年様々な言語対応の版も作られている。これらの版では、英語の読解力に左右されることなくテストを受けられ、より正確な結果が得られることが予想される。しかしながら、それらの版は初期のパイロットテストの範囲を超える精査が殆どされていないため、更なる検証を重ねる事には意義がある（Nguyen & Nation, 2011）。本論文は、日本語版 VST の最初の8000語レベルの単語出現頻度帯について、測定の一次元性と正確さの向上を目的に改訂を試み、その結果をまとめたものである。改訂作業においては、 (a) 音による推測が容易なカタカナ語を選択肢から排除し、 (b) 各選択肢の品詞を統一し、(c) 各選択肢の長さの均衡をとった。

scholarly journals Teaching Second Language Vocabulary: the Role and Application of the AWL

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Ge Yan
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Word List ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
Writing Assignments

This paper focuses on the role and application of AWL in science-related subjects, namely the issue of whether or not students in science-related majors is advantaged or disadvantaged in using the Academic Word List (AWL) in their academic writing assignments as the imbalance of word frequency in AWL. Participants (n=18) are obliged to answer the Questionnaire. Furthermore, if needed, a brief interview would be arranged on some uncertain questions. Results show that learning and acquiring academic vocabulary would benefit participants in research articles, while AWL is inadequate for students in science-related disciplines in their academic writing. We claim that students in science-related majors may be disadvantaged than other majors’ students in using Coxhead’s Academic Word List, and a wordlist screened out from science-related corpus perhaps more suitable for ESP students. Meanwhile, AWL, as a role of reference, would aid language learning or acquisition.

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