The relationship between reading proficiency and vocabulary size: An empirical investigation

Date

2018-01-01

Contributor

Advisor

Department

Instructor

Depositor

Speaker

Researcher

Consultant

Interviewer

Narrator

Transcriber

Annotator

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Cengage

Volume

2018

Number/Issue

Starting Page

58

Ending Page

77

Alternative Title

Abstract

Studies of the vocabulary size needed to be a proficient second-language reader commonly arrive at numbers that are staggering. The figures most often cited are between 8,000 and 9,000 words, as required for reading novels and newspaper articles with sufficient ease and understanding (Nation, 2006). To date, almost all of the empirical research on reading proficiency and vocabulary size has focused on English, but two recent studies (Hacking & Tschirner, 2017; Hacking, Tschirner, & Rubio, in press) reported lexical minimums associated with particular American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) reading proficiency levels. This chapter builds on these data and examines the relationship between the reading proficiency and vocabulary knowledge of L2 learners of German, Russian, and Spanish. It addresses the following research questions: (1) How well does reading proficiency as defined by ACTFL predict vocabulary size measured as the receptive knowledge of various bands of the most frequent 5,000 words in German, Russian, and Spanish? (2) What vocabulary sizes are predicted by ACTFL reading proficiency levels? (3) Do German, Russian, and Spanish differ with respect to the relationship between reading proficiency and vocabulary size? This chapter will also focus on some implications for curriculum development.

Description

Keywords

Citation

Hacking, J.F., Rubio, F., Tschirner, E. (2018). The relationship between reading proficiency and vocabulary size: An empirical investigation. The American Association of University Supervisors, Coordinators and Directors of Foreign Languages Programs (AAUSC), 58-77. http://hdl.handle.net/102015/69782

Extent

Format

Geographic Location

Time Period

Related To

Related To (URI)

Table of Contents

Rights

Rights Holder

Local Contexts

Email libraryada-l@lists.hawaii.edu if you need this content in ADA-compliant format.