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58
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Introduction
Jon Clenton currently works at the Graduate School Human Sciences, Hiroshima University. Jon does research in Psycholinguistics &Vocabulary acquisition, and analyses relationships between the two. His current project explores 'The extent to which L2 semantic- syntactic stages of lexical development differ between participants of different L1 language backgrounds'.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
April 2015 - March 2020
August 2013 - March 2015
October 2002 - July 2013
Education
July 2006 - July 2007
Trinity College, London
Field of study
- TESOL
October 2003 - October 2010
October 1997 - September 1998
Publications
Publications (58)
The field of vocabulary studies in first language (L1) and second language (L2) development has seen remarkable growth in recent years, with researchers and practitioners alike recognizing the critical role that lexical knowledge plays in language proficiency [...]
This article presents a study examining the vocabulary knowledge of English as an additional language (EAL) learners in two international schools in Japan in relation to the vocabulary profiles of the textbooks they are required to use in the classrooms. The vocabulary knowledge of 139 participants from two international schools was assessed using...
The main objective of this study is to investigate how interactive factors affect the vocabulary usage of second language learners in their spoken language. Participants were 24 L1 Chinese undergraduate students of L2 English at an advanced level. L2 learners’ vocabulary use was assessed via tokens, lexical diversity, and frequency-based lexical so...
Lexical bundles (LBs) are crucial in L2 oral proficiency, yet their complexity in terms of length is under-researched. This study therefore examines the relationship between longer and shorter LBs and oral proficiency among 150 L2 learners of varying proficiency levels at a UK university. Through the analysis of oral presentation data (scores rangi...
Shorter lexical bundles (LBs) have been the central point of focus in L2 oral fluency studies, with longer LBs often being neglected. The current study examined the extent to which longer LBs vs. shorter LBs relate to aspects of oral fluency. Data were collected from 50 undergraduate L2 English learners performing three speaking tasks. We analyzed...
Significance of this Topic: Does multiword sequence (MWS) usage relate to fluency and higher academic achievement?
This study investigated the relationships between two vocabulary learning strategies (guessing from context and dictionary use) and two aspects of vocabulary knowledge (receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge). One hundred and thirty-five university students in Japan completed a vocabulary learning strategies survey (Q. Ma, 2015), the Updated...
Research has started revealing the important role of vocabulary knowledge in second language (L2) speaking proficiency. However, the majority of earlier studies tended to disregard the congruence in test format between assessing vocabulary knowledge and speaking skills with the former predominantly measured in written format. The current study ther...
Vocabulary knowledge in a second language (L2) is thought to be a complex construct and, accordingly, there exist numerous ways to evaluate a L2 learner's vocabulary knowledge. These assessments are generally billed as tests of vocabulary size (i.e., number of words known) or depth (i.e., how well words are known) of either receptive or productive...
Lexical diversity (LD) measures (i.e., vocabulary range deployed in a written or spoken sample) have been shown to predict L2 language proficiency. Treffers-Daller et al. (2018), however, suggest that the analysis unit influences LD measures’ predictability of language proficiency and highlight the greater impact of lemma count on LD measurement. D...
The current paper explores second language (L2) learners’ academic vocabulary size and its potential relationship to speaking in academic contexts. Our participants were 62 first language (L1) Chinese undergraduates of intermediate English level. We elicited speech samples from monologue tasks in formal class settings. We elicited vocabulary knowle...
This exploratory study represents an attempt to investigate the factors that may affect the reading comprehension abilities of English as an additional language (EAL) learners. For this study, we examined a participant group of 31 (25 EAL and 6 first language English) learners studying at an international school in Japan. We assessed the participan...
This study examined the relationship between second language (L2) learners' collocation knowledge and oral proficiency. A new approach to measuring collocation was adopted by eliciting responses through a word association task and using corpus-based measures (absolute frequency count, t-score, MI score) to analyze the degree to which stimulus words...
The current study investigates the extent to which receptive vocabulary size test scores can predict second language (L2) speaking ability. Forty-six international students with an advanced level of L2 proficiency completed a receptive vocabulary task (Yes/No test; Meara & Miralpeix, 2017) and a spontaneous speaking task (oral picture narrative). E...
This edited volume provides a single coherent overview of vocabulary teaching and learning in relation to each of the four skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking). Each of the four sections presents a skill area with two chapters presented by two leading experts in the field, relating recent advances in the field to the extent that each skil...
This edited volume provides a single coherent overview of vocabulary teaching and learning in relation to each of the four skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking).
Each of the four sections presents a skill area with two chapters presented by two leading experts in the field, relating recent advances in the field to the extent that each ski...
Chapter 11 brings together the main thread running through the book: how first language backgrounds influence multilingual lexicons. Script differences between the first and subsequent languages are seen to influence how learners read and process lexis. Such differences affect the processing of language in terms of the use of phonology, semantics,...
This collection brings together recent research on the influences between first and additional languages with a focus on the development of multilingual lexicons. Featuring work from an international group of scholars, the volume examines the complex dynamics underpinning vocabulary in second and third languages and the role first languages play wi...
Vocabulary knowledge is considered to be an essential component of L2 proficiency. To test this assumption, a great number of studies have thus far explored the relationship between vocabulary and language skills (e.g., reading). The current paper follows this line of research but focuses on the understudied relationship between vocabulary and spea...
This chapter explores relationships between vocabulary knowledge and fluent speech. The reporting of multiple vocabulary task scores is an emerging trend in vocabulary research (Clenton et al., 2019; Fitzpatrick & Clenton, 2017) and while fluency papers (De Jong et al., 2013; 2015) report significant relationships with vocabulary measures, these ar...
This paper assesses the longitudinal development of productive vocabulary knowledge. The paper represents a new approach in which we evaluate vocabulary knowledge development according to task. We first build on an earlier model (Fitzpatrick & Clenton, 2017) to conceptualise productive vocabulary knowledge and its development. Second, we report the...
The current study explores the productive vocabulary knowledge captured by three vocabulary knowledge task formats. The study builds on findings from Fitzpatrick & Clenton (2017) and redefines how interpretations of vocabulary knowledge need refining. Additionally, we follow Walters (2012) who suggests that lexical frequency profiles from vocabular...
The extent to which vocabulary profiles can explain aspects of frequency
This study examined the extent to which a first language (L1) influences a second language (L2). We explored this potential influence by evaluating participant responses for semantic and syntactic word strings composed from the 1K British National Corpora word list. We investigated two different first language groups, and assessed their responses t...
Vocabulary knowledge and oral ability: exploring multiple theories and potential relationships
This article offers a solution to a significant problem for teachers and researchers of language learning that confounds their interpretations and expectations of test data: The apparent simplicity of tests of vocabulary knowledge masks the complexity of the constructs they claim to measure. The authors first scrutinise task elements in two widely...
exploring the lexical profiles of learners on productive vocabulary tasks
exploring the extent to which word shape influences visual recognition of words
An increasing number of high-stakes mathematics standardised tests around the world place an emphasis on using mathematical word problems to assess students’ mathematical understanding. Not only do these assessments require children to think mathematically, but making sense of these tests’ mathematical word problems also brings children’s language...
L2 models developed in response to L1 (Levelt, 1989) Various attempts to account for L2 lexical development (e.g. Jiang, 2000; Jiang, 2002; Pavlenko, 2009; Thierry & Wu 2011) Suggestions that different bilinguals develop at different rates Potential implications for pedagogy and practice?
reports an attempt to explore potential relationships between second language (L2) oral ability, in particular fluency measures, and vocabulary knowledge Motivation for this exploration stems from three related research strands suggesting: (i) L1 influences on L2 behaviour; (ii) L2 lexical choices reflect those made in the L1; and, (iii) few studie...
The current paper is a tentative investigation designed to explore relationships between fluency and vocabulary
Exploring the elements required to develop fluency in a UK academic context
exploring developing constructs in the study abroad context
Exploring the RHM with word associations
This study tests Jiang’s (2004) 3-stage model of second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition. Jiang observed continued first language (L1) [Korean] semantic mediation in L2 processing among advanced L2 speakers. We hypothesise, however, that mediation might depend on the developing proficiency of the L2 learner and the relationship between L1 and L...
exploring the RHM with word associations
The main purpose of the work described in this paper is to examine the extent to which the L2 developmental changes predicted by Kroll and Stewart's (1994) Revised Hierarchical Model (RHM) can be understood by word association response behaviour. The RHM attempts to account for the relative “strength of the links between words and concepts in each...
This paper assesses the performance of a vocabulary test designed to measure second language productive vocabulary knowledge.The test, Lex30, uses a word association task to elicit vocabulary, and uses word frequency data to measure the vocabulary produced. Here we report firstly on the reliability of the test as measured by a test-retest study, a...
