Vocabulary size and the common European framework of reference for languages
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... This is demonstrated in Table 2 where vocabulary size is linked to the levels on the CEFR and to formal exams. As Table 2 demonstrates, students will likely require at least 1500 lemmatised words in English to advance from the CEFR A1 to A2 level and perhaps 1500 additional words to attain the B1 level (Milton, 2009). A vocabulary size in the high thousands, certainly over 5000 words, is required for anything like fluency in a European foreign language. ...
... The subjects on this study finished primary education knowing, on average about 3500 words in written form and 4300 in aural form. The relationship between vocabulary size on X-Lex and CEFR level among fully literate learners is now established (e.g., Alexiou & Milton, 2009;Milton, 2010;Milton & Hopwood 2022), and vocabulary knowledge of this order suggests the grade 6 cohort are at B2 level and most could pass a B2 level exam such as Cambridge FCE. The aural scores are higher than this, and may reflect an even higher level of communicative proficiency, perhaps C1, however, the relationship between Pic-lex scores and CEFR level is not yet well researched. ...
... This focal role of vocabulary in language learning has urged academics to explore the totality of lexical repertoire of English as an FL in various levels as well as the hourly intake of lexis by students. In this vein, Roghani (2017) The above figures seem to be in line with the estimates presented by Milton and Alexiou (2009) regarding the vocabulary amount, which corresponds to each CEFR (2001) level. Moreover, it should be stated that Cameron (2001) reckoned that the average speed of word uptake per hour can be set at 4 words referring to the young learners' classroom. ...
During the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, serious disruptions, including campus closures and a massive transfer to online ‘emergency remote teaching’ (ERT), have brought unparalleled repercussions to all tertiary academic fields, including foreign language (FL) teaching and learning. This paper presents the results of a survey conducted among Greek HE students. In total, 367 responses
were collected from students who had attended university FL modules during the 2020 spring
lockdown. Results revealed high attendance rates, which seem to relate to the novelty of the online
learning experience and the participants’ positive feelings towards transitioning to the online mode, while increased screen exposure and lack of interactive engagement appeared as the primary impediments. Issues of equity of access due to technological deficiencies were also raised. Ambivalent evaluations were recorded with regards to online FL learning courses, with students reporting the
least progress in their speaking skills development. However, the teaching material used was overall positively evaluated, along with recorded gains in students’ digital literacy. It is hoped that this study could shed light on the consequences of what has been the most challenging academic transition in recent decades and prepare for future contingency plans and emerging opportunities in FL teaching in HE.
... This is demonstrated in Table 2 where vocabulary size is linked to the levels on the CEFR and to formal exams. As Table 2 demonstrates, students will likely require at least 1500 lemmatised words in English to advance from the CEFR A1 to A2 level and perhaps 1500 additional words to attain the B1 level (Milton, 2009). A vocabulary size in the high thousands, certainly over 5000 words, is required for anything like fluency in a European foreign language. ...
... The subjects on this study finished primary education knowing, on average about 3500 words in written form and 4300 in aural form. The relationship between vocabulary size on X-Lex and CEFR level among fully literate learners is now established (e.g., Alexiou & Milton, 2009;Milton, 2010;Milton & Hopwood 2022), and vocabulary knowledge of this order suggests the grade 6 cohort are at B2 level and most could pass a B2 level exam such as Cambridge FCE. The aural scores are higher than this, and may reflect an even higher level of communicative proficiency, perhaps C1, however, the relationship between Pic-lex scores and CEFR level is not yet well researched. ...
... This focal role of vocabulary in language learning has urged academics to explore the totality of lexical repertoire of English as an FL in various levels as well as the hourly intake of lexis by students. In this vein, Roghani (2017) The above figures seem to be in line with the estimates presented by Milton and Alexiou (2009) regarding the vocabulary amount, which corresponds to each CEFR (2001) level. Moreover, it should be stated that Cameron (2001) reckoned that the average speed of word uptake per hour can be set at 4 words referring to the young learners' classroom. ...
... While reading materials for older learners become diverse, a wide variety of vocabularies thus turn out necessary. Research results suggest that vocabulary size measures might serve as a useful indicator to place L2 learners at an appropriate proficiency level (Milton & Alexiou, 2009). ...
... The same pattern was also observed within the low reading proficiency subgroup. In other words, the results lend support to previous research that & Alexiou, 2009) and that vocabulary does matter in text comprehension (Nation, 2006;Yamashita, 2013). ...
... The suggestion that vocabulary size be used as a useful indicator to place L2 learners at an appropriate proficiency level (Milton & Alexiou, 2009;Milton et al., 2010) might serve as the best explanation. It is commonly true that the more words a learner knows the more proficient the learner usually is. ...
p> The present study aimed to explore the relationship among vocabulary size, P honological A wareness (PA), and reading comprehension in English learners with low proficiency in Taiwan’s higher education. Forty-one university students who had taken the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) were recruited, 30 of whom were at a proficiency level much lower than B1 Threshold of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for Languages. Three PA subtests and a vocabulary size test were administered to all participants individually. Pearson’s correlations show that their TOEIC reading scores were correlated with the four measures when all 41 participants were included; however, among the 30 low-proficiency learners, their reading scores were correlated with Elision—one PA measure—and vocabulary size only. When parallel regression analyses were computed against all participants and the low-proficiency subgroup, the four measures altogether explained nearly 64% of the variance in their TOEIC reading scores in the former but the explained variance dropped drastically to around 40% in the latter. Among the four measures, vocabulary size was the only significant predictor of reading ability and accounted for the largest variance. Meanwhile, phonological awareness explained additional variance in reading comprehension. While different PA measures did not seem to make a difference to the whole sample, Elision seemed to have explained more variance and served as a better task to assess phonological awareness of the low-proficiency subgroup. </p
... The findings of the present study allow for comparisons with similar studies in English, Spanish, and other L2s. They are consistent with data reported, for example in Milton (2010), Milton and Alexiou (2009), Benigno and de Jong (2019) where learners at the A2 level in several L2s did not reach knowledge of the 3,000 most frequent words. The A2 level is roughly equivalent to the level of the L2 learners participating in this study (see Table 1). ...
... Although the tests used in both studies followed a Yes/No format, Robles Garcia's 3K-LEX does not include cognate words, which may have reduced the overall knowledge gains revealed in the test. As Milton and Alexiou (2009) suggest, effects of learners' L1 need to be taken into consideration when measuring vocabulary sizes. For example, Ozturk (2015) showed how scores were high in bands where cognate words (Turkish-English) were tested. ...
While studies on lexical development in English L2 abound, less is known about how learners develop their lexicons in other L2s and how their developmental paths relate to lexical frequency counts. To fill this gap, this longitudinal study tracks the receptive lexical knowledge of students who progress through three semesters of Spanish L2 in a US university. Using an online receptive vocabulary test taken at the end of each semester, this study explores what percentage of the 3,000 most frequent Spanish words (overall and by frequency band) these learners recognized. Factors influencing outcomes such as whether the students had Spanish courses before the university, or whether they spoke Spanish outside of class were also examined. Results are consistent with English L2 research. Moreover, as L2 learners' proficiency increased, less additional vocabulary was learned. Previous experiences and use of Spanish outside of class positively influenced scores. On average, learners could recognize around 65% of the most frequent 3,000 words by the end of the third semester. These findings have practical implications for designing the vocabulary component of language courses during and after the first three semesters.
... What is the case with early L2 lexical growth, though? Studies have revealed that after being exposed to English for five years, L2 young learners have acquired between 1000 to 2000 word families (Nation, 1990;Milton & Alexiou, 2009). It is evident therefore, that there is a big difference between L1 and L2 early childhood lexical growth. ...
... This could be explained due to the smaller amount of exposure as well as input foreign language young learners receive, compared to the native ones. This gap between L1 and L2 young learners' lexical growth (Milton & Alexiou, 2009) can be bridged with supplementary exposure of the second to a variety of 478 T. Alexiou materials, such as cartoon series, computer games, etc., that will assist in the increase of vocabulary uptake . Word frequency is another factor to be taken into consideration when it comes to vocabulary learning (Milton, 2009). ...
... It is more clearly understood that inclusion of the most frequently used words in vocabulary teaching will facilitate the comprehension of the target language. In fact, it is stated that the frequencies are important in vocabulary teaching (Milton & Alexiou, 2009;Staehr, 2008). However, in the context of Turkish, it may be misleading to start from the international studies in order to decide on how many words should be known in order to comprehend an ordinary narrative text at what rate. ...
... However, in the context of Turkish, it may be misleading to start from the international studies in order to decide on how many words should be known in order to comprehend an ordinary narrative text at what rate. The reason for this is the finding that the number of words required to be known to comprehend an ordinary narrative text varies between languages (Milton & Alexiou, 2009). ...
In this correlational study, the aim was to investigate the vocabulary of 31 Arab students who learned Turkish as a foreign language through lessons with distance education. Total words, different words, and the ratio of these two variables, word frequencies were all measured. The correlations between the variables, and the differences between the categories and word counts were analyzed. Lastly, the word list was given. According to findings, the students wrote 57,5 words per participant, which consisted of 41.3 different words on average. The ratio between these two variables was 73.8%. Students wrote a total of 506 different words and 1781 total words. The most used 44 words consisted of the 52.9% of all words used by all participants. There was no correlation between age and other variables while total words had significant relationships with different words and the ratio. Similarly, different words had a correlation with the ratio. There were significant differences between male and female students according to different word numbers, while they were similar in total word counts and in ratio. Students had significantly better results in different and total word numbers as their proficiency classes (A1 and A2) got higher.
... Laufer and Nation (2012) describe the reasons for learners' difficulties when facing new words: if we assume that native speakers learn about 1,000 new word families per year until the age of 20, and that 98 per cent of a text's lexis can be understood if the reader can recall 8,000 word families, the sheer enormity of the task becomes clear (Laufer and Nation, 2012: 165 and 169, see also Schmitt, 2008). It is difficult to pin a number of vocabulary items to each Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) level because opinions vary (see Milton and Alexiou, 2009). However, it is safe to assume that an ab initio learner has to acquire vocabulary in a relatively short time. ...
Recent technological advances and access to authentic input have promoted autonomous and incidental target language (TL) vocabulary learning. Very few studies, however, have so far put focus on both incidental learning of the word stress aspect of potentially new lexis and the influence of the repetition variable on this process, while viewing authentic videos. Similarly, there is very limited research on determining the critical number of repetitions needed to effectively learn word stress aspect of potentially new vocabulary by using authentic videos with captions. To address these three issues, Spanish participants from an incidental learning group were asked to watch 5 hours of authentic TV documentary with English captions, where eleven target words had from 2 to 112 repetitions. The general results revealed an apparent better performance of the incidental group in comparison to the control one. Nevertheless, a more detailed statistical analysis of the results for each target word has proven to be not significant. Furthermore, no statistically significant correlation between the increase in the number of repetitions and successful learning of the word stress was detected and, as a consequence, it was unfortunately impossible to determine the critical number of repetitions for successful incidental acquisition of the word stress aspect of new lexis while viewing authentic videos.
English is considered to be difficult due its different natures with Bahasa Indonesia both in pronouncing and writing. However, English textbooks are widely used in many program studies including in radiology. Therefore, many students have difficulties in understanding and comprehending the books due to their limited English ability especially related to English vocabularies and grammatical. This study aimed to acknowledge lexically and syntactically the linguistics features used in the textbook of Radiographic Positioning and Related Anatomy, which is a must-read book used during the study in the study program of Radiology. The method applied in this Corpus Linguistic study was a combination of quantitative method by using a concordancer called AntConc to analyze the radiology book quntitatively to get the word frequency list, and qualitative method in analyzing the quantitative data to describe the language features used in the textbook. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses show the most common vocabularies, word classes, and sentence patterns used in the text book that will be used to compose a pocket dictionary, which will help the radiography students to understand the radiological terms and comprehend many radiological sources autonomously and easily. Furthermore, through the dictionary, the students will not only be able to understand and comprehend many radiological texts but they will also be able to write texts and even discuss radiological topics in English autonomously. Results of the study show that AntConc has benefited the researchers since it has been able to assist the researchers in providing needed lexical and syntactical information of the textbook.  Bahasa Inggris dianggap sulit karena berbeda dengan bahasa Indonesia baik dalam pengucapan maupun penulisannya. Walaupun demikian, di Indonesia buku-buku teks berbahasa Inggris banyak digunakan di berbagai program studi termasuk di bidang radiologi. Oleh karena itu, banyak mahasiswa mendapatkan kesulitan untuk mengerti dan memahami buku-buku berbahasa Inggris tersebut karena keterbatasan pengetahuan Bahasa Inggris mereka terutama berkaitan dengan kosakata dan gramatika bahasa Inggris. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui fitur linguistik dalam bentuk kosakata dan gramatika yang digunakan dalam buku Radiographic Positioning and Related Anatomy. Buku ini merupakan buku yang wajib dipelajari mahasiswa di Program Studi Radiologi. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode gabungan antara kuantitatif dan kualitatif. Dengan menggunakan perangkat lunak konkordansi AntConc data dianalisis secara kuantitaif untuk mendapatkan daftar kata berdasarkan kekerapannya. Selanjutnya, metode kualitatif diaplikasikan untuk menganalisis dan menjelaskan data yang dihasilkan. Analisis kuantitatif dan kualitatif tersebut menghasilkan daftar kosakata, kelas kata, dan pola kalimat yang sering muncul dan akan digunakan untuk menyusun kamus mini buku tersebut. Keberadaan kamus ini diharapkan dapat membantu mahasiswa radiologi untuk memahami terminologi radiologi dan memahami banyak teks radiologi secara mandiri dengan mudah. Lebih lanjut lagi, mahasiswa tidak hanya mampu memahami banyak teks radiologi tetapi juga mampu memproduksi teks, bahkan berdiskusi tentang radigrafi dalam bahasa Inggris secara madiri. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan perangkat AntCont telah memberikan manfaat kepada peneliti karena perangkat ini telah mampu membantu peneliti untuk mempersiapkan informasi leksikal dan gramatikal bahasa Inggris yang terdapat pada buku radiologi di atas.
This thesis is about the dynamics of peshat and derash in the commentary of Rashi on the bible. The contributions of this doctoral thesis are the following: i) Peshat (the straightforward meaning of the text)is identified with the nuances understood by a literate speaker (for example: The word "drive" in English implies "by car"); ii) Rashi was very familiar with many concepts of modern grammar which the rest of the Northern School was unaware of: For example Rashi knew of TAM (See Rashi comments on Ex. 15:1; also see his interpretation of the form QaTol as a durative command (i.e. a command with repetitive application) on Ex. 20:8; also see his pragmatic anticipation of the Qatal-VaYiQToL distinction as indicating a switching of scenes on Gen. 4:1); iii) Rashi was totally familiar with the modern treatment of parallelism including parallel passages as indicating climax; the sources that seem to suggest that Rashi was unaware (or struggling) with parallelism (such as his comments on Ps. 9:5) are refuted using texts from the Mesorah Parvah and Magna; iv) the Maimonideean approach that Bilam's vision of the talking donkey happened in a dream is systematically extended to all prophecies; all prophecies including the Decalogue and the Akeydah occurred through the medium of dreams; this approach while very novel resolves many problems; iv) it is shown (hinted at by the works of other scholars like Gamliel and Teshima) that Rashi's commentary was not authority-based (his goal was not to summarize what previous authorities had said) but rather database-based (his goal was to uncover very find nuances based on broad queries of the biblical text); v) a comprehensive and new theory of metaphor (including symbolism and figures of speech) is presented; it is based on experience of speakers and not on comparative linguistics (e.g. the word "honey" means "sweet" precisely because in the experience-base of most speakers "honey" is a frequently encountered example of sweetness); this new approach allows us (or at least we so attempted) to analyze texts without the necessity of extensive comparative linguistics; vi) Rashi frequently expressed abstract ideas using familiar concrete examples; he also frequently associated Peshat with exaggerated metaphors; this accounts for the appearance that Rashi was not very deep when in fact he was; vii) Seven distinct meanings are given to "derash"; it is shown that only one of them refers to total homily; five of the other six meanings refer to reasonable interpretations of the text that are true but not peshat; finally the 7th meaning of derash refers to the nuances understood by a literate speaker (for example that "drive" implies "by car"; this richer vocabulary allows to satisfactorally resolve the peshat-derash dichotomy.
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