Content uploaded by Philip Riccobono
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Philip Riccobono on Mar 13, 2021
Content may be subject to copyright.
Towards Increasing English Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size through a university-wide
Reading Course: Assessment, Approaches and Implications
- 1 -
Towards Increasing English Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size through a
university-wide Reading Course: Assessment, Approaches and Implications
Philip S. Riccobono
Abstract
This action based research pilot study examines the changes in receptive written
vocabulary size (VS) of N= 42 English language learners participating in uncoordinated
university-wide reading courses over a 15-week semester. Employing the Vocabulary
Size Test of the New General Service List as a pre-post test instrument to measure
vicissitudes over a semester, results indicate statistically significant variations (p < .05)
within two of three groups examined in this study: beginner, intermediate, upper. This
paper examines pedagogy when rationalizing improvement or regression in VS or
vocabulary knowledge amongst practitioners’ approaches to facilitating the reading
course. This research provides English language educators with insight in relation to
increasing vocabulary sizes as well as an exploration of pedagogical implications and
praxis when facilitating a university reading course to English learners.
1. Introduction
Vocabulary studies in foreign language teaching report that vocabulary
knowledge serves as fundamental for interacting in such a particular language (Laufer,
1992; Nation, 2006). Adolphs and Schmitt (2003) inform that, at least, 2,000 words have
to be mastered in order to attain comprehension in around 90% and 94% of spoken
discourse in different contexts so that gaining command of the 2,000-3,000 most frequent
words (e.g., of the Cambridge English Corpus, British National Corpus, Corpus of
Contemporary American English) as soon as possible is vital for language learners to
communicate in both spoken and written forms in a foreign language (Nation & Waring,
1997). Nation (2006) has claimed that for 98% coverage of a text, 8,000 to 9,000 words
are needed for grasp of written text and a vocabulary of 6,000 to 7,000 words for
comprehension of spoken text. Moreover, Hirsh and Nation (1992) also inform that
knowledge of 5,000 words is essential to appreciate reading, while Ghanbaria and
Marzbanb (2014) report that increasing vocabulary fosters confidence in communication
for English language learners (ELL). Therefore, increasing vocabulary knowledge
through an English reading course represents a significant goal, which will serve to
benefit learners’ communication skills.
Despite studies of examining an increase of vocabulary size (VS) for ELL with
widely used vocabulary lists such as GSL, AWL, NGSL, (e.g., Nation & Belgar, 2007;
－ 29 －
Towards Increasing English Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size through a university-wide
Reading Course: Assessment, Approaches and Implications
- 2 -
Shin'ichi, Yan, Jie, & Haiyan, 2015; Shin, Chon & Kim, 2011), in relation to the purpose
of the current study, there is a need for research available on the changes in receptive
written VS (deliberate or incidental) of English language learners in Japan and a
relationship with university-wide reading courses, particularly in connection to the
changes from the beginning of a 15-week semester to the end, with analysis of the type of
vocabulary that has been taught, and varying pedagogical approaches. As such, this study
on variations of university ELLs’ VS through completing a university-wide reading
course is needed to guide practitioners in the field as to the type of pedagogy that need to
be incorporated into instructional materials when facilitating reading classes, which could
increase VS.
1.1 Vocabulary Size in ELT
Nation (2001) suggests that a language learner’s size of vocabulary
knowledge indicates the number of words that individual knows at a particular level of
language proficiency. Data measuring a non-native speaker’s VS becomes useful when it
indicates how close the learner is to having enough vocabulary to be able to perform
certain tasks such in both written and spoken registers. Thus, to facilitate vocabulary
learning and ultimately increase VS for ELL, Browne, Culligan and Phillips (2013)
compiled the New General Service List (NGSL) consisting of core high frequency words
from sections of the Cambridge English Corpus, ultimately consisting of over 273
million words. The NGSL follows West’s (1953) General Service List (GSL) consisting
of core frequently used general English words from a 2.5 million-word corpus. Browne,
Culligan and Phillips (2013) suggest that NGSL serves as an improved more recent list
compared to GSL. As seen below (Figure 1), NGSL purports entry to studying
vocabulary in other genres of essential Englishes i.e., academic, TOEIC, business.
Therefore this study elected to utilize the NGSL vocabulary size test (VST) for the
purposes of assessing longitudinal VS for written receptive vocabulary knowledge and its
relationship to a university-wide reading course.
－ 30 －
Towards Increasing English Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size through a university-wide
Reading Course: Assessment, Approaches and Implications
- 3 -
Figure 1. Browne, Culligan & Phillips, 2013, Browne & Culligan, 2015
The general aim of this research paper is to examine ELL VS and its relationship
with completing a university-wide reading program. Therefore, the following two
research questions guide this study:
1. Does participating in a 15-week semester-long reading affect the size- increases or
decreases- in the VS of English Language Learners?
2. What pedagogical variances in facilitating a university reading course amongst
practitioners may relate to results in ELL increase or decrease of VS over the course of a
15- week semester?
2. Methodology
2.1 Mixed Methodology (MM)
This study’s MM approach is a powerful research design insofar as it harnesses
the strengths of both qualitative and quantitative methods (Creswell, 2003; Johnson &
Onwuegbuzie, 2004). Thus, this method was chosen to add to the robustness of this study
by serving as a potent tool for data triangulation. Answering the first research question
employs descriptive and Wilcoxon signed-rank test, a more robust, in-depth ranking
analysis than a paired t-test when identifying increases and decreases amongst members
from paired pre to post test results of particular groups i.e., beginner, intermediate, upper.
To answer research question #2, the study utilized focused coding (FC) of
frequently used words and phrases extracted from interviews in this study with
instructors of all 3 courses/groups, which follows initial coding in the first cycle coding
－ 31 －
Towards Increasing English Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size through a university-wide
Reading Course: Assessment, Approaches and Implications
- 4 -
method. FC searches for the most frequent or significant initial codes to develop “the
most salient categories” in the data and “requires decisions about which initial codes
make the most analytic sense” (Charmaz, 2006, p. 46, as cited in Saldana, 2009). FC was
selected as an effective coding strategy for the present study because of its recognized
facility in “virtually all qualitative studies” (Saldana, 2009, p. 155). However, FC centers
primarily on studies utilizing grounded theory methodology and developing key
categories from data.
2.2 Participants
This pilot study examines the change in VS of N= 42 English language learners
from varying backgrounds (Table 1) participating in a semester-long reading course visa
a vis pre-post instrument called the Vocabulary Size Test (VST). The study took place
during the Fall Semester 2017 at a university in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The participants
belonged to three different leveled groups/classes: beginner (n = 9, below 250 TOEIC
score), intermediate (n = 13, 250-350 TOEIC), upper (n = 20, above 350 TOEIC). This
study reports that the beginner group (n = 9) served as a control group, whereas these
participants received a weekly quiz on the words from NGSL used on the VST. Although
this quiz grade did not count toward the participant’s grade, they nonetheless had more
exposure during class time than the intermediate and upper groups throughout the
15-week semester. The instructors for the course came from varying backgrounds:
beginner course was facilitated by a non-native English speaker, having 6 years
experience with English language learners in a university setting, with an academic
background in behavioral psychology; intermediate level instructor had a Ph.D. in
TESOL and a native-English speaker with 10 years experience with university learners of
English; upper instructor held an MA in TESOL, native English speaker with 10 years
experience in university ELL.
Table 1. Nationality of Participants
N
ationality
Frequency Percent
Japan 19 45.2
N
epal 11 26.2
Vietnam 8 19.0
Indonesia 1 2.4
Thailand 3 7.1
Total 42 100.0
－ 32 －
Towards Increasing English Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size through a university-wide
Reading Course: Assessment, Approaches and Implications
- 5 -
2.3 VST Instrument
To gauge participants receptive vocabulary knowledge of frequently used core
English words, the authors employed the 100- item NGSL Vocabulary Size Test (VST)
for assessment. Thus the test is scored from 0-100 points. The test allows for analysis
of 5 bands of frequently used core vocabulary, with 20 items from each band. The test
takes approximately 40-60 to administer and widely used across the field of English
language teaching for measuring vocabulary knowledge (McLean, Hogg & Kramer,
2014). The practitioners in this study administered the pre-test in week 3 of the semester
and the post-test during the 15
th
week of the term. The VST score did not affect the
participant’s grade in the course, but did count toward class participation.
3. Results
3.1. Research Question 1: Quantitative results
When measuring an increase in VS or knowledge from the beginning to end of
a semester for the three reading groups/classes, descriptive statistics indicate an overall
increase in mean scores in pre-post comparison (Figure 2).
Figure 2. VST Mean Scores Pre-Post Test
In examining each group’s mean and median scores (Table 2), findings suggest an actual
1 point decrease from pre-test (47) to post-test (46) scores for the beginner class 50th
percentile median scores, yet an increase 3.5 point increase in mean scores from pre-test
(M = 46.66, SD = 9.34); post test (M = 50.11, SD = 12.20). This study shall note that
sometimes the median represents a better measure of central tendency than the mean, as it
is less sensitive than the mean to extreme observations (Westfall, 2014).
As for the other classes, the intermediate class VST mean and median scores
improved by 8%, while the upper group’s pre-test to post-test mean scores increased by
－ 33 －
Towards Increasing English Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size through a university-wide
Reading Course: Assessment, Approaches and Implications
- 6 -
over 5%, median indicated a rise of 4 points from vocabulary knowledge of NGSL words
from the beginning to end of the semester.
Table 2. Beginner, Intermediate, Upper NGSL VST Pre-Post Test Scores
Class
N
M
S.D. Min. Max. Percentiles
25th 50th
(Median)
75th
Beginner
NGSL Pre
Test
NGSL Post_Test
9
9
46.66
50.11
9.34
12.20
37.00
37.00
66.00
73.00
38.00
40.00
47.00
46.00
51.50
60.50
Int.
N
GSL_Pre_Test_ 13 55.15 10.75 36.00 79.00 48.50 53.00 60.00
N
GSL_Post_Test_ 13 63.38 14.49 38.00 94.00 53.50 61.00 72.00
Upper
N
GSL_Pre_Test_ 20 77.20 12.33 46.00 96.00 73.25 80.00 85.75
N
GSL_Post_Test_ 20 82.95 9.36 58.00 94.00 77.50 84.00 91.25
A Wilcoxon signed-rank test (Appendix A) showed that a 15-week-semester,
once per week reading course perhaps elicited a statistically significant change in VS of
NGSL word-types for individuals in the intermediate (Z = -2.716, p = 0.007) and upper
(Z = -3.578, p < .001) classes. The findings also indicated no statistical difference in
change of the VS for the beginner group (Z = -1.192, p = 0.233) as noted earlier, both pre
and post test mean and median scores remained closer than the other groups. The
Wilcoxon signed-rank test table (Appendix A) also indicates in a pre (before) post (after)
comparison that 56% of the beginner participants saw a positive change in their scores,
for the intermediate learners 77% improved their VS of NGSL words and the upper level
resulted in 85% of the group improving over the course of the semester.
3.2 Research Question 2: Qualitative Results
Through interviews with practitioners in this study, the following focused coded
findings indicate approaches to teaching the reading classes respectively, which may
have deliberately or incidentally affected increases or decreases in NGSL VST results.
－ 34 －
Towards Increasing English Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size through a university-wide
Reading Course: Assessment, Approaches and Implications
- 7 -
Table 3. Varying approaches to teaching university reading course
Class Weekly
Homework
Class Activities Extended
Reading
Assessments
Beginner -review -in-text reading w/
comprehension
questions
NA -weekly practice
vocabulary quiz on
NGSL types from
VST- practitioner
did not indicate
which words nor
reveal words were
NGSL types.
Intermediate -review
-read select reading
from textbook in
-preparation for
weekly quiz
-extended reading
(MReader)
-independent
vocabulary exercises
inclusive or
negotiation for
meaning
- extensive reading
-timed reading
MReader.org
platform with the goal
reading 10,000 words
across graded readers-
a
semester-long-activity
mainly outside of
class
-weekly graded
reading
comprehension quiz
based on textbook
readings
Upper -review -vocabulary journal
for textbook lists
-Pictionary
-word association
-in-text reading w/
comprehension
questions
-paired oral extensive
reading-peer assisted
negotiation for
meanings
-practice
vocabulary quiz of
textbook words
Overlapping
pedagogy
Review (3) -in-text reading w/
comprehension
questions (2)
-extensive reading
(3)
-extensive reading (2) -weekly practice
vocabulary quiz (3)
4. Discussion
The findings in this study do suggest an overall increase in NGSL VS in the
span of one 15-week semester. Whether participants VS grew increased through
deliberate or incidental learning merits exploration.
－ 35 －
Towards Increasing English Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size through a university-wide
Reading Course: Assessment, Approaches and Implications
- 8 -
Although the data presented here only contains one semester of findings, the
beginner group appears to be the least improved and exhibited an actual decrease in
knowledge on the post-test: 33% of the beginners declined in mean scores. While not
expecting the beginner group to compete with intermediate and upper participants in
terms of similar scores, the instructor of such a group with lower command of written
receptive English vocabulary (in comparison to other groups) could investigate
employing pedagogy similar to the intermediate and upper classes (Table 3) for possible
improvement of VS when planning for future facilitation of such a course based on the
increase in VS from those participants representing the majority of those tested in this
study.
Nevertheless, motivation may have factored into the decline in scores for the
beginner group. As indicated by the beginner instructor, participants knew that the
post-test did not count toward their final grade and indicated that perhaps a lack of
motivation ensued on the part of these n=9 participants, whereas in the beginning of the
semester, students perhaps lacked knowledge of this, resulting in greater effort and
motivation for the pre-test.
As mentioned earlier, the n = 13 intermediate participants indicated the greatest
increase in VS for this study, followed by the upper group. This statistically significant
increase in VS may have arrived through several approaches, fostering incidental
learning of NGSL word-types Specifically, when investigating the implications of results
in this study, MReader, an extensive reading platform may have served as the key
approach to the intermediate groups’ increase in VS (based on both mean and median
scores) (Table 2). MReader represented a unique approach to facilitating the reading
courses. Also, graded select textbook reading comprehension quizzes conceivable led to
incidental learning of NGSL VST-types, also accounting for a rationale for the
intermediate group accounting for the largest increase in vocabulary knowledge in this
study. Follow-up research invites a closer examination of the effects of the
aforementioned two approaches and their relationship to increasing VS across
participants of equal and varying levels of English.
The implementation of extensive reading (Table 3), orthographically and orally,
on the part of instructors may have influenced the rise in scores amongst these n = 33
ELL, perhaps via incidental and deliberate vocabulary learning; these approaches fall in
line with Yoshii (2014) in relation to attempting to integrate incidental and deliberate
vocabulary learning in a reading activities without sacrificing the enjoyment of reading.
Incidentally, as informed by Ghanbaria and Marzbanb (2014), extensive reading serves in
multiple realms of language learning:
1. It can provide 'comprehensible input'
2. It can enhance learners' general language competence
3. It increases the students' exposure to the language
－ 36 －
Towards Increasing English Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size through a university-wide
Reading Course: Assessment, Approaches and Implications
- 9 -
4. It can increase knowledge of vocabulary
5. It can lead to improvement in writing
6. It can motivate learners to read
7. It can consolidate previously learned language
8. It helps to build confidence with extended texts
9. It encourages the exploitation of textual redundancy
10. It facilitates the development of prediction skills
Moreover, research indicates that a relationship exists between an increase in VS and the
extensive reading approach, but not without question for further analysis of the most
efficient pedagogies to foster incidental learning of vocabulary:
It is widely agreed that much second language vocabulary learning occurs
incidentally while the learner is engaged in extensive reading. After a
decade of intensive research, however, the incidental learning of
vocabulary is still not fully understood, and many questions remain
unsettled. Key unresolved issues include the actual mechanism of
incidental acquisition, the type and size of vocabulary needed for accurate
guessing, the degree of exposure to a word needed for successful
acquisition, the efficacy of different word-guessing strategies, the value of
teaching explicit guessing strategies, the influence of different kinds of
reading texts, the effects of input modification, and, more generally, the
problems with incidental learning (Huckin & Coady, 1999).
These issues mentioned certainly deserve consideration for a follow-up study to
more exactly identify which approaches utilized by instructors in this study
reaped the most improvement. However, the data in this study suggests that
perhaps any of the activities utilized by the intermediate and upper classes
fostered effective incidental learning, as they did not focus on deliberately
teaching NGSL types throughout the course of the semester and yet, encountered
statistically significant improvements of VS.
Feasibly some deliberate learning for NGSL VST vocabulary words may have
less likely occurred in the beginner group, as these participants had been privies to NGSL
words during weekly quizzes, prior to post-VST. Therefore, perhaps, both intermediate
and upper groups increased their vocabulary knowledge/size of NGSL word-types
through incidental learning. Approaches in the intermediate course that may have
affected increases on post VST test: MReader, timed reading, paired and vocabulary
learning group activities i.e., Pictionary, word association, vocabulary journaling.
As evident in this discussion of the implications in this study, it appears that a
likelihood exists that incidental vocabulary approaches to teaching reading courses
－ 37 －
Towards Increasing English Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size through a university-wide
Reading Course: Assessment, Approaches and Implications
- 10 -
account for the statistically significant improvements in VS exhibited by participants in
the intermediate and upper course. Such pedagogy chosen falls in line with active
learning as prescribed by the Japanese ruling agency on educational goals MEXT (2014).
5. Limitations
The study could expand its analysis by checking for overlap of between NGSL
types, extended reading words, textbooks and other lexicon introduced in all other
activities. This data may allow for clearer implications in this study. Moreover, to arrive
at more concrete findings to whether deliberate or incidental learning occurred for an
increase NGSL VS knowledge, a check for overlap needs to occur- NGSL types with
vocabulary introduced in text, extended readings, other activities. However, the
feasibility of such an endeavor remains an issue. Perhaps, examining the overlap of
NGSL VST-types and one particular activity seems more palpable i.e., in-class extensive
uniform reading texts. Another area for improvement calls for collecting additional
longitudinal data from over 1-2 years with more participants, increasing the reliability
and validity of findings.
6. Conclusion
This paper has reported changes in VS amongst N = 42 ELL of varying L1
backgrounds studying at a university in Japan. Data indicates the common pedagogical
thread of extended reading employed by 2 practitioners in this study merits
implementation into pedagogy for a readings course for improvement in VS. Moving
ahead, when considering increasing ELL learners VS through a reading course,
curriculum-based textbooks, which may be based on word lists of NGSL, particularly in
English language teaching contexts merit consideration- Browne, Culligan and Phillips
(2015) inform that NGSL lexicon serves as a an entry port to other special purposes
vocabulary for ELL i.e., TOEIC, Business English. Such lexicon stands as relevant and
applicable to the goals of learners in this particular university- TOEIC determines entry
into upper level English course as well as job placement with many students upon
graduation.
This control group in this study, albeit small, indicates that perhaps introducing
NGSL words found on the NGSL VST, is not necessarily the most effective approach to
increasing VS. According to results in this study, a more incidental learning approach is
advisable i.e., extensive reading. Extensive reading as discussed earlier in this paper,
fosters incidental learning, which in turn has shown to increase vocabulary knowledge for
ELL in other aforementioned studies. Therefore, this study finds that varying approaches
to extensive reading may increase VS for ELL- utilizing MReader perhaps yields the
greatest increase as evident with the intermediate n = 13 learners in this study. In closing,
the notion of a coordinated reading program, implementing similar pedagogical
－ 38 －
Towards Increasing English Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size through a university-wide
Reading Course: Assessment, Approaches and Implications
- 11 -
approaches (which perhaps increase written receptive vocabulary size for learners) merits
consideration for planning university-wide reading courses.
References
Adolphs, S., & Schmitt, N. (2003). Lexical coverage of spoken discourse. Applied
Linguistics, 24(4), 425-438.
Browne, C., Culligan, B., & Phillips, J. The new general service list. 2013.[Internet.
Accessed January 30, 2015.].
Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through
qualitative analysis. London: Sage.
Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Ghanbari, M., & Marzban, A. (2014). Effect of extensive reading on incidental
vocabulary retention. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116,
3854-3858.
Hirsh, D., & Nation, I. S. P. (1992). What vocabulary size is needed to read unsimplified
texts for pleasure? Reading in a Foreign Language, 8(2), 689-696.
Huckin, T., & Coady, J. (1999). Incidental vocabulary acquisition in a second language:
A review. Studies in second language acquisition, 21(2), 181-193.
Johnson, R. B., & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2004). Mixed methods research: A research
paradigm whose time has come. Educational Researcher, 33(7), 14–26.
Laufer, B. (1992). How much lexis is necessary for reading comprehension? In, P. J. L.
Arnaud & H. Bejoint (Eds.), Vocabulary and applied linguistics (pp. 126- 132).
London: Macmillan.
McLean, S., Hogg, N., & Kramer, B. (2014). Estimations of Japanese university learners’
English vocabulary sizes using the vocabulary size test. Vocabulary Learning
and Instruction, 3(2), 47-55.
Towards Increasing English Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size through a university-wide
Reading Course: Assessment, Approaches and Implications
- 10 -
account for the statistically significant improvements in VS exhibited by participants in
the intermediate and upper course. Such pedagogy chosen falls in line with active
learning as prescribed by the Japanese ruling agency on educational goals MEXT (2014).
5. Limitations
The study could expand its analysis by checking for overlap of between NGSL
types, extended reading words, textbooks and other lexicon introduced in all other
activities. This data may allow for clearer implications in this study. Moreover, to arrive
at more concrete findings to whether deliberate or incidental learning occurred for an
increase NGSL VS knowledge, a check for overlap needs to occur- NGSL types with
vocabulary introduced in text, extended readings, other activities. However, the
feasibility of such an endeavor remains an issue. Perhaps, examining the overlap of
NGSL VST-types and one particular activity seems more palpable i.e., in-class extensive
uniform reading texts. Another area for improvement calls for collecting additional
longitudinal data from over 1-2 years with more participants, increasing the reliability
and validity of findings.
6. Conclusion
This paper has reported changes in VS amongst N = 42 ELL of varying L1
backgrounds studying at a university in Japan. Data indicates the common pedagogical
thread of extended reading employed by 2 practitioners in this study merits
implementation into pedagogy for a readings course for improvement in VS. Moving
ahead, when considering increasing ELL learners VS through a reading course,
curriculum-based textbooks, which may be based on word lists of NGSL, particularly in
English language teaching contexts merit consideration- Browne, Culligan and Phillips
(2015) inform that NGSL lexicon serves as a an entry port to other special purposes
vocabulary for ELL i.e., TOEIC, Business English. Such lexicon stands as relevant and
applicable to the goals of learners in this particular university- TOEIC determines entry
into upper level English course as well as job placement with many students upon
graduation.
This control group in this study, albeit small, indicates that perhaps introducing
NGSL words found on the NGSL VST, is not necessarily the most effective approach to
increasing VS. According to results in this study, a more incidental learning approach is
advisable i.e., extensive reading. Extensive reading as discussed earlier in this paper,
fosters incidental learning, which in turn has shown to increase vocabulary knowledge for
ELL in other aforementioned studies. Therefore, this study finds that varying approaches
to extensive reading may increase VS for ELL- utilizing MReader perhaps yields the
greatest increase as evident with the intermediate n = 13 learners in this study. In closing,
the notion of a coordinated reading program, implementing similar pedagogical
－ 39 －
Towards Increasing English Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size through a university-wide
Reading Course: Assessment, Approaches and Implications
- 12 -
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). (2014). Japan
Report on the Future Improvement and Enhancement of English Education
(Outline): Five Recommendations on the English Education Reform Plan
Responding to the Rapid Globalization. Retrieved from
http://www.mext.go.jp/english/topics/1356541.htm
Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Nation, I. S. P. (2006). How large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening?
Canadian Modern Language Review, 63(1), 59-82.
Nation, I. S. P., & Beglar, D. (2007). A vocabulary size test. The Language Teacher,
31(7), 9-13.
Nation, I. S. P., & Waring, R. (1997). Vocabulary size, text coverage and word lists. In
N. Schmitt & M. McCarthy (Eds.), Vocabulary: Description, acquisition and
pedagogy (pp. 6-19). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Saldana, J. (2009). First cycle coding methods. In J. Saldana (Ed.), The coding manual
for qualitative researchers (pp. 45–145). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications.
Shin, D., Chon, Yuah V., & Kim, H. (2011). Receptive and
productive vocabulary sizes of high school learners: What next for the basic
word list? English Teaching, 66(3), 27-152.
Shin'ichi, H., Yan, Y., Jie, S., & Haiyan, Z. (2015, August). Profiling Japanese EST
students' vocabulary ability using the New General Service List Test (NGSLT)
and the New Academic Word List Test (NAWLT). In Advanced Mechatronic
Systems (ICAMechS), 2015 International Conference on (pp. 170-173). IEEE.
West, M. P. (1953). A general service list of English words. With semantic frequencies
and a supplementary word-list for the writing of popular science and
technology.
Compiled and edited by M. West. (Revised and enlarged edition). London:
Longmans, Green & Company.
Westfall, P. H. (2014). Kurtosis as peakedness, 1905–2014. RIP. The American
Statistician, 68(3), 191-195.
－ 40 －
Towards Increasing English Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size through a university-wide
Reading Course: Assessment, Approaches and Implications
- 13 -
Yoshii, M. (2014). Effects of glosses and reviewing of glossed words on L2 vocabulary
learning through reading. Vocabulary learning and instruction, 3(2), 19-30.
Appendix A
Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test of Groups Paired Pre-Post Test
This study would like to acknowledge Dr. Toshi Kuroda for his support and cooperation.
Towards Increasing English Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size through a university-wide
Reading Course: Assessment, Approaches and Implications
- 12 -
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). (2014). Japan
Report on the Future Improvement and Enhancement of English Education
(Outline): Five Recommendations on the English Education Reform Plan
Responding to the Rapid Globalization. Retrieved from
http://www.mext.go.jp/english/topics/1356541.htm
Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Nation, I. S. P. (2006). How large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening?
Canadian Modern Language Review, 63(1), 59-82.
Nation, I. S. P., & Beglar, D. (2007). A vocabulary size test. The Language Teacher,
31(7), 9-13.
Nation, I. S. P., & Waring, R. (1997). Vocabulary size, text coverage and word lists. In
N. Schmitt & M. McCarthy (Eds.), Vocabulary: Description, acquisition and
pedagogy (pp. 6-19). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Saldana, J. (2009). First cycle coding methods. In J. Saldana (Ed.), The coding manual
for qualitative researchers (pp. 45–145). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications.
Shin, D., Chon, Yuah V., & Kim, H. (2011). Receptive and
productive vocabulary sizes of high school learners: What next for the basic
word list? English Teaching, 66(3), 27-152.
Shin'ichi, H., Yan, Y., Jie, S., & Haiyan, Z. (2015, August). Profiling Japanese EST
students' vocabulary ability using the New General Service List Test (NGSLT)
and the New Academic Word List Test (NAWLT). In Advanced Mechatronic
Systems (ICAMechS), 2015 International Conference on (pp. 170-173). IEEE.
West, M. P. (1953). A general service list of English words. With semantic frequencies
and a supplementary word-list for the writing of popular science and
technology.
Compiled and edited by M. West. (Revised and enlarged edition). London:
Longmans, Green & Company.
Westfall, P. H. (2014). Kurtosis as peakedness, 1905–2014. RIP. The American
Statistician, 68(3), 191-195.
－ 41 －
