Researching And Analyzing Vocabulary

Written for researchers and graduate students in the field of vocabulary studies, Researching and Analyzing Vocabulary covers a wide range of vocabulary research topics that include experimental, qualitative, and corpus-based work. The study of vocabulary has direct implications for teaching and learning while enhancing student knowledge of research practices.

The book overviews a wide range of vocabulary research methodologies, and offers practical advice on how to carry out valid and reliable research on first and second language vocabulary. It includes a Resources section which outlines the lexical tests, corpora, software, internet sites, and other resources available to vocabulary researchers.

This book introduces an innovative collection of easy-to-use computer programs that have been developed to measure and model vocabulary knowledge. The book aims to help researchers discover new instruments for lexical analysis, and provides a theoretical framework in which studies with such tools could be conducted. Each of the programs comes with a short manual explaining how to use the program, an example of a published paper that uses the program and a set of questions that readers can develop into proper projects. The programs can be used in real research projects and have the potential to break new ground for research in L2 vocabulary acquisition. The book will be of great use to final year undergraduates and masters students in applied linguistics, second language acquisition, psycholinguistics and language testing and to PhD students doing research methods courses.

Understanding vocabulary and its role in language learning is one of the central tasks of applied linguistic research. It is also an area that has seen, and continues to see, huge progress in terms of the complexity and diversity of work being done. While this makes for a rich and exciting research scene, it can also make the task of developing vocabulary research skills a daunting one as specialist subfields develop ever more sophisticated concepts and methods. This book aims to give readers an understanding of the area that is both detailed and rounded by introducing them to understanding and doing vocabulary research from four key perspectives: corpus linguistics, psycholinguistics, language testing, and teaching and learning. Within each area, a state-of-the-art review describes fundamental concepts and commonly used methods, evaluates ongoing methodological debates, and points to areas for future development. It aims both to give readers a solid grounding in the specialized methods and debates associated with each area and to build connections across these specializations, considering points of contact and ways in which they can work together.

This volume brings together a collection of chapters focused on the learning, testing, and researching of L2 vocabulary by leading international researchers including Paul Nation, Batia Laufer, Frank Boers, Elke Peters, Ana Pellicer-Sánchez, Anna Siyanova-Chanturia, and Stuart Webb. Questions that are examined include: Is it useful to read a book to learn vocabulary? Which types of input encountered outside of the classroom contribute most to vocabulary knowledge? What are the most useful words to learn to understand the academic spoken language in mathematics, biology, and engineering lectures? Does writing words contribute to vocabulary learning? What should a test measuring the skill of guessing from context consist of? Should loan words be included in vocabulary tests? How should we evaluate vocabulary learning that occurs through watching captioned video? How has eye-tracking been used in vocabulary research? Together, the chapters in this volume highlight innovation in vocabulary studies and many directions for researching, testing, and learning words. Originally published as special issue of ITL – International Journal of Applied Linguistics 169:1 (2018)

This guide to vocabulary acquisition is essential reading for teachers of English as a second or foreign language. It presents the major ideas and principles that relate to the teaching and learning of vocabulary and evaluates a wide range of practical activities designed to help boost students’ vocabulary acquisition. Key questions which are answered include: • How many words should students learn at a time, and how often? • How much classroom time should be spent teaching vocabulary? • What is the best way to group vocabulary for learning? • Is it useful to provide students with the L1 translations of unknown words? • Why do some students make greater progress than others? stuart webb is Professor in Applied Linguistics at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. paul nation is Emeritus Professor in Applied Linguistics at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Teachers will find answers to many of their perennial questions about vocabulary learning—as well as some they had not yet thought to ask! There is research evidence to support established practices, but also new evidence that challenges old ideas. patsy lightbown (co-author of How Languages are Learned, with Nina Spada)

This highly regarded work brings together prominent authorities on vocabulary teaching and learning to provide a comprehensive yet concise guide to effective instruction. The book showcases practical ways to teach specific vocabulary words and word-learning strategies and create engaging, word-rich classrooms. Instructional activities and games for diverse learners are brought to life with detailed examples. Drawing on the most rigorous research available, the editors and contributors distill what PreK-8 teachers need to know and do to support all students' ongoing vocabulary growth and enjoyment of reading. New to This Edition*Reflects the latest research and instructional practices.*New section (five chapters) on pressing current issues in the field: assessment, authentic reading experiences, English language learners, uses of multimedia tools, and the vocabularies of narrative and informational texts.*Contributor panel expanded with additional leading researchers.

This book presents the current state of knowledge in the vibrant and diverse field of vocabulary studies, reporting innovative empirical investigations, summarising the latest research, and showcasing topics for future investigation. The chapters are organised around the key themes of theorising and measuring vocabulary knowledge, formulaic language, and learning and teaching vocabulary. Written by world-leading vocabulary experts from across the globe, the contributions present a variety of research perspectives and methodologies, offering insights from cutting-edge work into vocabulary, its learning and use. The book will be essential reading for postgraduate students and researchers interested in the area of second language acquisition, with a particular focus on vocabulary, as well as to those working in the broader fields of applied linguistics, TESOL and English studies.