Volume 22, No. 1 Special Issue: In Honor of Paul Nation Lexical threshold revisited: Lexical text coverage, learners’ vocabulary size and reading comprehension

Lexical threshold revisited: Lexical text coverage, learners’ vocabulary size and reading comprehension

Repository record updated on:
May 22, 2020, 1:01 p.m.
Database record updated on:
Nov. 14, 2020, 1:24 a.m.
Last Harvested on:
Nov. 14, 2020, 1:24 a.m.
bitstream:
http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/66648/1/22_1_10125_66648_laufer.pdf
bitstream_txt:
http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/66648/2/22_1_10125_66648_laufer.pdf.txt
collection:
Volume 22, No. 1 Special Issue: In Honor of Paul Nation
contributor.author:
Laufer, Batia Ravenhorst-Kalovski, Geke C.
date.accessioned:
2020-05-22T02:09:30Z
date.available:
2020-05-22T02:09:30Z
date.issued:
2010-04
description.abstract:
We explore the relationship between second language (L2) learners’ vocabulary size, lexical text coverage that their vocabulary provides and their reading comprehension. We also conceptualize “adequate reading comprehension” and look for the lexical threshold for such reading in terms of coverage and vocabulary size. Vocabulary size was measured by the Levels Test, lexical coverage by the newest version of Vocabulary Profile and reading comprehension by a standardized national test. Results show that small increments of vocabulary knowledge contribute to reading comprehension even though they hardly improve text coverage. We suggest two thresholds: an optimal one, which is the knowledge of 8,000 word families yielding the coverage of 98% (including proper nouns) and a minimal one, which is 4,000–5,000 word families resulting in the coverage of 95% (including proper nouns).
description.provenance:
Made available in DSpace on 2020-05-22T02:09:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 22_1_10125_66648_laufer.pdf: 298905 bytes, checksum: 8291600c82a6f42895fea65151ba61b2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-04
endingpage:
30
identifier.doi:
10125/66648
identifier.issn:
1539-0578
identifier.uri:
http://hdl.handle.net/10125/66648
number:
1
publisher:
University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center Center for Language & Technology
rfl.topic:
Lexis
site_url:
/rfl/item/206
startingpage:
15
subject:
reading in L2 vocabulary lexical threshold adequate reading comprehension vocabulary size lexical coverage
title:
Lexical threshold revisited: Lexical text coverage, learners’ vocabulary size and reading comprehension
type:
Article
type.dcmi:
Text
volume:
22