Assessing the Roles of Depth and Breadth of Vocabu

AssessingtheRolesofDepthandBreadthofVocabularyKnowledgeinReadingComprehensionDavidD.QianAbstract:ThisempiricalstudyexploredtherelationshipsbetweendepthandbreadthofvocabularyknowledgeandreadingcomprehensioninEnglishasasecondlanguage(ESL).Usingmultivariateanalyses,thestudyexaminedtherolesofdepthandbreadthofvocabularyknowledgeinassessingtheperformanceofagroupofyoungadultESLlearnerswithaminimumvocabularysizeof3,000wordfamiliesincarryingoutgeneralacademicreadingcomprehensiontasks.Theresultssupportthehypothesesthat(1)scoresonvocabularysize,depthofvocabularyknowledge,andreadingcomprehensionarehighly,andpositively,correlated;and(2)scoresondepthofvocabularyknowledgecanmakeauniquecontributiontothepredictionofreadingcomprehensionlevels,inadditiontothepredictionaffordedbyvocabularysizescores.Thefindingsfromthisstudycallforarecognitionoftheimportanceofimprovingdepthofvocabularyknowledgeinlearners'ESLlearningprocesses.Résumé:Cetteétudeempiriqueexaminelesrelationsentrelaprofondeuretl'ampleurdesconnaissanceslexicalesetlacompréhensiondel'écritenanglaislangueseconde(ALS).Al'aided'analysesmultivariées,l'étudeexaminelerôledelaprofondeuretdel'ampleurdesconnaissanceslexicaleslorsdel'évaluationdesperformancesd'ungroupedejeunesadultesapprenantl'anglaislangueseconde,maîtrisantunvocabulaireminimumde3000famillesdemots,lorsdelaréalisationdetâchesgénéralesdecompréhensiondetextesacadémiques.Lesrésultatsconfirmentleshypothèsessuivantes:(1)ilexisteunecorrélationétroiteetpositiveentrelesscoresportantsurl'étendueduvocabulaire,laprofondeurdesconnaissanceslexicalesetlacompréhensiondel'écrit,et(2)enplusdesprédictionssuggéréesparlesscoresportantsurlatailleduvocabulaire,lesscoresdeprofondeurdesconnaissanceslexicalespeuventconstituerunexcellentprédicteurdesniveauxdecompréhensiondel'écrit.Lesrésultatsdecetteétudeincitentàreconnaîtrequ'ilestimportantd'améliorerlaprofondeurdesconnaissanceslexicalesdanslesprocessusd'apprentissagedel'anglaislangueseconde.IntroductionInfirstlanguage(L1)research,ithaslongbeenrecognizedthatvocabularyknowledgemakesanimportantcontributiontoreadingcomprehension(Anderson&Freebody,1981,1983;Mezynski,1983;Stratton&Nacke,1974;Tuinman&Brady,1974).Secondlanguage(L2)researchontherelationshipbetweenvocabularyandreadingis,however,justbeginningtogainattention.Withinthisarea,thetwoendsofthescalearestillratherunbalanced:thegreaterpartoftheliteraturehasbeenonhowL2learnersacquiretheirvocabularythroughreading,while,exceptforaverylimitednumberofstudies(e.g.,deBot,Paribakht,&Wesche,1997;Hirsh&Nation,1992;Laufer,1989,1992,1996),fewstudieshaveattemptedtodeterminewhatrolevocabularyknowledgeplaysinL2readingcomprehension.EvenwithinthesmallnumberofstudiesthathaveassessedtherelationshipbetweenvocabularyknowledgeandreadingcomprehensioninL2,themajorityfocusonbreadthofvocabularyknowledge.Littlerecognitionisaccordedtotherolesotheraspectsofvocabularyknowledgeplay.DefiningdepthandbreadthofvocabularyknowledgeArecognitionofdepthandbreadthastwoprimarydimensionsofvocabularyknowledgeisessentialtounderstandingtherelationshipbetweenvocabularyknowledgeandreadingcomprehension(Qian,1998).Tomapoutaconceptualframeworkforthepresentstudy,itisnecessarytoclarifywhatwemeanby`breadth'and`depth'ofvocabularyknowledge.Inthepresentstudy,breadthofvocabularyknowledgeisdefinedasvocabularysize,orthenumberofwordsforwhichalearnerhasatleastsomeminimumknowledgeofmeaning.Depthofvocabularyknowledgeisdefinedasalearner'slevelofknowledgeofvariousaspectsofagivenword,orhowwellthelearnerknowsthisword.Overtheyears,researcherssuchasCronbach(1942),Dale(1965),Henriksen(1999),Nation(1990),andRichards(1976)haveproposedvarying,butgenerallycomplementary,conceptualframeworksofvocabularyknowledge.However,producedindifferentcontexts,theseframeworksdonotprovideanexplicitdescriptionofwhatcomposesthemassofvocabularyknowledgeinthecontextofdistinguishingdepthfrombreadth.Inordertoprovideatheoreticalframeworkforthepresentstudy,aworkingdefinitionofdepthofvocabularyknowledgeisproposedbelow.Thisframeworktakesintoaccountthemeritsofpreviousframeworks,particularlythedefinitionsbyNation(1990)andRichards(1976).Theframeworkidentifiesvariousimportantaspectscomposingdepthofvocabularyknowledgeforreading,especiallyfromtheperspectiveoftheirpossiblecontributiontoreadingcomprehensionprocesses:1.Pronunciationandspelling:howdifferentformsofthewordarepronouncedandspelled;2.Morphologicalproperties:theword'sstem,itscapabilityofinflection,derivation,andotherwordformationdevices,anditspossiblepartsofspeech;3.Syntacticproperties:theword'spossiblepositionsanditssyntagmaticrelations,includingcollocationalrelations,withotherwordsinasentence;4.Meaning:notonlyidentificationofthedenotativemeaningofawordincontext,butalso,whereapplicable,knowledgeofconnotations,aswellaspolysemy,antonymy,synonymy,andotherparadigmaticrelationsthewordmayhave;5.Register,ordiscoursefeatures:includingpossibleadherencetoastylistic,social,orregionalvariety,andthefield,mode,andmannerofdiscourseconcerningtheapplicationoftheword;6.Frequencyofthewordinthelanguage,orwh