Examining the Validity of the Lexical Access Time Test (LEXATT2)

Can good and poor readers be differentiated by their use of word-naming and lexical access codes? Poor readers experience extreme difficulty in decoding nonsense words, indicating that they cannot use the spelling to sound rules which underlie the indirect phonological route to word pronunciation. However, recent evidence suggests that poor readers do use a phonological route for lexical access in word and picture naming tasks which rely upon the production of a phonological code. Is this also true of other tasks, which are not dependent upon phonological representation? Two such tasks are described in the present study: one involving picture-word interference, and the other involving a lexical decision paradigm. Results showed that poor readers do use a phonological route to lexical access independent of task demand. A review of findings in this area to date shows several inconsistencies, and an attempt is made to resolve these by drawing on Stanovich's (1980) interactivecompensatory model of reading.

The present study addressed the role of speed as a factor in tests of second language (L2) vocabulary knowledge, presupposing that speed of performance is important in actual language use. Research questions were: (a) Do learners with a larger vocabulary size answer faster on an L2 vocabulary breadth test than smaller vocabulary sized learners?; (b) Are there systematic increases in response time (RT) as word frequency decreases in an L2 vocabulary breadth test?; and (c) Do RTs of correct responses on an L2 vocabulary breadth test predict accurate and quick L2 reading? Participants were 24 Japanese university students. Results indicated that (a) vocabulary size facilitated lexical accessibility, (b) high frequency words were accessed more quickly but this was only observable after reaching a certain threshold of vocabulary size, and (c) vocabulary score (accuracy) alone was not associated with accurate and quick reading but vocabulary RT (accuracy + speed) was.

Journal of Spanish Language Teaching, 2015

There is general agreement that speed of lexical access is an essential component for successful communication and fluent language use. In vocabulary acquisition research the majority of studies have focused on the acquisition of the form and meaning of new words but research into the teaching conditions leading to the improvement of speed of lexical access is still scarce. This article reports results of two studies which explored the effectiveness of two vocabulary teaching approaches for the development of speed and automaticity of lexical access by learners of Spanish as a foreign language. Participants in Study 1 were exposed to the target vocabulary in reading passages (incidental approach), while participants in Study 2 were exposed to the target words in explicit vocabulary activities (explicit approach). A pre-and post-treatment lexical decision task assessed participants' speed of lexical access. Two indicators of improved lexical access were examined: faster reaction times (RTs) and a decrease in the coefficient of variation (CV), i.e., automaticity measure. Results showed that both types of treatment led to faster speed of lexical access, while only the explicit treatment led to automatic processing. The effect of repetition was also explored and results showed that there was no clear, significant effect of the number of repetitions on the development of speed and automaticity of lexical access. Taken together, the type and amount of vocabulary learning activities in these studies give an initial indication of the minimum amount of vocabulary engagement which may lead to significant improvement in learners' speed and automaticity of lexical access.

Frontiers in Psychology, 2022

The present study investigates the relations between L2-English proficiency and L1-Turkish lexical property evaluations. We asked whether L2 proficiency affects lexical properties, including imageability and concreteness ratings of 600 Turkish words selected from the Word Frequency Dictionary of Written Turkish. Seventy-two participants (L1-Turkish - L2-English) provided ratings of concreteness and imageability for 600 words on a 7-point scale. In order to assess their L2 proficiency, we administered Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-IV (PPVT-IV). We divided categories into two subcategories as high and low for the frequency, concreteness, imageability, and age of acquisition (AoA). The relationship between these subcategories and imageability-concreteness was examined by mixed effects linear regression analyses. We found that L2 proficiency and imageability ratings were positively correlated and specifically, this positive association was evident for low-frequency words and later acq...

Applied Linguistics, 2014

This study analyzes lexical proficiency in oral and written texts produced by second language (L2) learners of English. The purpose of the study is to examine relationships between analytic scores of depth of lexical knowledge, breadth of lexical knowledge, and access to core lexical items and holistic scores of lexical proficiency. A corpus of 240 spoken texts and 240 written texts produced by beginning L2 learners, intermediate L2 learners, advanced L2 learners, and native speakers were scored for both analytic and holistic features of lexical proficiency by trained raters. Using a multiple regression analysis, the study found that collocation accuracy, lexical diversity, and word frequency are significant predictors of human evaluations of lexical proficiency. Collocation accuracy explained the greatest amount of variance in the holistic scores (84% in the written samples and 89% in the spoken samples). The authors discuss the importance of collocation accuracy in predicting human judgments of lexical proficiency.

2014

This study investigated the relationship between two dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, namely vocabulary size and automaticity with a newly developed test that measures vocabulary size and Iexical access time in a single administration. The test was administered to two proficiency-based groups ofJapanese learners ef English majoring in fbreign languages (AJ = 88). 'IIhe results ofthe test showed that the overall means ofboth vocabulary size and lexical access time strongly correlated with frequency levels of the words used in the test. However, no correlation was found between vocabulary size and lexical access time when participants' individual data were analyzed. Furtherrnore, there was a tendency fbr panicipants with higher proficiency in English to score higher in terms ofvocabulary size, whereas such a tendency vvas not observed for lexical access time data, which was contradictory to the findings ofearlier studies, The possible reasons for the inconsistency are discussed in the target words,

This article aims (a) to explore the operationalisation and definition of lexical L2 proficiency and related constructs with a view to identifying a set of measures that can adequately capture the dynamics of lexical L2 proficiency development over time, and (b) to shed more light on the development of lexical proficiency in French Foreign Language classes. After a discussion of theoretical, terminological and methodological issues in L2 vocabulary research, we present a longitudinal quantitative study of the lexical development of Dutch-speaking adolescents learning FFL in Dutch-medium schools in Brussels over a three-year period and compare these learners' lexical proficiency in French to native speaker benchmarks.

Applied linguists increasingly use response time vocabulary tasks, along with traditional, untimed tasks, to measure lexical knowledge. While these tasks are set up differently and are inherently time sensitive, there is no empirical evidence on whether they also tap into qualitatively different dimensions of vocabulary knowledge. In this article, we report a validation study involving five timed and untimed measures for assessing 40, 2K-5K frequency English words. One hundred and forty-five learners took (1) a meaning recognition test, (2) a form recall test, (3) a Yes-No response time (RT) test (affording both accuracy and RT measures), and (4) a masked repetition priming task. Confirmatory factor analysis suggests that these measures can be placed on one or two psychometric dimensions, whereby the one-factor solution is preferred for reasons of parsimony. However, the two-factor vocabulary model had a marginally stronger predictive validity for explaining learners' self-repor...

Journal of Education and Practice, 2013

This article aims to explore the utility of the relationship between lexical richness and size as an indicator of acquisition status of English language of L2 learners of intermediate level, having rural background on the basis of their self-written output. 126 students' essays were used to measure the lexical richness (126 students of Sem-I and 63 students of Sem-II) Lexical Frequency Profile was used to sort it out. Its values discriminated students of different proficiency level and displayed L2 Learners vocabulary size in use. LFP result's consistency and legitimacy was obtained by comparing its result with an independent and separate measure of vocabulary size, VLT. The result showed that lexical richness has a direct link with vocabulary size (receptive vocabulary) of L2 learners. It discusses the utility of the inference based on the lexical richness of L2's written text for monitoring purpose of language acquisition process of L2 learners and to determine appropriate strategies for the desired growth of vocabulary size. 1.1 Introduction Vocabulary size is an important factor for, mastering L2 language (Schmitt, 2008). It is essential for meaningful communication and effective reading comprehension (McCarthy, 1990). In Pakistan, most of the educational material, taught and used, basically is written by and for the natives. It is creating a hindrance to grasp the conceptual knowledge of English language for L2 Learners, especially less proficient ones .In order to increase their comprehension and productivity, in both spoken and written language skills, we need to know the present status of L2 learners as a reference point (Nation, 2001). In this regard, the measure of lexical richness of L2 learners facilitates to quantify the desired level of vocabulary level at any threshold of education. It will define the requirement of vocabulary level to perform different tasks of academic education. Such statistical information determines the quality of factors that affect the quality of language learning process and on the other hand it gives clear cut relationship between vocabulary knowledge and use on the basis of written text. 1.2 Literature History Vocabulary learning is a focal point of second language acquisition (Gao, 2003). It means that vocabulary gives a clue about the different areas of language based on different aspects of vocabulary such as size, depth, receptive and productive level on one hand, the way vocabulary is taught and influencing factor such as educational background and the environment of learning on the other hand. This study focuses to sort out a reference point with the help of lexical richness that can be served as measuring unit for the induction of students in a particular level for the positive development of vocabulary growth. One of the general issues that emerge in relation to vocabulary is the distinction between productive and receptive vocabulary. This study assumes the R/P bipolar rather than binary distinction between these two aspects of vocabulary (Melka, 1997). The distance between these two points is thought as the increased familiarity of a word on a continuum. That shows a gradual movement along with the continuum with the increase of familiarity with word from recognition form, towards recognition meaning, recall form and recall meaning (Laufer & Goldstein. 2004). Similarly, there is always a problem while measuring productive vocabulary accurately of the respondent as compared to recessive vocabulary. The basic reason is that, productive vocabulary is always subjected to context. It calls accuracy of the measurement of productive vocabulary in question (Meara &Fitzpatrick, 2000) because such association gives inconsistent results. Many past researches have reported a gap between receptive and productive vocabulary. Receptive vocabulary level is greater than productive vocabulary knowledge. This disparity is resolved by following the Reads

Second Language Research, 1995

This study illustrates, in the context of vocabulary assessment research, a procedure for analysing a single subject's variability of response times (RTs) in a simple, timed lexical decision task. Following the interpretation developed in Segalowitz and Segalowitz (1993) for RT variability as reflection of the automatic/controlled nature of underlying processing mechanisms, it was possible to draw conclusions about the extent to which second language English word recognition in this subject was subserved by automatic as opposed to controlled processes. The study also examined the development of automaticity in word recognition skill for a small, selected vocabulary as a function of reading experience during a three-week testing period. The general implications of this methodology for assessing vocabulary skill in a single case are discussed.

Lexical Fluency Units (LFUs) are strings of words that act like single items in language users' mental lexicon. Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in analyzing them in learners' speech and classifying them into different types (Ushigusa 2008, Wood 2012). The literature in this particular field of study stated that the higher use of lexical fluency units might lead to the higher score on tests of oral English proficiency; therefore, the present study investigated the relationship between lexical fluency, temporal fluency (TF), and proficiency. To conduct the study, forty Iranian EFL teachers with TOEFL scores above 570 were chosen. To ensure that they have acquired competency in communication by which they can be employed as an instructor in the real context, they took an Oral English Proficiency Test (OEPT). Then, the sounds recorded from OEPT were analysed by PRRAT and Transcriber software and the transcripts of their responses were also analysed for detection of lexical fluency units (LFUs). Results indicated that teachers who incorporated more LFUs in their speech had higher TF ratio and consequently higher proficiency score. The interpretations and implementations are also discussed.

English for Specific Purposes, 2015

Lexical profiling research has indicated the vocabulary sizes that may be necessary to comprehend different spoken and written text types. These figures are based on studies of lexical coverage that have indicated that comprehension is likely to rise as the number of known words in a text increases (e.g., . This study examined the lexical profiles of passages included in an English L2 proficiency test used for university admission purposes. A total of 87 reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and cloze passages from CanTEST were analyzed to determine the vocabulary size needed to reach 95% and 98% lexical coverage. The results indicated that there was large variation between the lexical profiles of the texts. At the 1000 word frequency level, there were differences ranging from 15.22% to 20.05% coverage between the most and least lexical demanding passages in the three parts of the test. The correlations between the lexical profiles of the texts at the different word frequency levels and performance on the corresponding test items were calculated to determine the relationship between these two variables. The results indicated that there was either no correlation or a small correlation in all comparisons.

Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 2005

The purpose of the present study was to determine what features associated with the macrolevel of lexical competence vary as a function of an increase in second language (L2) proficiency. The macrolevel of participants' word knowledge was described with respect to six variables that are commonly associated with three proposed macrolevel dimensions, namely quantity, quality, and metacognitive awareness. Sixty-four participants (native speakers of English, L2 advanced learners, and intermediate learners of English) self-rated their familiarity with 73 lexical items and were asked to generate word associations to the words they identified in a verifiable way as known. The data analyses showed that some measures, such as vocabulary size, word frequency effects, number of associations, and within-group consistency of participants' associative domain, are more sensitive to L2 learners' increasing proficiency than others (e.g., nativelike commonality of associations). We thus conclude that some aspects, such as quality and quantity of L2 lexical competence, develop as the proficiency of the L2 learners increases, whereas others, such as learn

Behavior Research Methods, 2012

The increasing number of experimental studies on second language (L2) processing, frequently with English as the L2, calls for a practical and valid measure of English vocabulary knowledge and proficiency. In a large-scale study with Dutch and Korean speakers of L2 English, we tested whether LexTALE, a 5-min vocabulary test, is a valid predictor of English vocabulary knowledge and, possibly, even of general English proficiency. Furthermore, the validity of LexTALE was compared with that of self-ratings of proficiency, a measure frequently used by L2 researchers. The results showed the following in both speaker groups: (1) LexTALE was a good predictor of English vocabulary knowledge; 2) it also correlated substantially with a measure of general English proficiency; and 3) LexTALE was generally superior to self-ratings in its predictions. LexTALE, but not self-ratings, also correlated highly with previous experimental data on two word recognition paradigms. The test can be carried out on or downloaded from www.lextale.com.

Onomázein Revista de lingüística filología y traducción, 2019

Lexical availability measures the degree of availability of a word given a semantic context or category. It has been widely used in the Spanish-speaking world in order to derive words for use in dictionaries and/or teaching materials, but has received very little attention in English. The aim of this research was to identify the predictors of lexical availability (LA) in English as a second language (L2). Participants were 60 advanced students of English, enrolled in a 5-year English Teaching Programme. The lexical availability index (LAI) was obtained for two semantic categories (Body Parts, Food and Drink). Then correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted in order to assess the relation between LA and four factors: familiarity, age of acquisition (AoA), frequency, and imageability. The results showed that both AoA and familiarity correlated highly with LA in Body Parts, but only AoA was a strong predictor of LA. In Food and Drink, familiarity and frequency had a moderate correlation with LA and only frequency was a significant predictor. These results are mostly in line with previous data in Spanish L1 and L2, and are of relevance for the learning and teaching of vocabulary in English L2.