中国英语学习者词汇知识与二语综合能力的相

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摘要

过去的三十年间，不管是在第一语言习得还是第二语言习得的研究领域，词汇

知识已成为语言综合能力的重要组成部分。为了揭示词汇知识在二语综合能力中

的作用，许多语言学家做了各种各样的相关性实证研究。但一方面他们的结论不

尽相同，另一方面对于中国二语学习者的研究仍然很少。因此，把重点放在对词

汇知识与中国英语学习者语言能力相关性的研究就显得十分迫切而且重要。本文

将从词汇知识的广度和深度两个层面对中国英语学习者语言能力相关性进行探

讨。

近年来，词汇知识被认为是一个多维度的，涵盖很多方面的综合性知识体。而

作为这个知识体最基本的两个维度，广度和深度即是本文进行研究的着力点。本

研究共有 85 名非英语专业的大学二年级学生参与，为了对他们的词汇知识和语言

综合能力的水平做有效评估，所有 85 名被试学生都进行了词汇水平测试，词汇深

度测试和语言综合能力等三个测试。之后，将三次测试的成绩输入电脑并通过

SPSS16.0 软件对其进行了描述统计，相关性，回归性和单向方差分析。最后得出

的主要结论如下：

1.词汇知识与二语综合能力之间存在显著的正相关关系，其中词汇广度与二语

综合能力的相关性系数要高于词汇深度。

2.词汇广度和深度都对二语综合能力和具体语言技能有一定的预测能力，但广

度的预测能力明显高于深度。

3.词汇知识的广度和深度之间也存在显著的正相关关系，这意味着词汇知识广

度的提高会促进深度的发展。

根据所得结论，本文提出虽然词汇的广度对提高二语综合能力起着很重要的作

用，但词汇深度知识也不应该被忽视。因此，在大学英语教学中教师应该同时将

词汇知识的广度和深度纳入其中，才能有效提高学生的二语综合能力。

关键词：词汇知识广度深度二语综合能力

Abstract

Over the last thirty years, vocabulary knowledge has been regarded as the main

component of language proficiency in both first and second language acquisition

research. To fully uncover the role of vocabulary knowledge in second language (L2)

proficiency, many linguists have done various relevantly empirical studies before. But

no agreement has been reached in their findings and few researches were made on

Chinese L2 learners. Therefore, the study on the relationship between vocabulary

knowledge and the proficiency of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Chinese

learners is of great importance and value. The present study conducts the exploration

from such two perspectives of vocabulary knowledge: breadth and depth.

There is no denying that vocabulary knowledge is believed to be a

multidimensional construct which contains various properties. As two primary

dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, breadth and depth have been treated as starting

points of this study. To estimate the vocabulary size, depth and L2 language proficiency

of learners, the Vocabulary Levels Test, Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge Test and

Language Proficiency Test were done by 85 college students who were non-English

majors. The results of three tests were put into computer and processed through SPSS

16.0 from the perspective of descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, regression

analysis and One-Way ANOVA analysis. And the major findings of the study are

demonstrated as follows:

First, there exists significant and positive correlation between vocabulary

knowledge and L2 comprehensive language proficiency, while the vocabulary breadth

has a higher correlation coefficient with language proficiency than depth does.

Second, both vocabulary breadth and depth have a predictive power upon L2

comprehensive proficiency and specific language skills. However, the predictive power

of vocabulary size is greater than depth.

Thirdly, vocabulary breadth and depth correlate with each other significantly and

positively, which means that the increase of vocabulary size can improve the depth of

vocabulary.

At last, the implication of the study is discussed. The findings from this empirical

study reveal the fact that although vocabulary size plays a very important role in L2

proficiency, depth of vocabulary knowledge should not be neglected either. Thus, the

vii

teacher should combine both of them in English teaching so as to effectively improve

the L2 comprehensive language proficiency.

Key Word: Vocabulary Knowledge, Breadth, Depth, L2 Language

Proficiency

viii

Contents

摘要 ...............................................................................................................................v

Abstract...........................................................................................................................vi

Contents........................................................................................................................viii

Chapter One Introduction.........................................................................................1

1.1 Background of the Study ..................................................................................... 1

1.2 The significance of the study ............................................................................... 2

1.3 Design of the thesis .............................................................................................. 3

Chapter Two Literature Review............................................................................... 5

2.1 The Domain of Vocabulary Knowledge ...............................................................5

2.1.1 The Word-centered Theory ........................................................................ 5

2.1.1.1 Cronbach’s Framework ....................................................................5

2.1.1.2 Richards’ Framework .......................................................................6

2.1.1.3 Nation’s Framework .........................................................................7

2.1.2 Dimensional Approach ...............................................................................9

2.1.2.1 Meara’s Theory ................................................................................ 9

2.1.2.2 Chapelle’s Theory .......................................................................... 10

2.1.2.3 Henriksen’s Theory ........................................................................ 10

2.1.2.4 Qian’s Theory .................................................................................11

2.1.2.5 Zhang and Wu’s Theory .................................................................12

2.2 The Role of Vocabulary Knowledge in L2 Proficiency ..................................... 14

2.2.1 The Role of Breadth in L2 Proficiency ....................................................14

2.2.2 The Role of Depth in L2 Proficiency .......................................................16

2.2.3 The Relationship between Depth and Breadth of Vocabulary Knowledge

...........................................................................................................................18

2.3 Measurements of Vocabulary Knowledge ......................................................... 18

2.3.1 Measurements of Vocabulary Size ........................................................... 18

2.3.2 Measurements of Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge ................................ 23

2.4 Summary of this Chapter ................................................................................... 28

Chapter Three Design and Methodology...............................................................29

3.1 Research Question ............................................................................................. 29

3.2 Subjects .............................................................................................................. 29

3.3 Instruments .........................................................................................................30

3.3.1 Breadth of Vocabulary Knowledge Test ...................................................30

3.3.2 Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge Test ..................................................... 31

3.3.3 The L2 Language Proficiency Test.......................................................... 31

3.4 Data Collection .................................................................................................. 32

3.5 Data Analysis ..................................................................................................... 32

Chapter Four Results and Discussion.................................................................... 33

4.1 Results ................................................................................................................33

4.1.1 Descriptive Statistics of VLT ................................................................... 33

4.1.2 Descriptive Statistics of DVK ..................................................................34

4.1.3 Descriptive Statistics of the Language Proficiency Test ..........................35

4.2. The Correlation Analysis .................................................................................. 36

4.3 The Regression Analysis ....................................................................................38

4.3.1 The Language Proficiency and the Vocabulary Breadth ..........................38

4.3.2 The Language Proficiency and the Vocabulary Depth .............................40

4.3.3 The Vocabulary Breadth and the Vocabulary Depth................................ 43

4.3.4 Summary of Regression Analysis ............................................................ 44

4.4 One-Way ANOVA Analysis ..............................................................................46

4.4.1 The Language Proficiency and the Vocabulary Breadth ..........................46

4.4.2 The Language Proficiency and the Vocabulary Depth .............................48

4.5 Discussion .......................................................................................................... 50

Chapter Five Conclusion, Implications & Limitations...........................................55

5.1 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 55

5.2 Pedagogical Implications ................................................................................... 56

5.2.1 Implication for Learning .......................................................................... 56

5.2.2 Implication for Teaching .......................................................................... 57

5.3 Limitations of the Study .....................................................................................58

5.4 Suggestions for Further Research ...................................................................... 59

List of Abbreviations.....................................................................................................60

List of Tables..................................................................................................................61

List of Figures................................................................................................................61

References...................................................................................................................... 63

Appendix I..................................................................................................................... 67

Appendix II....................................................................................................................70

Appendix III.................................................................................................................. 74

在读期间公开发表的论文 ............................................................................................ 86

Acknowledgements....................................................................................................... 87

Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

Since the 1970s, second language acquisition (SLA) has just been an independent

branch of applied linguistics, and is going to construct a theoretical system in which the

process and the characteristics of SLA are described as its initial aim. In the past 40

years, SLA made promising development in the worldwide area, especially in Europe

and America. “English, as a second language for most people of the world, has become

the international language for business and commerce, science and technology, and

international relations and diplomacy” (Freeman & Long, 2000: 1). Meanwhile, English,

as a foreign language, has been an compulsory course for numerous Chinese students to

take a long time to learn. English teaching and training has been a booming and

profitable trade in China. Besides, with the growth of economic benefit, the study on

SLA has never been stopped in China. Although it is very popular, most of English

learners, especially the high school students, can not use English well or even give it up

after they graduate from school. As we know, Test for English Majors (TEM) and

College English Test (CET) are two kinds of authentic national tests for English majors

and non-English majors respectively. Despite the long time students spend in studying

English and the ideal scores they got in the tests, their practical competence, such as

listening, speaking and writing, usually do not correspond with their performance in

tests. Therefore, it is crucially necessary to explore the profound reasons for such a

curious phenomenon. This is the primary motivation for this paper to come into being.

As an inseparable branch of SLA, the study of L2 vocabulary didn’t receive

enough attention until the 1980s. However, as early as in the 1970s, the famous British

linguist Wilkins (1972: 111) declared that “Without grammar very little can be conveyed,

without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”, which indicated the importance of

vocabulary for language proficiency, as well as provided enlightenment for the SLA

study to some degree. After years of English learning, vocabulary has been taken as the

“building block of language” (Schmitt, Schmitt, & Clapham, 2001: 51). And “the

lexical competence is at the heart of communicative competence” (Meara, 1996a: 36)

for vocabulary carries “the basic information load” (Read, 2004: 153). All these

discourses attempt to prove one thing that vocabulary plays the central role in language

A Study on the Correlation between Vocabulary Knowledge and Language Proficiency in Chinese

EFL Learners

learning and lexical ability is an essential component of language skills. Moreover,

vocabulary knowledge (VK) even may predict a learner’s proficiency in a second or

foreign language (L2) (Stæhr, 2009: 577). Thus, this thesis will take the vocabulary

knowledge as the starting point to overcome the puzzle mentioned above.

Bachman (2000: 9) speaks of the revival of vocabulary acquisition research and

hopes that this will result in “new insights into the nature of vocabulary and a broadened

view of its role in language use”. As a matter of fact, it has been a long time that many

SLA researchers turned their attention to vocabulary study. An early definition of

vocabulary knowledge was given by Cronbach (1942: 315), and he divided it into two

main categories: knowledge of word meaning (generalization, breadth of meaning and

precision of meaning) and levels of accessibility to this knowledge (availability and

application). From then on, vocabulary knowledge appealed to many linguists for its

uncertainty; and a lot of different understandings to it were proposed. The most

accepted one is the Dimensional Theory in which vocabulary knowledge is considered

to include such dimensions: vocabulary size (also called breadth of vocabulary), depth,

lexical organization and automaticity of receptive-productive knowledge (Qian, 2002:

516).

According to Meara (1996a: 37), vocabulary size is the basic dimension of a

learner’s lexical competence and learners with larger vocabularies are more proficient

language users than learners with smaller vocabularies. While Qian’s (1999: 301)

findings indicate that the dimension of depth is closely related with reading

comprehension (RC). All these researches demonstrate that the lexical competence of a

L2 learner will be obviously reflected by breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge

and correlated with his/her language skills. Hence, we will focus on these two indexes

of vocabulary to survey the relationship between lexical ability and L2 language

proficiency.

1.2 The significance of the study

The purpose of the present study is to survey a broad picture of vocabulary and

language proficiency of college English as foreign language (EFL) learners in China.

Then to explore the relationships between these two factors in order to provide

significant suggestions for the L2 vocabulary teaching and language learning in China.

Chapter One Introduction

The necessities of this study are mainly put forward on such points:

First of all, although there are numerous previous researchers on vocabulary

learning and teaching, most of them pay their attention to learners’ acquisition process

or strategies, and less focus on the function or the role of vocabulary knowledge itself in

L2 language proficiency.

Secondly, even some researchers pay attention to the role of vocabulary knowledge

in L2 language proficiency, while the proficiency they are committed to is not

comprehensive; in other words, they mainly show great concern for the separated skills,

such as reading, writing, listening and so on, less concern the relationship between

vocabulary knowledge and comprehensive language abilities. On the other hand, some

of researchers only focus on the breadth of vocabulary knowledge and ignore the other

essential dimensions such as depth of vocabulary knowledge in their studies. To fully

uncover the role of vocabulary knowledge in L2 proficiency, the present study probes

into their correlations from more perspectives.

Thirdly, the present study has certain practical significance. As we mentioned

above, although a lot of money and time are spent in learning English, passing tests, and

getting certificates, most of students can not reach a satisfactory level in communication

as they perform in tests, which is really a puzzle. Furthermore, many L2 learners

attempt to improve their English by the way of memorizing as many words or meanings

of words as possible. Is that way useful or not? Enlarging the number of words or

broadening words’ meanings, which one is more effective in improving language

proficiency? The present study will provide answers to this question.

1.3 Design of the thesis

This thesis aims to investigate the contributions that vocabulary knowledge,

especially the knowledge of breadth and depth, may make to EFL language proficiency,

thus vocabulary knowledge will be defined, and then empirical researches will be done

to measure individual differences in these characteristics. Finally the results will be put

into SPSS for analysis.

To be specific, this thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one serves as an

introduction, introducing the background and significance of study. Chapter two covers

the related researches of vocabulary knowledge, i.e. its domain, measurements of

A Study on the Correlation between Vocabulary Knowledge and Language Proficiency in Chinese

EFL Learners

certain branches and relationships between special skills of language proficiency.

Chapter three describes the subjects and research method of this study. Chapter four is

the statistic analysis of the experimental results through SPSS 16.0, and also shows and

discusses the findings. Chapter five concludes the study, and provides pedagogical

implications for EFL learning.

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摘要：

v摘要过去的三十年间，不管是在第一语言习得还是第二语言习得的研究领域，词汇知识已成为语言综合能力的重要组成部分。为了揭示词汇知识在二语综合能力中的作用，许多语言学家做了各种各样的相关性实证研究。但一方面他们的结论不尽相同，另一方面对于中国二语学习者的研究仍然很少。因此，把重点放在对词汇知识与中国英语学习者语言能力相关性的研究就显得十分迫切而且重要。本文将从词汇知识的广度和深度两个层面对中国英语学习者语言能力相关性进行探讨。近年来，词汇知识被认为是一个多维度的，涵盖很多方面的综合性知识体。而作为这个知识体最基本的两个维度，广度和深度即是本文进行研究的着力点。本研究共有85名非英语专业的大学二年级...

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