engleski

Communicative Lexical Ability of Foreign Language Learners: Evidence from Learners' Written and Oral Production

This paper reports on a study that examined communicative lexical ability of learners of English and learners of German as a foreign language from one language background and one learning context. Starting from a theory-based approach to construct definition (cf. Bachman and Palmer, 1996 ; Chapelle, 1994) and the description of lexical ability of learners at A2 level in ‘ Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment’ (2001), learners’ vocabulary knowledge was assessed as one of the components of overall communicative competence. The participants, 57 learners of German and 54 learners of English as a foreign language in the final grade of primary education, were administered two communicative tests (a written and an oral), designed to simulate “ target language use” (TLU) situations (Bachman and Palmer, 1996), in which they were required to fulfil specific language functions (comparing two pictures in writing and describing a picture in speaking). The reason for adopting the communicative approach to testing was our intention to measure effective vocabulary use in the context of a language task where vocabulary naturally interacts with other components of language knowledge. The study set out to explore the breadth and depth of learners’ vocabulary knowledge in specific TLU situations, the ways in which learners deal with gaps in their vocabulary knowledge, and how different input conditions may influence the development of productive lexical ability in two foreign languages. The descriptive rating scale for qualitative analysis, specially designed for the purposes of this study, was used to assess different dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, such as variation, density, sophistication, appropriateness and accuracy. The results revealed that the learners of English displayed greater lexical ability both in written and spoken production and were more successful in completing the functional language task. The vocabulary of learners of German, on the other hand, tended to be at a lower level in relation to all assessment criteria. The paper presents an analysis of findings and discusses their possible implications for foreign language learning and teaching, as well as their potential contribution to a better understanding of the nature of the construct of vocabulary ability.

communicative lexical ability; foreign language learning; written production; oral production; vocabulary depth; vocabulary breadth

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