English language vocabulary profiles of undergraduate students at different proficiency levels

Vocabulary knowledge is influential to learners’ language ability. While vocabulary studies in Malaysia have investigated learners’ vocabulary knowledge, they however do not consider learners across various proficiency levels. Furthermore, previous studies do not focus on both the receptive and prod...

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Main Author:	Lateh, Nor Hazwani Munirah
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2018
Subjects:	P Philology Linguistics
Online Access:	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/81518/1/NorHazwaniMunirahPABHS2018.pdf
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id	my-utm-ep.81518
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-utm-ep.815182019-08-23T05:21:16Z English language vocabulary profiles of undergraduate students at different proficiency levels 2018 Lateh, Nor Hazwani Munirah P Philology. Linguistics Vocabulary knowledge is influential to learners’ language ability. While vocabulary studies in Malaysia have investigated learners’ vocabulary knowledge, they however do not consider learners across various proficiency levels. Furthermore, previous studies do not focus on both the receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge of learners. To fill this gap, the present study systematically investigated the profiles of receptive and productive vocabulary of Malaysian undergraduate students at the Band 1 (very limited), Band 2 (limited), Band 3 (modest), Band 4 (satisfactory) and Band 5 (proficient) levels of the Malaysian University English Test (MUET). The Vocabulary Size Test and the Vocabulary Levels Test were administered to gauge the students’ receptive vocabulary knowledge. Additionally, parts of their written and spoken corpora were analysed to examine the vocabulary they used in terms of lexical variation, lexical density, lexical sophistication, lexical frequency, lexical originality and lexical collocation. The findings reveal that students attain different extent of receptive vocabulary knowledge. Next, the findings also show that Bands 1, 2 and 3 students lacked receptive vocabulary knowledge to use the language at the university. Furthermore, their knowledge of the academic vocabulary is also limited. When writing the essays, the Bands 1, 2 and 3 students produced almost similar extent of lexical variation, lexical density, lexical sophistication, lexical frequency and lexical collocation. When speaking, the Bands 1, 2, 3 and 4 students produced similar extent of lexical variation, lexical sophistication and lexical collocation. All students demonstrated high use of the General Service List when writing and speaking (more than 86%). Lastly, the finding points to an underuse of lexical collocation categories by the students. The profiles of receptive and productive vocabulary unveiled in the study serve as a practical guideline to incorporate effective vocabulary teaching at higher learning institutions in Malaysia for students at various proficiency levels. 2018 Thesis http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/81518/ http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/81518/1/NorHazwaniMunirahPABHS2018.pdf application/pdf en public http://dms.library.utm.my:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository/vital:119790 phd doctoral Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Language Academy
institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
collection	UTM Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	P Philology Linguistics
spellingShingle	P Philology Linguistics Lateh, Nor Hazwani Munirah English language vocabulary profiles of undergraduate students at different proficiency levels
description	Vocabulary knowledge is influential to learners’ language ability. While vocabulary studies in Malaysia have investigated learners’ vocabulary knowledge, they however do not consider learners across various proficiency levels. Furthermore, previous studies do not focus on both the receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge of learners. To fill this gap, the present study systematically investigated the profiles of receptive and productive vocabulary of Malaysian undergraduate students at the Band 1 (very limited), Band 2 (limited), Band 3 (modest), Band 4 (satisfactory) and Band 5 (proficient) levels of the Malaysian University English Test (MUET). The Vocabulary Size Test and the Vocabulary Levels Test were administered to gauge the students’ receptive vocabulary knowledge. Additionally, parts of their written and spoken corpora were analysed to examine the vocabulary they used in terms of lexical variation, lexical density, lexical sophistication, lexical frequency, lexical originality and lexical collocation. The findings reveal that students attain different extent of receptive vocabulary knowledge. Next, the findings also show that Bands 1, 2 and 3 students lacked receptive vocabulary knowledge to use the language at the university. Furthermore, their knowledge of the academic vocabulary is also limited. When writing the essays, the Bands 1, 2 and 3 students produced almost similar extent of lexical variation, lexical density, lexical sophistication, lexical frequency and lexical collocation. When speaking, the Bands 1, 2, 3 and 4 students produced similar extent of lexical variation, lexical sophistication and lexical collocation. All students demonstrated high use of the General Service List when writing and speaking (more than 86%). Lastly, the finding points to an underuse of lexical collocation categories by the students. The profiles of receptive and productive vocabulary unveiled in the study serve as a practical guideline to incorporate effective vocabulary teaching at higher learning institutions in Malaysia for students at various proficiency levels.
format	Thesis
qualification_name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.)
qualification_level	Doctorate
author	Lateh, Nor Hazwani Munirah
author_facet	Lateh, Nor Hazwani Munirah
author_sort	Lateh, Nor Hazwani Munirah
title	English language vocabulary profiles of undergraduate students at different proficiency levels
title_short	English language vocabulary profiles of undergraduate students at different proficiency levels
title_full	English language vocabulary profiles of undergraduate students at different proficiency levels
title_fullStr	English language vocabulary profiles of undergraduate students at different proficiency levels
title_full_unstemmed	English language vocabulary profiles of undergraduate students at different proficiency levels
title_sort	english language vocabulary profiles of undergraduate students at different proficiency levels
granting_institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
granting_department	Language Academy
publishDate	2018
url	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/81518/1/NorHazwaniMunirahPABHS2018.pdf
_version_	1747818349506592768

English language vocabulary profiles of undergraduate students at different proficiency levels

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