Deogratias Nizonkiza | University of British Columbia (original) (raw)

Papers by Deogratias Nizonkiza

Research paper thumbnail of Challenges of Testing Deep Word Knowledge of Vocabulary: Which Path to Follow?

Journal for Language Teaching, Oct 1, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of 11. Predictive power of controled productive knowledge of collocations over L2 proficiency

Usage-Based Approaches to Language Acquisition and Language Teaching, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of English language proficiency for Higher Education and professional contexts: the challenge Burundi is facing for global integration

Per Linguam

This paper assesses foreign language proficiency acquired in higher education in light of the com... more This paper assesses foreign language proficiency acquired in higher education in light of the communicative skills needed in professional life. English majors at the University of Burundi took TOEFL and completed a questionnaire investigating their potential role in the country’s regional integration. Results indicate that (i) the level of proficiency is rather low with the majority of graduating students at intermediate level; (ii) skills/components develop in the order grammar, reading comprehension and vocabulary, and listening, i.e. receptive skills are better developed than productive/communicative skills and, (iii) English majors are aware of both the linguistic challenges to be met and their role in the country’s regional integration in the East African Community. On the basis of the findings, which are underscored by lecturers, suggestions are made for redefining teaching/learning objectives and outcomes in the hope to enhance graduates' general language proficiency and ...

Research paper thumbnail of First-year university students’ receptive and productive use of academic vocabulary

STELLENBOSCH PAPERS IN LINGUISTICS, 2016

The present study explores academic vocabulary knowledge, operationalised through the Academic Wo... more The present study explores academic vocabulary knowledge, operationalised through the Academic Word List, among first-year higher education students. Both receptive and productive knowledge and the proportion between the two are examined. Results show that while receptive knowledge is readily acquired by first-year students, productive knowledge lags behind and remains problematic. This entails that receptive knowledge is much larger than productive knowledge, which confirms earlier indications that receptive vocabulary knowledge is larger than productive knowledge for both academic vocabulary (Zhou 2010) and general vocabulary (cf. Laufer 1998, Webb 2008, among others). Furthermore, results reveal that the ratio between receptive and productive knowledge is slightly above 50%, which lends empirical support to previous findings that the ratio between the two aspects of vocabulary knowledge can be anywhere between 50% and 80% (Milton 2009). This finding is extended here to academic vocabulary; complementing Zhou's (2010) study that investigated the relationship between the two aspects of vocabulary knowledge without examining the ratio between them. On the basis of these results, approaches that could potentially contribute to fostering productive knowledge growth are discussed. Avenues worth exploring to gain further insight into the relationship between receptive and productive knowledge are also suggested.

Research paper thumbnail of Measuring Receptive Collocational Competence Across Proficiency Levels

Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics, 2015

The present study investigates (i) English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners' receptive collocat... more The present study investigates (i) English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners' receptive collocational knowledge growth in relation to their linguistic proficiency level; (ii) how much receptive collocational knowledge is acquired as linguistic proficiency develops; and (iii) the extent to which receptive knowledge of collocations of EFL learners varies across word frequency bands. A proficiency measure and a collocation test were administered to English majors at the University of Burundi. The results of the study suggest that receptive collocational competence develops alongside EFL learners' linguistic proficiency, which lends empirical support to Gyllstad (2007, 2009) and Nizonkiza (2011), among others, who reported similar findings. Furthermore, EFL learners' collocational knowledge growth seems to be quantifiable, where both linguistic proficiency level and word frequency occupy crucial roles. While more collocational gains that EFL learners could potentially add as a result of change in proficiency are found at lower levels of proficiency, collocations of words from more frequent word bands seem to be mastered first, and more gains are found at more frequent word bands. These results confirm earlier findings on the non-linear nature of vocabulary growth (cf. Meara 1996) and the fundamental role played by frequency in word knowledge for vocabulary in general (Nation 1983, 1990; Nation and Beglar 2007), which are extended here to include collocational knowledge.

Research paper thumbnail of Testing Controlled Productive Knowledge of Adverb-Verb Collocations in Junior Researchers Using English as a Foreign Language

STELLENBOSCH PAPERS IN LINGUISTICS, 2016

The present study examines English as a Foreign Language (EFL) junior researchers' use of adverbv... more The present study examines English as a Foreign Language (EFL) junior researchers' use of adverbverb collocations of academic vocabulary in both free-written and controlled productions. A small corpus was compiled and analysed in order to identify verbs in adverb-verb combinations and examine which ones were collocated correctly or erroneously. A controlled productive test of adverb-verb collocations, with verbs selected from the Academic Word List (Coxhead 2000) and adverbs selected from Crowther, Dignen and Lea's (2002) Oxford collocations dictionary for students of English was also administered to participants. Results indicate that free-productive knowledge of adverb-verb collocations is challenging for EFL users. This finding supports previous studies that focused mainly on verb-noun collocations, and that reached the conclusion that EFL students are not sensitive enough to collocations to use them in their written productions (cf. Nesselhauf 2005). This finding is extended here to adverb-verb collocations. The study also reveals that controlled productive knowledge of adverbverb collocations is less problematic. Based on these results, teaching strategies aimed at improving the use of adverb-verb collocations among EFL users are proposed.

Research paper thumbnail of Predictive power of word knowledge over second/foreign language proficiency : opinions and information

This paper presents the findings of a PhD entitled 'The Relationship between Lexical Competen... more This paper presents the findings of a PhD entitled 'The Relationship between Lexical Competence, Collocational Competence, and Second Language Proficiency' conducted on Belgian and Burundian English majors. The study, undertaken in the light of the steady growing research attention accorded to vocabulary over the past few years, explores the relationship between second/foreign language, hence L2 proficiency, and lexical/collocational competence and the measurability of knowledge of collocations acquired as proficiency develops. Both receptive and productive levels have been considered. Lexical competence should be understood as knowing words while collocations should be understood as the way words combine in a language to produce natural-sounding speech and writing. Strong wind, strong tea, powerful engine, heavy rain, strong argument, powerful argument, etc... are examples of collocations. It can be difficult for L2 learners to understand why the adjectives "strong" and "powerful" can be used interchangeably to modify the noun "argument", but not "tea" and "engine".

Research paper thumbnail of Towards modelled testing of productive knowledge of collocations

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 2020

Abstract Accurate use of collocations is seen as a measure of a learner’s proficiency in a second... more Abstract Accurate use of collocations is seen as a measure of a learner’s proficiency in a second/foreign language. However, research is not conclusive as to how to best test productive knowledge of collocations and, more fundamentally, there is no agreement on how vocabulary size, i.e. word comprehension, influences collocation production within a constrained or unconstrained context. This article elaborates on a battery of tests aimed at examining these issues. The tests were presented to both English as Foreign Language (EFL) and English as Second Language (ESL) students. The findings indicate that constrained and unconstrained contexts may represent different levels of productive knowledge, casting doubt on the definition of productive knowledge collapsing the two contexts – constrained and unconstrained – into one construct. Furthermore, both levels are influenced by the size of a learner’s receptive knowledge, which confirms Gyllstad’s earlier observation on the relationship between receptive knowledge of collocations and vocabulary size, which is extended here to include productive knowledge. On the basis of these results, we argue that a new definition for ‘productive knowledge of collocations’ is in order, where productive knowledge is categorised according to four levels based on the amount of context provided to the learner.

Research paper thumbnail of Improving academic literacy by teaching collocations

Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of Improving academic literacy through teaching collocations

Lssa Saala Saalt Joint Annual Conference 2013, Jun 28, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Quantifying controlled productive knowledge of collocations across proficiency and word frequency levels

Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2012

The present study explores the relationship between controlled productive knowledge of collocatio... more The present study explores the relationship between controlled productive knowledge of collocations and L2 proficiency, the role of frequency in controlled productive knowledge of collocations, and the quantifiability of controlled productive collocational knowledge growth alongside L2 proficiency and word frequency levels. A proficiency measure and a productive collocation test modelled on Laufer and Nation (1999) were presented to Belgian and Burundian English majors. The results show that scores on both tests distinguish between proficiency levels and, furthermore, highly correlate. This suggests that controlled productive knowledge of collocations develops as proficiency increases, supporting earlier studies (Boers,

Research paper thumbnail of The relationship between productive knowledge of collocations and academic literacy in tertiary level students

Journal for Language Teaching, 2014

This research explores tertiary level L2 students' mastery of the collocations pertaining to the ... more This research explores tertiary level L2 students' mastery of the collocations pertaining to the Academic Word List (AWL) and the extent to which their knowledge of collocations grows alongside their academic literacy. A collocation test modelled on Laufer and Nation (1999), with target words selected from Coxhead's (2000)

Research paper thumbnail of Academic Literacy of South African Higher Education Level Students: Does Vocabulary Size Matter?

Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics, 2015

This study explores the extent to which vocabulary size matters in academic literacy. Participant... more This study explores the extent to which vocabulary size matters in academic literacy. Participants (first-year students at NorthWest University) were administered the Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt, Schmitt and Clapham 2001). Scores from the test were used to estimate students' vocabulary size and were subsequently mapped onto the levels distinguished by the Test of Academic Literacy Levels (TALL). Estimates show that, on average, the vocabulary size of first-year students at NorthWest University is approximately 4,500 word families, a size large enough to allow them to follow lectures in English. Furthermore, students with large vocabularies were found to have higher academic literacy proficiency, which establishes a strong relationship between vocabulary size and academic literacy. This relationship was also observed at the different word frequency bands the Vocabulary Levels Test consists of. These results support previous findings which established a relationship between vocabulary size and reading (cf. Nation 2006), and between vocabulary size and overall language proficiency (cf. Beglar 2010, Meara and Buxton 1987, Meara and Jones 1988, Nation and Beglar 2007), which could be extended to academic literacy. Furthermore, a stronger relationship between vocabulary size and academic literacy was found towards more infrequent word bands, indicating that infrequent word bands may best predict academic literacy. On the basis of these findings, we discuss possible strategies to adopt in order to assist some first-years with expanding their vocabularies.

Research paper thumbnail of The dimensional approach to vocabulary testing: What can we learn from past and present practices?

Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics, 2015

Vocabulary constitutes an important component of language and its study has attracted the interes... more Vocabulary constitutes an important component of language and its study has attracted the interest of second-language (L2) and foreign-language (FL) teachers and applied language researchers, booming in the 1990s (cf. for example Ellis 1992, Read 2000). Among other things, this interest has been characterised by the attention paid to testing learners' knowledge of vocabulary. The dimensional approach to vocabulary knowledge as proposed by Henriksen (1999), i.e. vocabulary size, depth, and receptive-productive knowledge/skills, has influenced test design for measuring L2/FL vocabulary acquisition. This article aims to describe the major vocabulary tests along the vocabulary dimensions and highlights what testing under this approach has contributed to the teaching of vocabulary. To this end, it reviews some major L2/FL vocabulary tests alongside the above dimensions, focusing on the pedagogical consequences that followed testing. The review shows that testing has not been an end in itself. The extensive investigation of vocabulary size has led to standardisation of methods, as well as insight into how to determine the amount of vocabulary needed at different learning stages. Furthermore, it has influenced the development of course materials for fostering vocabulary growth. However, testing depth and productive knowledge still lags behind. Despite progress made in this regard, scholars have not succeeded in measuring the two dimensions in a standardised manner, nor have they determined the extent of depth and productive knowledge associated with different learning stages. Given the importance of speaking and writing (i.e. productive use rather than mere comprehension), suggestions for future directions are discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of First-year university students’ productive knowledge of collocations

Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 2014

The present study examines productive knowledge of collocations of tertiary-level secondlanguage ... more The present study examines productive knowledge of collocations of tertiary-level secondlanguage (L2) learners of English in an attempt to make estimates of the size of their knowledge. Participants involved first-year students at NorthWest University who sat a collocation test modelled on that developed by Laufer and Nation (1999), with words selected from the 2000-, 3000-, and 5000-word bands (Nation 2006) and the Academic Word List (Coxhead 2000). The achieved scores were analysed in light of Schmitt's (2003, in Xing and Fulcher 2007) cutoff point for an acquired word-frequency band (80%), as well as Nation's (1990) suggested threshold of productive knowledge at tertiary level (at least the 3,000 most frequently used words). Results indicate that the participants do not master the 3000-word band and therefore fall slightly short of expectations. Only the 2000-word band is mastered by most of these firstyear student participants, with some of them not entirely mastering this band. On the basis of these results, pedagogical consequences are discussed in terms of how to help students reach the minimum threshold of productive knowledge that is needed to cope with the academic challenges at tertiary level.

Research paper thumbnail of Mind the Gap: Towards Determining Which Collocations to Teach

Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 2019

Collocations form part of formulaic language use that is considered by many scholars as central t... more Collocations form part of formulaic language use that is considered by many scholars as central to communication (Henriksen 2013; Wray 2002). Today, most scholars agree that teaching collocations to second and/or foreign language users (henceforth "L2 students") is a must. This study offers a reflection on the directions L2 researchers and teachers may explore, and that could contribute to modelling the teaching of collocations or at least spark the debate on this issue. The fundamental point raised here is the extent to which pedagogy may be informed by knowing the most common lexical collocations (combinations of content words) and using frequency of collocates as a key factor in selecting which collocations to bring to learners' attention. The results from this study indicate that out of the eight different lexical collocations, adjective+noun and verb+noun collocations are the most common, and should therefore be introduced first. Furthermore, most collocates ("co-occurring words" in Sinclair's (1991) terms) come from the 1,000 and 2,000 most frequent words. Therefore, this study suggests that the same way that "[u]sing the computational approach as a starting point makes it possible to distinguish between collocations of varying frequency of use" (Henriksen 2013: 32), frequency may be used to select the target words and their collocates once collocations have been identified. This could potentially contribute to addressing the issue of selection criteria of which collocations to teach.

Research paper thumbnail of Productive knowledge of collocations may predict academic literacy

The present study examines the relationship between productive knowledge of collocations and acad... more The present study examines the relationship between productive knowledge of collocations and academic literacy among first year students at NorthWest University. Participants were administered a collocation test, the items of which were selected from Nation's (2006) word frequency bands, i.e. the 2000-word, 3000-word, 5000-word bands; and the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000). The scores from the collocation test were compared to those from the Test of Academic Literacy Levels (version administered in 2012). The results of this study indicate that, overall, knowledge of collocations is significantly correlated with academic literacy, which is also observed at each of the frequency bands from which the items were selected. These results support Nizonkiza's (2014) findings that a significant correlation between mastery of collocations of words from the Academic Word List and academic literacy exists; which is extended here to words from other frequency bands. They also confirm previous findings that productive knowledge of collocations increases alongside overall proficiency (cf.

Research paper thumbnail of Challenges of testing deep word knowledge of vocabulary: Which path to follow?

Lssa Saala Saalt Joint Annual Conference 2013, Jun 28, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Measuring productive knowledge of collocations among tertiary level students: The case of first year students at the North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus)

Lssa Saala Saalt Joint Annual Conference 2013, Jun 28, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Teachability of collocations: The role of word frequency counts

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 2013

ABSTRACT

Research paper thumbnail of Challenges of Testing Deep Word Knowledge of Vocabulary: Which Path to Follow?

Journal for Language Teaching, Oct 1, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of 11. Predictive power of controled productive knowledge of collocations over L2 proficiency

Usage-Based Approaches to Language Acquisition and Language Teaching, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of English language proficiency for Higher Education and professional contexts: the challenge Burundi is facing for global integration

Per Linguam

This paper assesses foreign language proficiency acquired in higher education in light of the com... more This paper assesses foreign language proficiency acquired in higher education in light of the communicative skills needed in professional life. English majors at the University of Burundi took TOEFL and completed a questionnaire investigating their potential role in the country’s regional integration. Results indicate that (i) the level of proficiency is rather low with the majority of graduating students at intermediate level; (ii) skills/components develop in the order grammar, reading comprehension and vocabulary, and listening, i.e. receptive skills are better developed than productive/communicative skills and, (iii) English majors are aware of both the linguistic challenges to be met and their role in the country’s regional integration in the East African Community. On the basis of the findings, which are underscored by lecturers, suggestions are made for redefining teaching/learning objectives and outcomes in the hope to enhance graduates' general language proficiency and ...

Research paper thumbnail of First-year university students’ receptive and productive use of academic vocabulary

STELLENBOSCH PAPERS IN LINGUISTICS, 2016

The present study explores academic vocabulary knowledge, operationalised through the Academic Wo... more The present study explores academic vocabulary knowledge, operationalised through the Academic Word List, among first-year higher education students. Both receptive and productive knowledge and the proportion between the two are examined. Results show that while receptive knowledge is readily acquired by first-year students, productive knowledge lags behind and remains problematic. This entails that receptive knowledge is much larger than productive knowledge, which confirms earlier indications that receptive vocabulary knowledge is larger than productive knowledge for both academic vocabulary (Zhou 2010) and general vocabulary (cf. Laufer 1998, Webb 2008, among others). Furthermore, results reveal that the ratio between receptive and productive knowledge is slightly above 50%, which lends empirical support to previous findings that the ratio between the two aspects of vocabulary knowledge can be anywhere between 50% and 80% (Milton 2009). This finding is extended here to academic vocabulary; complementing Zhou's (2010) study that investigated the relationship between the two aspects of vocabulary knowledge without examining the ratio between them. On the basis of these results, approaches that could potentially contribute to fostering productive knowledge growth are discussed. Avenues worth exploring to gain further insight into the relationship between receptive and productive knowledge are also suggested.

Research paper thumbnail of Measuring Receptive Collocational Competence Across Proficiency Levels

Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics, 2015

The present study investigates (i) English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners' receptive collocat... more The present study investigates (i) English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners' receptive collocational knowledge growth in relation to their linguistic proficiency level; (ii) how much receptive collocational knowledge is acquired as linguistic proficiency develops; and (iii) the extent to which receptive knowledge of collocations of EFL learners varies across word frequency bands. A proficiency measure and a collocation test were administered to English majors at the University of Burundi. The results of the study suggest that receptive collocational competence develops alongside EFL learners' linguistic proficiency, which lends empirical support to Gyllstad (2007, 2009) and Nizonkiza (2011), among others, who reported similar findings. Furthermore, EFL learners' collocational knowledge growth seems to be quantifiable, where both linguistic proficiency level and word frequency occupy crucial roles. While more collocational gains that EFL learners could potentially add as a result of change in proficiency are found at lower levels of proficiency, collocations of words from more frequent word bands seem to be mastered first, and more gains are found at more frequent word bands. These results confirm earlier findings on the non-linear nature of vocabulary growth (cf. Meara 1996) and the fundamental role played by frequency in word knowledge for vocabulary in general (Nation 1983, 1990; Nation and Beglar 2007), which are extended here to include collocational knowledge.

Research paper thumbnail of Testing Controlled Productive Knowledge of Adverb-Verb Collocations in Junior Researchers Using English as a Foreign Language

STELLENBOSCH PAPERS IN LINGUISTICS, 2016

The present study examines English as a Foreign Language (EFL) junior researchers' use of adverbv... more The present study examines English as a Foreign Language (EFL) junior researchers' use of adverbverb collocations of academic vocabulary in both free-written and controlled productions. A small corpus was compiled and analysed in order to identify verbs in adverb-verb combinations and examine which ones were collocated correctly or erroneously. A controlled productive test of adverb-verb collocations, with verbs selected from the Academic Word List (Coxhead 2000) and adverbs selected from Crowther, Dignen and Lea's (2002) Oxford collocations dictionary for students of English was also administered to participants. Results indicate that free-productive knowledge of adverb-verb collocations is challenging for EFL users. This finding supports previous studies that focused mainly on verb-noun collocations, and that reached the conclusion that EFL students are not sensitive enough to collocations to use them in their written productions (cf. Nesselhauf 2005). This finding is extended here to adverb-verb collocations. The study also reveals that controlled productive knowledge of adverbverb collocations is less problematic. Based on these results, teaching strategies aimed at improving the use of adverb-verb collocations among EFL users are proposed.

Research paper thumbnail of Predictive power of word knowledge over second/foreign language proficiency : opinions and information

This paper presents the findings of a PhD entitled 'The Relationship between Lexical Competen... more This paper presents the findings of a PhD entitled 'The Relationship between Lexical Competence, Collocational Competence, and Second Language Proficiency' conducted on Belgian and Burundian English majors. The study, undertaken in the light of the steady growing research attention accorded to vocabulary over the past few years, explores the relationship between second/foreign language, hence L2 proficiency, and lexical/collocational competence and the measurability of knowledge of collocations acquired as proficiency develops. Both receptive and productive levels have been considered. Lexical competence should be understood as knowing words while collocations should be understood as the way words combine in a language to produce natural-sounding speech and writing. Strong wind, strong tea, powerful engine, heavy rain, strong argument, powerful argument, etc... are examples of collocations. It can be difficult for L2 learners to understand why the adjectives "strong" and "powerful" can be used interchangeably to modify the noun "argument", but not "tea" and "engine".

Research paper thumbnail of Towards modelled testing of productive knowledge of collocations

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 2020

Abstract Accurate use of collocations is seen as a measure of a learner’s proficiency in a second... more Abstract Accurate use of collocations is seen as a measure of a learner’s proficiency in a second/foreign language. However, research is not conclusive as to how to best test productive knowledge of collocations and, more fundamentally, there is no agreement on how vocabulary size, i.e. word comprehension, influences collocation production within a constrained or unconstrained context. This article elaborates on a battery of tests aimed at examining these issues. The tests were presented to both English as Foreign Language (EFL) and English as Second Language (ESL) students. The findings indicate that constrained and unconstrained contexts may represent different levels of productive knowledge, casting doubt on the definition of productive knowledge collapsing the two contexts – constrained and unconstrained – into one construct. Furthermore, both levels are influenced by the size of a learner’s receptive knowledge, which confirms Gyllstad’s earlier observation on the relationship between receptive knowledge of collocations and vocabulary size, which is extended here to include productive knowledge. On the basis of these results, we argue that a new definition for ‘productive knowledge of collocations’ is in order, where productive knowledge is categorised according to four levels based on the amount of context provided to the learner.

Research paper thumbnail of Improving academic literacy by teaching collocations

Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of Improving academic literacy through teaching collocations

Lssa Saala Saalt Joint Annual Conference 2013, Jun 28, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Quantifying controlled productive knowledge of collocations across proficiency and word frequency levels

Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2012

The present study explores the relationship between controlled productive knowledge of collocatio... more The present study explores the relationship between controlled productive knowledge of collocations and L2 proficiency, the role of frequency in controlled productive knowledge of collocations, and the quantifiability of controlled productive collocational knowledge growth alongside L2 proficiency and word frequency levels. A proficiency measure and a productive collocation test modelled on Laufer and Nation (1999) were presented to Belgian and Burundian English majors. The results show that scores on both tests distinguish between proficiency levels and, furthermore, highly correlate. This suggests that controlled productive knowledge of collocations develops as proficiency increases, supporting earlier studies (Boers,

Research paper thumbnail of The relationship between productive knowledge of collocations and academic literacy in tertiary level students

Journal for Language Teaching, 2014

This research explores tertiary level L2 students' mastery of the collocations pertaining to the ... more This research explores tertiary level L2 students' mastery of the collocations pertaining to the Academic Word List (AWL) and the extent to which their knowledge of collocations grows alongside their academic literacy. A collocation test modelled on Laufer and Nation (1999), with target words selected from Coxhead's (2000)

Research paper thumbnail of Academic Literacy of South African Higher Education Level Students: Does Vocabulary Size Matter?

Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics, 2015

This study explores the extent to which vocabulary size matters in academic literacy. Participant... more This study explores the extent to which vocabulary size matters in academic literacy. Participants (first-year students at NorthWest University) were administered the Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt, Schmitt and Clapham 2001). Scores from the test were used to estimate students' vocabulary size and were subsequently mapped onto the levels distinguished by the Test of Academic Literacy Levels (TALL). Estimates show that, on average, the vocabulary size of first-year students at NorthWest University is approximately 4,500 word families, a size large enough to allow them to follow lectures in English. Furthermore, students with large vocabularies were found to have higher academic literacy proficiency, which establishes a strong relationship between vocabulary size and academic literacy. This relationship was also observed at the different word frequency bands the Vocabulary Levels Test consists of. These results support previous findings which established a relationship between vocabulary size and reading (cf. Nation 2006), and between vocabulary size and overall language proficiency (cf. Beglar 2010, Meara and Buxton 1987, Meara and Jones 1988, Nation and Beglar 2007), which could be extended to academic literacy. Furthermore, a stronger relationship between vocabulary size and academic literacy was found towards more infrequent word bands, indicating that infrequent word bands may best predict academic literacy. On the basis of these findings, we discuss possible strategies to adopt in order to assist some first-years with expanding their vocabularies.

Research paper thumbnail of The dimensional approach to vocabulary testing: What can we learn from past and present practices?

Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics, 2015

Vocabulary constitutes an important component of language and its study has attracted the interes... more Vocabulary constitutes an important component of language and its study has attracted the interest of second-language (L2) and foreign-language (FL) teachers and applied language researchers, booming in the 1990s (cf. for example Ellis 1992, Read 2000). Among other things, this interest has been characterised by the attention paid to testing learners' knowledge of vocabulary. The dimensional approach to vocabulary knowledge as proposed by Henriksen (1999), i.e. vocabulary size, depth, and receptive-productive knowledge/skills, has influenced test design for measuring L2/FL vocabulary acquisition. This article aims to describe the major vocabulary tests along the vocabulary dimensions and highlights what testing under this approach has contributed to the teaching of vocabulary. To this end, it reviews some major L2/FL vocabulary tests alongside the above dimensions, focusing on the pedagogical consequences that followed testing. The review shows that testing has not been an end in itself. The extensive investigation of vocabulary size has led to standardisation of methods, as well as insight into how to determine the amount of vocabulary needed at different learning stages. Furthermore, it has influenced the development of course materials for fostering vocabulary growth. However, testing depth and productive knowledge still lags behind. Despite progress made in this regard, scholars have not succeeded in measuring the two dimensions in a standardised manner, nor have they determined the extent of depth and productive knowledge associated with different learning stages. Given the importance of speaking and writing (i.e. productive use rather than mere comprehension), suggestions for future directions are discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of First-year university students’ productive knowledge of collocations

Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 2014

The present study examines productive knowledge of collocations of tertiary-level secondlanguage ... more The present study examines productive knowledge of collocations of tertiary-level secondlanguage (L2) learners of English in an attempt to make estimates of the size of their knowledge. Participants involved first-year students at NorthWest University who sat a collocation test modelled on that developed by Laufer and Nation (1999), with words selected from the 2000-, 3000-, and 5000-word bands (Nation 2006) and the Academic Word List (Coxhead 2000). The achieved scores were analysed in light of Schmitt's (2003, in Xing and Fulcher 2007) cutoff point for an acquired word-frequency band (80%), as well as Nation's (1990) suggested threshold of productive knowledge at tertiary level (at least the 3,000 most frequently used words). Results indicate that the participants do not master the 3000-word band and therefore fall slightly short of expectations. Only the 2000-word band is mastered by most of these firstyear student participants, with some of them not entirely mastering this band. On the basis of these results, pedagogical consequences are discussed in terms of how to help students reach the minimum threshold of productive knowledge that is needed to cope with the academic challenges at tertiary level.

Research paper thumbnail of Mind the Gap: Towards Determining Which Collocations to Teach

Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 2019

Collocations form part of formulaic language use that is considered by many scholars as central t... more Collocations form part of formulaic language use that is considered by many scholars as central to communication (Henriksen 2013; Wray 2002). Today, most scholars agree that teaching collocations to second and/or foreign language users (henceforth "L2 students") is a must. This study offers a reflection on the directions L2 researchers and teachers may explore, and that could contribute to modelling the teaching of collocations or at least spark the debate on this issue. The fundamental point raised here is the extent to which pedagogy may be informed by knowing the most common lexical collocations (combinations of content words) and using frequency of collocates as a key factor in selecting which collocations to bring to learners' attention. The results from this study indicate that out of the eight different lexical collocations, adjective+noun and verb+noun collocations are the most common, and should therefore be introduced first. Furthermore, most collocates ("co-occurring words" in Sinclair's (1991) terms) come from the 1,000 and 2,000 most frequent words. Therefore, this study suggests that the same way that "[u]sing the computational approach as a starting point makes it possible to distinguish between collocations of varying frequency of use" (Henriksen 2013: 32), frequency may be used to select the target words and their collocates once collocations have been identified. This could potentially contribute to addressing the issue of selection criteria of which collocations to teach.

Research paper thumbnail of Productive knowledge of collocations may predict academic literacy

The present study examines the relationship between productive knowledge of collocations and acad... more The present study examines the relationship between productive knowledge of collocations and academic literacy among first year students at NorthWest University. Participants were administered a collocation test, the items of which were selected from Nation's (2006) word frequency bands, i.e. the 2000-word, 3000-word, 5000-word bands; and the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000). The scores from the collocation test were compared to those from the Test of Academic Literacy Levels (version administered in 2012). The results of this study indicate that, overall, knowledge of collocations is significantly correlated with academic literacy, which is also observed at each of the frequency bands from which the items were selected. These results support Nizonkiza's (2014) findings that a significant correlation between mastery of collocations of words from the Academic Word List and academic literacy exists; which is extended here to words from other frequency bands. They also confirm previous findings that productive knowledge of collocations increases alongside overall proficiency (cf.

Research paper thumbnail of Challenges of testing deep word knowledge of vocabulary: Which path to follow?

Lssa Saala Saalt Joint Annual Conference 2013, Jun 28, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Measuring productive knowledge of collocations among tertiary level students: The case of first year students at the North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus)

Lssa Saala Saalt Joint Annual Conference 2013, Jun 28, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Teachability of collocations: The role of word frequency counts

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 2013

ABSTRACT