1. Comparing the relation between L1 and L2 vocabulary
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Comparing the relation between L1 and L2 vocabulary
in early bilinguals and adult EFL learners
Zehra Ongun, Wang Yixin and Michael Daller
Swansea University .
1. Abstract
3. Results
The current study compares two different types of second language learning and the outcomes for vocabulary knowledge: subsequent bilingual language acquisition in children and adult EFL learners. One theoretical framework that assumes a relation between L1 and L2 of bilinguals is Cummin’s Common Underlying Proficiency (1980, 1991), A further framework that assumes a relation between L1 and L2 of bilinguals is the Revised Hierarchical Model (Kroll, Van Hell, Tocowicz & Green, 2010). For adult EFL learners we have not been able to identify a theoretical framework that links L1 and L2 vocabulary sizes, although there are a number of empirical findings that suggest such a link.
Both groups were tested for their receptive vocabulary in both of their languages (see below). The Turkish and Chinese vocabulary size tests can be downloaded from the research gate websites of the authors (feedback is always welcome).
Study 1 Turkish-English Bilingual Children:
The results show a significant positive correlation between the receptive (r = .611, p < .001) and the productive vocabularies (r = .732, p < .001) in English and Turkish. The development of the receptive vocabularies in both languages of the bilingual children by age is shown in Figure 1.
Study 2 Chinese-English EFL Learners:
Correlation analysis was conducted between X-Lex and CX-Lex
The result showed that a significant positive correlation (r = .309, p< .05) was found between the English receptive vocabulary size test and the Chinese receptive vocabulary size test among Chinese-English EFL learners.
Figure 1
Vocabulary development of bilingual children by age .
2. Methodology
4. Conclusion
Study 1: Turkish-English
Bilingual Children
Study 2: Chinese-English EFL Learners
The results indicate a strong correlation between vocabulary knowledge in both languages of bilinguals. A weaker but still significant correlation in adult EFL learners can also be found.
Although the linguistic settings between the two studies are completely different, there seems to be a general tendency that vocabularies of learners are linked between languages.
For bilinguals theoretical frameworks are available to explain this link. However, a unifying theory that explains the link between the vocabularies of learners in different contexts, including bilingual and foreign language learning settings, is desirable.
Participants:
100 Turkish-English bilingual children between 7 and 11 years old from middle SES. they were born in the UK or arrived in the UK before the age of 3.
Materials
X-Lex (Meara& Milton,2003) receptive vocabulary test.
Turkish X-Lex.
Categorial fluency task for productive vocabulary (name as many words as you know for food, clothing, body parts and colours (2 minutes each.)
Participants:
48 Chinese EFL learners with an average age of 22 years.
Materials:
X-Lex (Meara& Milton,2003) receptive vocabulary test.
Chinese X-Lex (see Figure 1).
5. Reference
6. Contact information
Cummins, J. (1980). The construct of Language proficiency in bilingual education. In: Colin Baker. Foundation of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
Cummins, J. (1991). Interdependence of first- and second-language proficiency in bilingual children. In: Bialystok, E. (1991). Language processing in bilingual children, pp Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Da, J. (2004). A corpus-based study of character and bigram frequencies in Chinese e-texts and its implications for Chinese language instruction. In Proceedings of the fourth international conference on new technologies in teaching and learning Chinese (pp ). Beijing: Tsinghua University Press.
Kroll, J. F.; Van Hell, J. G.; Tocowicz, N. & Green, D. W. (2010). The Revised Hierarchical Model: A critical review and assessment. Bilingualism, Language and Cognition, 13 (3),
Meara, P.,& Milton, J. (2003). X-Lex. The Swansea Levels Test. Newbury: Express Publishing.
Zehra Ongun E:
Wang Yixin:
E: y.wang.
Dr. Michael Daller: E:
Figure 1: Capture of Chinese X-Lex test