Word Knowledge: Aspects, Viewpoints and Performances

| September 17, 2012
Title
Word Knowledge: Aspects, Viewpoints and Performances

Keywords:  vocabulary knowledge, beliefs, performances on word

Authors
Zahra Fotovatnia and Alireza Barouni Ebrahimi
English Department, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran

Bio Data

Zahra Fotovatnia is an assistant professor at the English department of Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch, Iran. Her areas of interest are psycholinguistics and pedagogical phonetics and phonology. She has published and presented papers in national and international journals and conferences.

Alireza Barouni Ebrahimi is an MA holder in TEFL from Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch, Iran. His areas of interest are applied linguistics, methodology and vocabulary learning and teaching. He is an English teacher in Sadr Institute of Higher Education. He has published and presented papers in international and national journals and conferences.

Abstract

This study collected learner and teacher beliefs about depth of vocabulary knowledge in L1 and L2 to see if and to what extent these aspects were taken as important, and whether there was any relationship between the ratings of these aspects in L2 and learners actual performance. 42 TEFL graduate students and teachers, 55 Persian Literature graduate students and teachers, and 20 native TESL teachers received the word-knowledge questionnaire based on Nation s table of word knowledge (2001) in L1 and L2. Results show that the participants performed differently on some of the 18 items of the questionnaires and the same on others, that the participants did not perform on the reception and production tests based on what they rated as important regarding aspects of word knowledge, and that Nation’s table was an important criterion for word knowledge in L1 and L2. The findings might help learners and teachers more easily recognize possible gaps in their depth of vocabulary knowledge and their beliefs about it in accordance with a sound theoretical framework.

[private] See page: 266-300

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Category: Main Editions, Volume 14 Issue 3