Vocabulary usage among Asian EFL learners during speech: a corpus-based quantitative analysis of the effects of L1 type, L2 proficiency and task type

Shin'ichiro Ishikawa

PSU Research Review, 2021, vol. 8, issue 1, 102-120

Abstract: Purpose - Using a newly compiled corpus module consisting of utterances from Asian learners during L2 English interviews, this study examined how Asian EFL learners' L1s (Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese and Thai), their L2 proficiency levels (A2, B1 low, B1 upper and B2+) and speech task types (picture descriptions, roleplays and QA-based conversations) affected four aspects of vocabulary usage (number of tokens, standardized type/token ratio, mean word length and mean sentence length). Design/methodology/approach - Four aspects concern speech fluency, lexical richness, lexical complexity and structural complexity, respectively. Findings - Subsequent corpus-based quantitative data analyses revealed that (1) learner/native speaker differences existed during the conversation and roleplay tasks in terms of the number of tokens, type/token ratio and sentence length; (2) an L1 group effect existed in all three task types in terms of the number of tokens and sentence length; (3) an L2 proficiency effect existed in all three task types in terms of the number of tokens, type-token ratio and sentence length; and (4) the usage of high-frequency vocabulary was influenced more strongly by the task type and it was classified into four types: Type A vocabulary for grammar control, Type B vocabulary for speech maintenance, Type C vocabulary for negotiation and persuasion and Type D vocabulary for novice learners. Originality/value - These findings provide clues for better understanding L2 English vocabulary usage among Asian learners during speech.

Keywords: Spoken learner corpus; L2 English vocabulary use; Contrastive interlanguage analysis; L1 group effect; L2 proficiency effect; Speech task types (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:prrpps:prr-01-2021-0003

DOI: 10.1108/PRR-01-2021-0003

Access Statistics for this article

PSU Research Review is currently edited by Dr Mohammad Nurunnabi

More articles in PSU Research Review from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().