Word knowledge: exploring the relationships and order of acquisition of vocabulary knowledge components

Schmitt, Norbert; Gonz�lez-Fern�ndez, Beatriz

Abstract

Vocabulary knowledge is a complex construct that involves the acquisition of multiple word knowledge components (Henriksen1999;
Read 2000; Nation 2013). However, most of our current understanding about this construct derives from studies that have assessed only one type of word knowledge, especially the form–meaning link (Melka1997; Milton and Fitzpatrick 2014a). As a consequence, the construct of vocabulary knowledge as a whole is still largely unexplored, and it is unclear how the different word knowledge components are acquired and fit together (Authorxxxx; Milton and Fitzpatrick 2014b). Paul Meara noted the absence of an overall theory of vocabulary acquisition in 1983, and despite the large amount of vocabulary research in the last decades, this is still the case in 2018. An obvious reason for this lack of a general theory of vocabulary acquisition is that researchers have generally have not attended to the multidimensional nature of vocabulary in any great detail (although see a number of exceptions below), and have typically not explored the interrelationships between the word knowledge components they did study. This article is an initial step towards addressing this gap, by measuring L2 learners’ knowledge of four word knowledge components (both in recognition and recall), and comparing the results in an attempt to begin modelling the relationships between the various components.

Citation

Schmitt, N., & González-Fernández, B. (2019). Word knowledge: exploring the relationships and order of acquisition of vocabulary knowledge components. Applied Linguistics, 41(4), 481-505. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amy057

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 9, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jan 2, 2019
• Publication Date: Jan 2, 2019
• Deposit Date: Nov 21, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 3, 2021
• Journal: Applied Linguistics
• Print ISSN: 0142-6001
• Electronic ISSN: 1477-450X
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 41
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 481-505
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amy057
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1296121
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/applij/advance-article/doi/10.1093/applin/amy057/5270836
• Contract Date: Feb 1, 2019