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In spite of the proliferation of research studies on vocabulary knowledge, investigating the relationship between self-regulation, vocabulary size, and collocational knowledge among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners has received scant attention. The current study aimed to investigate whether vocabulary and collocation size can explain EFL learners’ self-regulated vocabulary learning. A population of 271 EFL learners from three state universities located in Iran participated in taking lexical measures (VST, Lex30, and a collocation test) and filling a questionnaire (SRCvoc). To check the relationship between self-regulated vocabulary learning, vocabulary and collocation size, standard multiple regression was conducted with SPSS. The results of standard multiple regression analysis showed that EFL learners’ vocabulary and collocation size could explain a significant portion of the variance in the score of their self-regulation in vocabulary learning. The findings also indicated that verb-noun collocation size and productive vocabulary size were significant predictors of EFL learners’ self-regulated capacity in vocabulary learning. Finally, implications and suggestions for future research are offered.

This paper presents a new method for accurately measuring the vocabulary size of second language (L2) learners. Traditional vocabulary size tests (VSTs) are limited in capturing a tester’s vocabulary and are often population-specific. To overcome these issues, we propose an intelligent vocabulary size measurement method that utilizes massive robot testers. They are equipped with randomized and word-frequency-based vocabularies to simulate L2 learners’ variant vocabularies. An intelligent vocabulary size test (IVST) is developed to precisely measure vocabulary size for any population. The robot testers “take” the IVST, which dynamically generates quizzes with varying levels of difficulty adapted to the estimated tester’s vocabulary size in real-time using an artificial neural network (ANN) through iterative learning. The effectiveness of the IVST is factually verified by their visible vocabularies. Additionally, we apply a long short-term memory (LSTM) model to further enhance the method’s performance. The proposed method has demonstrated high reliability and effectiveness, achieving accuracies of 98.47% for the IVST and 99.87% for the IVST with LSTM. This novel approach provides a more precise and reliable method for measuring vocabulary size in L2 learners compared to traditional VSTs, offering potential benefits to language learners and educators.

This article reports the development of two novel research tools for Turkish, the Turkish Author Recognition Task (TART) and the Turkish Vocabulary Size Test (TurVoST). Such tools have been readily available for English, Spanish, Korean, Dutch and Chinese but not for Turkish. These tools help researchers to identify the print exposure levels of L1 speakers and an approximation of L1 speakers’ receptive vocabulary knowledge, respectively. Measuring print exposure is important as it is an important driver of L1 development from a usage-based perspective (e.g., Dąbrowska in Cognition 178:222–235, 2018), which influences vocabulary, grammar, and collocation knowledge. The findings show that the TART and TurVoST are significantly correlated at 0.47 and the TART accounts for almost 18% of the variance in vocabulary knowledge. Reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) scores were found to be 0.99 and 0.74 for two tests respectively. In light of similar previous studies of various ARTs and vocabulary size tests, the TART and the TurVoST are found to be reliable research instruments with correlations and reliability scores within the range of what has been reported in the literature. Potential uses of these two instruments are discussed. All data, R codes, and research instruments are publicly available at https://osf.io/u6t8m/?view_only=63cf706c381a4214950984dae5470df6.

The question of how vocabulary knowledge of second language (L2) learners can be measured in a valid and reliable way has attracted attention from researchers. One widely used format for assessing vocabulary knowledge is a Yes/No test, where learners are asked to indicate whether they know each vocabulary word on the test. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the LexTALE test, a recently developed Yes/No English vocabulary test, can be an approximate measure of vocabulary knowledge and general proficiency for Japanese learners of English. In this study, 111 Japanese university students majoring in English took the LexTALE, an English to Japanese translation test, and the Vocabulary Size Test (VST). They were further asked to provide self-ratings of their English proficiency. Analysis showed that the LexTALE score correlated more strongly with the translation score and VST score than self-ratings of their proficiency. The results also showed that the LexTALE score correlated significantly with the TOEFL ITP® score, although some self-ratings resulted in a higher correlation. The findings suggest that for Japanese learners of English, LexTALE may be used as an approximate measure of English vocabulary knowledge and, to a lesser extent, general proficiency.

The current study evaluates guessing behaviors in a vocabulary size test (VST) and examines whether including an I don't know in a VST may have an impact on the results of the test. One-hundred-fifty first-year students at a university in China took part in the study. They were randomly assigned to three groups. Each group took a different version of the VST: the original VST, the VST with an I don't know option, and the VST with an I don't know option and a penalty instruction. After the VST, a reading comprehension test (used as a distraction) and a meaning recall task were administered to all participants. Comparing the results of the VST and the recall task, it was found that guessing behaviors can be influenced by factors such as vocabulary frequency level, partial knowledge, and the multiplechoice options. Results also indicate that the I don't know option not only reduced the number of guesses but also discouraged partial knowledge. Whether to include the I don't know option and the penalty instruction depends on how the test is to be used.

This study investigates the correlations between the three measures of written receptive vocabulary size and second language (L2) depth of vocabulary knowledge to find the most reliable test of vocabulary size. Moreover, the corresponding relationship is examined for the higher and lower word-frequency bands of the three tests to find whether the correlation between the two constructs differs as a function of frequency level and task format. In so doing, Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), the monolingual and bilingual Persian versions of the Vocabulary Size Test (VST), and Word Associates Test (WAT) were administered to 122 high-proficient undergraduate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. Results of Pearson correlations and linear regression analyses indicated that (a) the VLT had the highest correlation with the participants’ scores on the WAT; (b) although all the three tests of vocabulary size could significantly predict L2 depth of vocabulary knowledge, the VLT was the strongest predictor; (c) the higher word-frequency levels of the three VSTs in general, and the VLT in particular, were more predictive of L2 vocabulary depth; and (d) the 3,000-word-frequency level of the VLT, in particular, had the highest contribution to the performance on the WAT. The overall findings point to the superiority of the VLT among the three measures of vocabulary size.

This study examines the development and evaluation of a bilingual Vocabulary Size Test (VST, Nation, 2006). A bilingual (English-Russian) test was developed and administered to 121 intermediate proficiency EFL learners (native speakers of Russian), alongside the original monolingual (English-only) version of the test. A comparison of the bilingual and monolingual test scores showed that participants achieved significantly higher scores on the bilingual version of the test. Accuracy of responses to individual test items was reliably higher when the meanings of test items were presented in the L1 (Russian) and when these items were cognates. The findings also revealed that the bilingual version is likely to be a more sensitive measure of written receptive vocabulary knowledge. Finally, analyses showed that the effect of using L1 for multiple-choice options is likely to be larger for low-proficiency learners and that the difference in response accuracy to cognates and non-cognates decreases as item frequency increases. The paper concludes with recommendations on developing and using bilingual vocabulary size tests. (Verlag).

This study examined how well second language (L2) recall and recognition vocabulary tests correlated with a reading test, how well each vocabulary test discriminated between reading proficiency levels, and how accurate each test was in predicting reading proficiency when compared with corpus studies. A total of 116 college-level learners of English as a foreign language took a reading test and 2 vocabulary size tests: meaning recall and meaning recognition. Participants were divided into 4 reading proficiency levels based on the reading scores. The authors correlated the reading scores with the 2 vocabulary scores, compared the 4 reading groups on each vocabulary test, and compared the vocabulary size of each of the reading proficiency groups with corpus studies. Both vocabulary tests were good predictors of reading, but the recognition test fared slightly better. The authors introduce the notion of 'comprehension vocabulary' and suggest that a recall test is more appropriate for measuring sight vocabulary while a recognition test is more appropriate for measuring comprehension vocabulary. (Verlag, adapt.).

Infants' pointing gestures are a critical predictor of early vocabulary size. However, it remains unknown precisely how pointing relates to word learning. The current study addressed this question in a sample of 108 infants, testing one mechanism by which infants' pointing may influence their learning. In Study 1,18-montholds, but not 12-month-olds, more readily mapped labels to objects if they had first pointed toward those objects than if they had referenced those objects via other communicative behaviors, such as reaching or gaze alternations. In Study 2, when an experimenter labeled a not pointed-to-object, 18-month-olds' pointing was no longer related to enhanced fast mapping. These findings suggest that infants' pointing gestures reflect a readiness and, potentially, a desire to learn.

This study explored the differences in receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge in terms of word frequency level and vocabulary size in undergraduate learners of English as a Second Language (ESL). A total of 90 first-year undergraduate engineering students from a semi-urban region in India participated in the study. Two quantitative vocabulary tests, the Receptive Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt et al., 2001) and the Productive Vocabulary Levels Test (Laufer and Nation, 1999), were applied sequentially to the students. The first test focused on identifying receptive vocabulary size, while the second test measured productive vocabulary size. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results indicate that the students’ receptive word knowledge is higher than their productive word knowledge. Similarly, the students’ receptive vocabulary size is larger than their productive vocabulary size. Furthermore, the difference between their receptive and productive vocabulary size is 27.69%. In order to bridge this gap and increase their vocabulary knowledge and size, we recommend an activity-based, explicit vocabulary teaching approach through self- -learning, group learning and mutual learning in the regular classrooms.