Case Study Of Tertiary Learners’ Capability In Lexical Knowledge
Naginder Kaur
naginder.kaur@gmail.com
Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Lexical competence is crucial in ensuring academic success at all levels. At tertiary level, sufficient word knowledge and lexical comprehension ensure sufficient literacy of language skills as learners need to cope with challenging academic tasks in their respective field of study. This paper reports findings of a case study of pre-degree Malaysian learners enrolled at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Perlis. The study was undertaken to find out if these learners have sufficient lexical ability before they embark on a degree programme. Nine learners of varying proficiency levels of high, average and low language proficiency were selected for this study. The data were collected in sequential two-phased procedure. The first phase involved diagnostic stage of probing learners’ level of word knowledge with online Vocabulary Levels Test by Laufer and Nation. Subsequently, learners’ capability within the scope of word form, spelling and pronunciation was explored through the Academic Word List Test and in-depth interviews with the participants. The findings revealed that the learners’ word mastery level is only between 1,000 and 3,000 words, which is far below the minimum level required for tertiary education. These insights thus inform the researcher that urgent measures must be taken in order to redeem the situation. Hence, a structured vocabulary learning programme is deemed necessary in the Malaysian English language curriculum to help learners acquire sufficient lexis before embarking on tertiary education. This would also provide our tertiary learners with the avenue to make them employable and marketable graduates with firm language proficiency in general and lexical competence in particular.

Keywords: lexical; vocabulary; capability; Academic Word List; Malaysian tertiary learners.

 INTRODUCTION

Vocabulary or lexis or lexical item refers to the semantics of the language. Vocabulary also appears as the headword in a dictionary entry (Jackson, 1998). It relates to knowledge of words as well as word meanings and thus, forms the basic building blocks of language learning experience. As the cornerstone of language proficiency, lexical knowledge is the key element as it enables one to respond to the four language skills effectively. With adequate lexical knowledge, a learner has sufficient input to partake in productive skills, namely, daily oral communication and written work. It is estimated that about 3,000 spoken word families are required to cover about 96% of one’s daily communication lexicon use or about 2,000 words to maintain conversations (Schmitt, 2000). Similarly, lexical competence also ensures ability to cope with various types of reading (Nation, 2001). Possessing good knowledge of how the various systems inherent in a language may not necessarily enable one to communicate but it is usually possible to communicate if one has the vocabulary. Vocabulary is thus, perceived to occupy a key position in second language (L2) learning.
In essence, vocabulary learning far transcends form-meaning correlation and is not the mere piling up of individual words (Nation, 2001). It encompasses two dimensions which are word knowledge dimension and word skill dimension. Word knowledge involves knowledge of word form, its meaning and its contextual use, both receptively (passive or recognised) and productively (active vocabulary). Word skill dimension on the other hand, refers to the ability to use the word in a wide range of contexts. It requires the understanding of appropriate grammatical functions, common collocations, appropriacy in different contexts and frequency of use. To sum up, it can be seen that knowledge dimension strategies include remembering form-meaning pairs (for example, mnemonic devices) while skill-oriented strategies relate to the meaningful use of words in different contexts as well as the automaticity in retrieving and producing those words. Both these dimensions are complementary and of equal importance, and should develop integratively. Hence, in order to know a word completely, it is essential for one to know key aspects of the word, namely its pronunciation, spelling, derivations and its range of meanings.