An Exploratory Case Study Of Correlation Between L2Productive Vocabulary And Language Proficiency

It seems self-evident that lexical knowledge is closely related to language proficiency, since it is the basic block of both comprehension and expression. Though it is true, it is still necessary to explore the exact connection between these two factors via a relatively small sample study. In the past decades, many researchers, like Laufer, Nation, Meara, and Read, have constructed many theoretical frameworks and empirical investigations to figure out the contribution devoted by vocabulary in language proficiency. Despite their great achievements, there is no agreement among researchers, especially about whether the correlation between productive vocabulary and second language proficiency is significant or not. Therefore, this one-year-long study attempts to explore this relationship with the cooperation of23first year English major students in ECNU who have been chosen as subjects. Their free writings in the first academic year had been collected as the database of productive vocabulary. And their performance in two language proficiency tests was compared to figure out the improvement in a year. The test consists of four parts:listening, reading, writing and speaking, and is designed with the demands of CEFR. Based on these first-hand data collected in a year, and in accordance to the results of Pearson Correlation, this thesis attempts to answer three questions:1. Is there correlation between the productive vocabulary and language proficiency?2. Is this correlation different in four dimensions of language proficiency, such as in reading, writing, listening and oral speaking?3. Is there evident individual difference among these students? What causes the difference?The results show that the correlation found in this case study is not significant (coefficient=0.203, p=0.353), and though it is weak, there are some differences among listening, reading, writing and speaking. After a year learning, the general proficiency of these students is homogenous and it is between B1and C1level, which is supposed to be low-intermediate level. There is comparatively big difference among some subjects in the score increase:some students get a great improvement, while some advanced students have little score increase, which can be regarded as a sign of fossilization. The possible reasons and relevant findings are discussed in this thesis hoping to provide some hints for teachers and researchers in this discipline.