A Corpus-based Comparative Study On Lexical Richness In English Writings By Junior High School Students

Lexical richness is used to measure the width of vocabulary use by a speaker or a writer.(Wan Lifang,2010)It is a predicator of language learners’ overall language proficiency,and it is also an important indicator of the quality of learners’ writings and communication.(Laufer & Nation,1995;Wang Haihua & Zhou Xiang,2012)In writings,lexical richness is reflected by four aspects including lexical sophistication,lexical variation,lexical density and lexical errors.Domestic studies on lexical richness mainly focus on university ESL learners rather than junior high school learners.However junior high school is a key elementary stage for English learning.Therefore this study tries to investigate the features and developmental patterns of lexical richness in the writings by junior high school students across three grades from a quantitative and qualitative perspective.The data used in this study are from ICCI(The International Corpus of Crosslinguistic Interlanguage)built by Tokyo Foreign Language University.In the present study,the data are chosen from Grade 7,Grade8 and Grade 9 separately and the sample sizes of the three grades are almost the same.Then the samples are merged into 3 big samples according to grades.This study uses the softwares,such as Range,TreeTagger and AntConc,to investigate the developmental patterns of lexical richness in the writings from the three grades of junior high schools in terms of lexical sophistication,lexical variation,lexical density and lexical errors.Through the analysis and discussions,this study has found:(1)In general,there is an increasing tendency of lexical sophistication,lexical variation and lexical density in the writings by junior high school students as they move to higher grades.It indicates that as they learn more,the ESL learners could use more varied words rather than repeat a limited number of words.At the same time,they can use more low frequency words.In addition,the information content of the writings increases gradually.However,these increases are in an unbalanced way.As for lexical sophistication,it grows slowly from Grade 7 to Grade 8 and it grows a little bit faster from Grade 8 to Grade 9.It indicates that with the improvement of language proficiency,the ESL learners become more skilled in using low frequency words.In terms of lexical variation,the growth between two adjacent grades is not obvious.It indicates that it takes a long time for learners to master a large number of varied words.The improvement of lexical competence can’t be accomplished in an action,it needs perseverant learning.In terms of lexical density,the growth between Grade 7 and Grade 8 is relatively fast,while it slows down between Grade 8 and Grade 9.This finding is largely in line with the language learning hypothesis(Wen Qiufang,2006)which points out that for the learning of language knowledge and skills,slow progress,stagnation and even retrogression may come after a period of remarkable progress.(2)Lexical errors,as an aspect of lexical richness,seem to be a converse of the notion of lexical richness.However it also plays an important role in measuring the vocabulary used in the writings by the language learners.The results of the study show that the ESL learners tend to commit fewer and fewer lexical errors as they approach to higher grades.It indicates that as the students learn more,they become more efficient in using words correctly in their writings.(3)To sum up,the lexical richness in the writings by ESL learners from junior high school improves when the learners move to higher grades,but it is in an early stage and develops slowly.Based on the findings,the study has several implications for second language vocabulary learning and vocabulary teaching.As for vocabulary learning,it is suggested that students should do more vocabulary exercises to consolidate the words they have learned;read as more English materials as possible after class to gain some new words through extensive reading;pay attention to the errors and try to learn from the errors.In terms of vocabulary teaching,it is suggested that teachers should design their vocabulary classroom teaching according to the real situation of the students.Teachers can introduce some proper knowledge about derivation to the students and design some exercises about synonyms.In addition,teachers can design some activities or games about vocabulary in class to arouse the students’ interest so as to lead them to learn actively.In a word,teachers should adjust their teaching contents and teaching methods with the development of the students’ language proficiency.