General Academic Vocabulary And Academic Reading: Exploring Correlation And Predictive Power Of Lexical Features

In college English teaching,academic vocabulary plays an important role and is the basis for improving EFL learners’ academic English reading ability.In domestic research in the field of second language acquisition,the research related to academic vocabulary and academic English reading still needs to be expanded.Among them,there are even fewer studies on general academic vocabulary.To investigate the correlation between general academic vocabulary,vocabulary size,and academic English reading,and to test whether lexical features have predictive power on the difficulty of acquiring general academic vocabulary,this study asks and explores the following three questions: 1)Can three lexical features(complexity,frequency,and polysemy)predict the difficulty of acquiring general academic vocabulary among Chinese college students? If so,to what extent can they predict? 2)Does there exist correlation between general academic vocabulary and vocabulary breadth? 3)Do general academic vocabulary and vocabulary breadth contribute to academic English reading?A total of 50 native Chinese speaking participants,all undergraduate and master’s students from different universities,majors,and grades,were recruited for this study.Three tests were administered in this study,including Vocabulary Size Test((Snow,Lawrence &White,2009),General Academic Vocabulary Test(Nation,2007),and Academic English Reding Comprehension Test.The data obtained in this study were analyzed by Pearson correlation analysis and linear regression analysis using SPSS data statistical software.The results showed that 1)lexical complexity,frequency,and polysemy,as single lexical features,were extremely weak in predicting the difficulty of acquiring general academic vocabulary.2)There was a positive correlation between general academic vocabulary and vocabulary size.3)There was a significant correlation between general academic vocabulary and academic English reading,and no significant correlation between overall vocabulary breadth and academic English reading.This study was conducted with Chinese university English learners and found that single vocabulary features were weak predictors of vocabulary acquisition difficulty,and verified the relationship between general academic vocabulary,vocabulary breadth and academic English reading,suggesting corresponding advice for teaching academic English in universities and a theoretical attempt in the field of second language acquisition.